Bento: Over 50 Make-Ahead, Delicious Box Lunches

by Yuko and Noriko

From the creators of the website Japanese Cooking 101, Bento (a newly reformatted edition of Simply Bento) is a complete collection of over 50 delicious and healthy box lunch ideas for everyone in the family. 

Ready to make lunch quick, easy, and tasty? Japanese bento boxes are single-portion packed lunches, perfect for anyone looking to save money and eat a balanced, satisfying meal for lunch every single day.

Bento features over 100 healthy and delicious recipes—including mains and sides—that you can make every day of the week and mix and match using a combination of traditional and nontraditional ingredients. Learn about different types of bento boxes and accessories, how to assemble your box, and everyday items you will need in your pantry, as well as how to plan ahead so that your morning prep is a breeze.

Bento shows you the finer points of bento-making, and there is something for everyone:

• Classic Japanese Bento
• Sandwich Bento 
• Sushi and Onigiri Bento
• Noodle Bento
• Popular Japanese Bento
• 10-Minute Bento 
• Rice and Grain Bowl Bento
• Low-Carb Bento
• Vegan Bento
• Bento for Special Occasions (including for the first day of school and Halloween!)
• Bento at Home

So, if you're in the mood for Chicken Teriyaki, Ramen, Shrimp Avocado Pasta Salad, Cauliflower Fried Rice, Falafel, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Tempura, or Chicken Nuggets (for the kids), Bentohas the recipes—plus much more!
 

• ISBN13: 9781631067303
• Publish Date: 1 September 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Race Point Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Bento is a very well curated and developed recipe collection for Japanese style make-ahead lunches. Taken from content originally published in 2018, this reformatted condensed version is due out 1st Sept 2020 from Quarto on their Race Point imprint. It's 160 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an updated introduction to bento for westerners. Bento can be healthy and tasty with eye appeal, organization, variety, and portion control in one package. This collection also shows that it doesn't need to be very time consuming or difficult.

The introduction includes suggestions and tutorials for basic bento followed by chapters arranged roughly thematically: classic Japanese bento, sushi & onigiri, noodles, popular bento, 10 minute lunches, rice and grain bowls, vegan choices, special occasions and side dishes (and partial recipes).

The recipes have their ingredients listed bullet style in a sidebar. Measurements are given in US standard with metric/SI units in parentheses (yay!). Special tools and ingredients are also listed, along with yields and cooking directions. Most of the ingredients are easily sourced at any moderately well stocked grocery store.

Well written and organized, this could be a fun addition to the lunchbox repertoire. It would also lend itself very well to fans of meal planning or once-a-week-cooking. Most of these recipes make several servings which could easily be used for a week's lunch planning. I've been avoiding buying food at the cafe at work during the pandemic and these recipes have provided good mileage for avoiding boring lunches at work for me.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.