Which fragrant tropical leaf is widely used to flavor and color Thai desserts green? The answer is pandan.
Pandan is the culinary name for Pandanus amaryllifolius, a tropical screwpine whose long leaves have a distinctive sweet, grassy, nutty aroma. In Thai cooking, the leaves may be bruised and tied into knots, steeped in coconut milk, or blended with water and strained to produce a green, fragrant liquid for desserts such as khanom thuai.
The green color is natural when fresh leaf juice is used, although bottled pandan extracts sometimes contain added food coloring. Pandan’s aroma comes in part from 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, a compound also associated with the scent of jasmine rice and basmati rice.
Pandan is used throughout Southeast Asia, not only Thailand. It flavors Indonesian and Malaysian cakes, Singaporean pandan chiffon cake, Filipino coconut desserts, and fragrant rice dishes. It is often confused with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, or galangal, but those ingredients have different aromas and culinary roles. Pandan is especially associated with sweet, coconut-based foods and green-colored desserts.