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Miso Eggplant and Shishito Peppers is a small side dish and goes very well with your steamed rice. It is very quick and easy to make in the last minutes, when you want to add one more vegetable dish to your meal.
Grapefruit Jelly in a cup made of fruit skin is a popular dessert during the hot summer in Japan. It is sweet and tart, refreshing, and also a very healthy treat that you can easily make at home. Making the cup out of grapefruit gives a special touch to this cold dessert, and can bring an extra smile for your family and friends.
Tamagoyaki is thin layers of eggs cooked and rolled into a log using a special rectangular Tamagoyaki pan. This neatly shaped Japanese omelette is a great side dish for any meal, but it is an especially wonderful addition to a Bento lunch since it’s good cold. You can mix in different flavors and ingredients to regular Tamagoyaki so that you don’t get tired of the same old taste (well, is that possible?). Here we added Benishoga, pickled red ginger, to one version to give a little spiciness and sourness. In another one, cooked spinach, was added to give a nice green color and extra nutritions. You can also try chopped ham, Aonori (dried green seaweed), or any meats and vegetables you like for variations. Play with it, and create your own original Tamagoyaki!
Hiyashi Tanuki Udon is cold Udon noodles with a cold sauce and Tenkasu, fried Tempura batter crumbs. It is very refreshing but also satisfyingly rich from the Tempura crumbs. Hiyashi Tanuki Udon is a great dish during summer when you don’t want to make complicated dishes in a hot kitchen. If you have your Mentsuyu (a multi-purpose sauce) and Tenkasu handy (especially in a bag), the hardest part of the cooking is done.
We have a big announcement! Our first cookbook titled Simply Bento: Delicious Box Lunch Ideas for Healthy Portions to Go
The majority of the recipes are newly created for the book. Some of the recipes are classic Japanese Bentos like we usually cook on our website Japanese Cooking 101, such as Teriyaki Chicken Bento, but there are also more trendy American style Bento, including Quinoa Salad Bento.
Simply Bento shows you the finer points of bento-making, and there is something for everyone:
- Classic Japanese Bento
- Sandwich Bento
- Sushi and Onigiri Bento
- 10-Minute Bento
- Noodle Bento
- Low-Carb Bento
- Vegan Bento
- Popular Japanese Bento
- Bento for Special Occasions (including First Day of School and Halloween Bento!)
The book will teach you how to cook the recipes, of course, and how to prepare foods in advance and manage time.
If you want to give kids and family tasty but nutritious Bento lunches, this book is perfect for that. If you work and want to bring your own lunch to save money, control weight, or just want to eat tasty Bento, this book will work great too. Also, the main dishes of the Bento can be converted into dinner entrees easily, by multiplying the recipes to feed your entire family.
Keep this book in your kitchen for yourself or give it to your family and friends to encourage healthy and delicious cooking!
Omurice, omelet rice, is fried rice seasoned with ketchup and wrapped with a crepe-like thinly fried egg. It is one of the most loved western-style dishes in Japan for a long time. Here we arranged an all-time favorite into a dish that can be enjoyed by people who are on special diets such as low-calorie diet and gluten free diet, or someone looking for a lighter version of the traditional dish.
Kakigori (かき氷) is shaved ice with flavored syrup like strawberry, lemon, melon, and simple syrup (sugar syrup). It is very popular during the hot and humid summer in Japan, and there are a lot of pop up Kakigori stores appearing in the season. Strawberry Kakigori is one of the most favorite flavors of all time. Kakigori is most likely made with bottled syrup, but home-made strawberry syrup is prepared easily at home, and, we have to say, it is so much better than store-bought one! The strawberry taste that is extracted from frozen strawberries is surprisingly rich and strong. And of course, there are no artificial colors or flavors at all!
Shirataki Yakisoba is stir-fried noodles using Shirataki noodles instead of regular Yakisoba noodles, but still having the usual Yakisoba flavorings. Shirataki, also called Ito Konnyaku, is a form of Konnyaku which is a gelatinous food made from Konnyaku potatoes. Shirataki is shaped like thin threads (ito), as opposed to regular Konnyaku, which is usually a slab or block form, and is often seen as one of the vegetables in Sukiyaki, the most famous Japanese hot pot dish.
Ebi Pilaf is a seasoned rice dish with shrimp, and it is a popular “western-style” (Yoshoku) rice dish in Japan. It is said that pilaf originally came from Turkey, but there are similar kinds of dishes all over the world. Since rice is a Japanese staple, Ebi Pilaf was gladly accepted in Japanese cuisine.