Kuih (Jawi: کوءيه‎; Indonesian: kue; derived from the Min Nan Chinese kueh – 粿) are bite-sized snack or dessert foods commonly found in Southeast Asia (particularly in the Malay Archipelago) and China. It is a fairly broad term which may include items that would be called cakes, cookies, dumplings, pudding, biscuits, or pastries in English and are usually made from rice or glutinous rice. In China, where the term originates from, koé in Hokkien and kué in Teochew (known as guǒ in Mandarin) refer to snacks which are typically made from rice but can occasionally be made from other grains such as wheat. The term kuih is widely used in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, kueh is used in Singapore and Indonesia, kue is used in Indonesia only, all three refer to sweet or savoury desserts.

Similar snacks are found throughout Southeast Asia, including the Burmese mont, Filipino kakanin, Thai khanom and Vietnamese bánh. For example, the colourful steamed kue lapis and the rich kuih bingka ubi are also available in Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam albeit with each country localised name and ingredients.

Kuihs are not confined to a certain meal but can be eaten throughout the day. They are an integral part of Malaysian, Indonesian, Bruneian, and Singaporean festivities such as Hari Raya and Chinese New Year. Many kuih are sweet, but some are savoury.

The culinary legacy of kuih can be traced to the 15th century when it flourished in the Southeast Asian region from a combination of local ingredients and food culture brought through trade or colonisation. The indigenous Southeast Asians produced a variety of snack delicacies using both local and imported ingredients, with migration, colonisation, modernisation and globalisation having all played a part in the creation and evolution of kuih.

Kuih is made and enjoyed by different ethnicities with the most commercially successful ones being made by Peranakan (Baba Nyonyas) in the southern parts of Malaysia. The Nyonyas made kuih from many sorts of ingredients such as cane sugars, brown sugars, and honey aside of palm sugar. Nyonya (Peranakan) kuih are sometimes represented as distinct from Malay and Indonesian kuih, but many Nyonya kuih are fundamentally the same as Malay or Indonesian kuih. For some Nyonya kuih, there are minor changes to Malay kuih to suit Peranakan eating habits and tastes.

In almost every Malay kuih, the most common flavouring ingredients are grated coconut (flavoured or plain), coconut cream (thick or thin), pandan (screwpine) leaves and gula melaka (palm sugar, either fresh or aged), one example are the kuih lompang. While those make the flavour of kuih, their base and texture are built on a group of starches: rice flour, glutinous rice flour, glutinous rice and tapioca. Two other common ingredients are tapioca flour and green bean (mung bean) flour (sometimes called "green pea flour" in certain recipes). They play the most important part in giving kuihs their distinctive soft, almost pudding-like, yet firm texture. In the northern states of Kedah, Perak, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu kuih (kuih-muih in Malay) are usually sweet. In the central and southeast Peninsular states of Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, savoury kuih can be found. Kuih are more often steamed than baked, and are thus very different in texture, flavour and appearance from Western cakes or puff pastries. While many kuih in West Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei are made with the steamed method, which results in a soft texture, most kuih made by different indigenous groups from the Bornean island region of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia are often crunchy since most are produced through frying methods.

Wheat flour is rarely used in Southeast Asian cakes and pastries. For most kuih, there is no single "original" or "authentic" recipe. Traditionally, making kuih was the domain of elderly grandmothers, aunts and other womenfolk, for whom the only (and best) method for cooking was by "agak-agak" (approximation). They would take handfuls of ingredients and mix them without any measurements or any need of weighing scales. The end product is judged by its look and feel, the consistency of the batter and how it feels to the touch. Each family holds its own traditional recipe as well as each region and state with the recipes have been passed down from one generation to other generations.