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The Benefits of Bento: Millennial Kitchen Showdown

The Benefits of Bento: Millennial Kitchen Showdown

Dec 01, 2017

 

Mairead Kelly is an ex-glutton turned health conscious writer who, every once in awhile, can still be found eating dinner over the kitchen sink. Follow her posts to stay up-to-date on her journey into the world of quality lunch gear, and her interactions with folks who are transforming the way we think about the ethical, environmental, and cultural dimensions of eating, health, and nourishment.

 

If you’ve stopped by the blog before, you may have read about my familial roots in something, anything but vegetables, and the questionable meal choices I faced as a kid. Since those days, I’ve come a long way from sodium-rich Chinese takeout and sad, stale pizza crusts, cooking most meals for myself—and happily so. But when it comes to a culinary repertoire, I stay in my lane.

 

In the effort to break away from a drab routine of kale, rice, kale, rice, I got together with Lauren O’Neil, graphic designer and all-around cool lady, to think outside of our regional lenses of taste and texture, and try our hand at making something tasty, balanced, and quick.

 

For inspiration, we turned to chef and nutritionist Megumi Fujii’s cookbook, Ten Minute Bento, a collection of 72 mouth-watering Japanese box lunch recipes that are easy to make, satiate hunger, and satisfy an ever-expanding palette. In the spirit of culinary expedition and my own tendency to overthink even the simplest dishes, Lauren brought along a family-sized bag of chips just in case things truly went awry in the kitchen. Spoiler alert: they totally didn’t.

 

 

Left: Ten Minute Bento by Megumi Fujii
Right: Chancing fate

 

Recipe #1: Tsukudani Soybeans, Spinach, and Egg Bento

Richly flavored soybeans, fresh spinach, and boiled eggs—a simple, delicious bento packed with nutrients.

 

 

Clockwise from left: Cellophane noodles, lemon, peanuts, cucumber, vegetable oil, fish sauce, onion, shrimp
Middle: Chili (we used green), garlic, salt

 

Tsukudani Soybeans

Ingredients

5 oz boiled soybeans

1 oz dried baby sardines (for a vegetarian option, leave this out)

½ onion

Sesame oil

Soybean Sauce

1 tbsp each mirin, sake, and soy sauce

1 tsp miso

  1. Thinly slice onion along the grain.
  2. Heat ½ tbsp sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until tender. Add soybeans, soybean sauce, optional sardines, and stir. Turn heat to low and simmer, stirring until liquid has mostly cooked off.

Spinach with Nori and Boiled Egg

4 small bunches spinach

2 sheets seasoned nori seaweed

1 boiled egg

Roasted black sesame seeds, as needed

Soy sauce

  1. Boil spinach, then drain. Squeeze out excess moisture and chop into 1½ inch lengths. Drizzle with 1 tsp soy sauce, stir, and squeeze out excess moisture. Shred nori into small pieces and mix into spinach.
  2. Peel boiled egg and slice in half. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Arrange:

Add rice to Takenaka Expanded Bento Box. Add tsukudani soybeans, spinach, and boiled egg.

 

 

The final product

 

Recipe #2: Saifun Salad Bento

Pairing Thai-inspired dressing with cool, crisp veggies makes for an easy meal with spicy, tangy flavor.

 

 

Clockwise from top left: Soybeans, rice, sesame oil, mirin, spinach, sesame seeds, eggs, soy sauce, sake
Middle: Onion, nori

 

 

Saifun Salad

1 ½ oz saifun (Chinese cellophane noodles)

Nam Pla Dressing

1 tbsp each nam pla (Thai fish sauce), lemon juice

½ tbsp vegetable oil

½ tsp sugar

1 small red chili

Grated garlic, to taste

  1. Soak cellophane noodles in hot water to soften, then drain well.
  2. Combine Nam Pla Dressing ingredients. Add 1 tbsp dressing to noodles and mix.

Salad Toppings

¼ red onion

1/3 cucumber

3 oz cooked shrimp

2 tbsp peanuts

Slice onions and soak in water, then drain. Slice cucumber in half, deseed, then slice thinly on the bias. Coat shrimp with some of the Nam Pla Dressing. Roughly chop peanuts.

Arrange:
Add saifun salad to Takenaka Double Expanded Bento Box. Add salad toppings in colorful, neat arrangement. Pour remainder of dressing into a separate container to dress salad before eating.

 

The final product