| How to Make Bento Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:00 AM PDT While the Japanese term "bento" roughly translates to "box lunch" in English, this is not your average packed lunch. The goal with bento is to assemble a well-balanced meal that is just as appealing to the eyes as it is to the taste buds. Start by dividing the food proportionally, then place each food in a separate compartment of your bento box. Aim for a variety of colors, flavors, and textures for an authentic experience! EditDividing Food Proportionally - Buy a traditional bento box with separate compartments. Bento boxes come with compartmentalized sections that easily keep your portioned foods separate from one another. They can also help you fit your meal into a fairly compact space, making it easier to carry with you to work or school. Aim for a box with 4 separate compartments, but feel free to experiment.[1]
- Bento boxes come in a variety of sizes and may also include separate tiers, so choose the size that best suits your needs. If you plan on heating up your food, confirm that the box is made of microwave-safe material.
- If you don't want to buy something new, you can always use a regular lunch box with small airtight containers to keep the food separated.
- If you're buying a bento box for a child, look for something cute with fun colors, anime characters, or a kawaii vibe.
- Use rice or another carbohydrate to make up 50% of the meal. Traditionally, rice serves as half of the meal in a bento box, but you can use any kind of starch you want. Go with healthy, filling carbohydrates like rice, whole grains, potatoes, pita chips, wraps, or sandwiches.
- You can spoon rice directly into the compartment in the bento box or use an ice cream scoop to make rice balls for a nicer presentation.[2]
- Feel free to play around with this ratio, especially if you're watching your carbs.
- Consider daily activity when creating the main portion of the meal. A teenager who plays sports may need more carbs than an adult with a desk job.[3]
- Add protein to make up 25% of the meal. Protein serves as a filling side portion and should make up about 1/4 of the bento box. More traditional bento boxes may include sushi-grade raw salmon, tuna, or whitefish, but you can go with other lean meats, hard-boiled eggs, or cottage cheese if you prefer.[4]
- You can also use tuna salad, edamame, or falafel to really mix things up. Beans, hummus, and tofu are also tasty options![5]
- It's traditional to use 2 different proteins for each box, but you certainly don't have to.
- Finish with 25% vegetables and fruits. You can go with 1 vegetable as an additional side portion and include 1 fruit as the dessert, or you can use all veggies or all fruit to make up the remaining quarter of your bento box. Cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, and cucumber slices are super portable veggie options. For fruit, try orange slices, mixed berries, or apple slices.[6]
- Cut fruit and vegetables into shapes like stars, hearts, and diamonds with cookie cutters.
- To sweeten things up, drizzle honey over your favorite fruits.
- Feel free to experiment with proportions to build well-balanced meals. The traditional bento ratio is 4 parts rice, 2 parts protein, and 1-2 parts fresh veggies and fruit. However, you don't have to make your bento boxes strictly traditional. The most important aspect of a bento box is that the meal is well-balanced overall, so just try to include something from each food group.[7]
- If you're on a special diet that requires you to maintain a certain ratio of carbs to protein to veggies/fruit, this can be a great way to measure out proportions according to that diet.
- Choose colorful foods for visual impact. A big component of bento boxes is presentation, so try to feature an array of bold colors, like red, green, orange, and white. You can also make other tweaks to spice up the presentation, like cutting sandwiches and fruits into fun shapes and putting different textures side-by-side.[8]
- For example, a nice blend of colors might be a 50% portion of white rice for the carbohydrate, a 25% portion of green edamame for protein, and bright orange carrots and red strawberries to make up the final 25% of the meal.
- Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, brightly colored foods are usually the healthiest options.
EditAssembling Bento Boxes - Pre-cook and pre-slice foods for easy assembly. Try using leftovers from dinner in your bento boxes, and keep frozen foods on hand to quickly defrost in a pinch. You can also cook large batches of rice and use it throughout the week, and pre-slice enough fresh fruit and veggies to fill up a week's worth of bento boxes to make packing super convenient.[9]
- If your bento box is made of heat-safe material, feel free to use food that needs to be reheated!
- Buying packaged foods that are already sliced or portioned can also make things easier.
- Aim for a variety of different flavors and textures. Bento boxes are big on presentation, so choose complementary colors and interesting textures for visual impact. Try to choose flavors that work well together. Keep the edges neatly defined and don't let clashing flavors mingle (e.g., don't put fried rice next to a pastry).[10]
- For example, citrus flavors pair well with leafy greens. Strawberries and cream cheese are very complementary. Balsamic vinegar pairs wonderfully with root vegetables.
- Don't forget to add spices when you're packing it up to give the food a little more kick.
- Pack the food into the compartments tightly to prevent spillage. Try to avoid leaving lots of extra space in the compartments, since the food may shift around. Put the pre-shaped and bulkiest items in first, then add more flexible food to fill the remaining space. Use small items like cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets to fill in the small gaps and keep everything tightly in place.[11]
- Separate wet foods from dry foods. Keep wet and dry foods in separate compartments to maintain their textures. If you want to include something liquid like a dressing or sauce, put a single-serving portion of it in a zippered plastic baggie or small plastic container and place it on top of the box right before you close it up.[12]
- Always separate liquids from dry foods to avoid transferring flavors and sogginess.
- Small refillable sauce bottles made especially for bento can be purchased online.
- Add an ice pack if you're using spoil-prone foods in your bento box. Most bento boxes will benefit from the addition of an ice pack to keep the food fresh and unspoiled. Many commercial bento boxes come with a reusable ice pack and have a special compartment in the lid where you can position it. Otherwise, just position a reusable ice pack somewhere inside the box.[13]
- Many foods that need to be reheated should be packed with an ice pack. Any type of dairy and raw fish also require an ice pack to prevent spoilage.
- Start with a basic bento and get fancier as you develop proficiency. If you try to make something too elaborate on the first try, it's easy to get frustrated and give up.
- Let the rice (or any other hot ingredients) cool completely before closing the bento. Otherwise, the steam will condense inside the box and make the food soggy.
- Try flavoring the rice by using seasonings from home or small pre-made packets called furikake which come in a variety of flavors and can be purchased at Asian markets.
- Try not to mix solid and liquid/runny foods. It will end up becoming soggy and not appetizing.
- Take precautions against food poisoning. Cook all the foods well and make sure the bento is stored in a cool, dry location or, preferably, a refrigerator.
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