Vegan Bento 5

Another Vegan Bento! Sometimes I find it relaxing to plan what to have in a Bento Box... Takes my mind off work!

This one contains:
Onion and silverbeet/rainbow chard lightly braised with soy sauce & sesame,
Short grain rice with nori stars,
Apple & tomato (the tomato is hiding at the bottom),
Pumpkin and puffy tofu in teriyaki sauce.

So good! I find the trick with Bento is to balance everything - fresh & cooked, salty & sweet, colours, textures etc.

Action photo! (Chris took the photo, I'm not that skilled at one handed photography.)

Vegan Bento 4

Last night's bento was a bit of a mish-mash of some random veggies. This week in our Vegie Box from The Green Line we had (amongst the usual amazing organic fruit & veg) some rather sad looking & very tough green beans. I did a Google search to see what to make with tough green beans - the first result came back with roasting, which according to the website (will try and find the link) would take the green beans back to their fresh & young, pre-tough state. And... it kind of did?

In my bento:
Inari, salad with lemon & spring onion dressing, roasted potato, roasted green beans, sushi & onigiri.



I watched this super cute video on Youtube before making the onigiri - it was sort of helpful and very fun to watch!

Vegan Bento 3

Another day, another Bento box. This one is quite similar to the last...

In my bento:
Lentil beanballs with tomato/red pepper paste sauce, steamed cauliflower, apple & rocket salad, sliced tomato, silverbeet sushi (yum!), carrot/cucumber/pickle sushi, more inari.

I've found it's easier to do everything in batches, which lasts a few days... the rice I cook fresh every day, but the bean ball mix I made a big batch of. I have more beanball recipes coming!

The mix contains:
Whole red lentils,
Ground hazelnut,
Polenta,
Celery,
Potato,
Spring onions,
Salt & pepper

Basically I just soaked the lentils for a few hours, then boiled them with the potato & celery. Then chucked it in a food processor with some hazelnut, polenta, chopped spring onions, salt & pepper and whizzed until mushy.

Vegan Bento

This week I've been totally inspired by the vegetarian Bento on We're Rabbits - they always look so delicious! I usually cook the same sort of things for a week at a time - this week is officially Bento week at my house.

I noticed that the We're Rabbits bentos often had yummy looking hazelnut & lentil balls, so I cooked a loose interpretation of this recipe.

In my bento:
Lentil bean balls, sliced tomato, inari with cucumber loveheart, cucumber & pickles sushi, apple/dijon salad. And on the side is a yummy okonomiyake Chris made.

Bento Boxes

Tonights dinner was yummy Bento boxes! Chris's parents gave me these boxes, and I love them as I've always wanted bento boxes of my own.

In these we had

Okonomiyake,

Radish pickles with sesame seeds,

Salad of lettuce, tomato & pear, and

Rice with a leek & garlic sauce.

Leek & Garlic Sauce Recipe (too easy...)

Thumb sized lump of ginger (about 3cm x 1cm x 1cm)

1/3 of a leek

Oil - 1 teaspoon

Mirin - 1 tablespoon

Soy Sauce - 1 tablespoon

Slice the ginger and leek into very fine matchstick sized pieces. Stirfry the ginger in the oil for about 1 min, then add the leek. When they've both cooked and become a bit browned & softer, add the mirin & soy sauce and cook until the sauce has thickened. Serve on rice for a nice, special touch!