Reviewed by annieb123 on
Healthy, Quick & Easy Bento Box is a new tutorial guide with recipes by Ophelia Chien. Due out 3rd Aug 2021 from Penguin Random House on their DK Alpha imprint, it's 160 pages and will be available in paperback format.
This is an compact introduction to bento. 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. Alongside those benefits, the recipes included in this collection represent a number of different world cuisines and are surprisingly fun and vibrant.
The introduction includes suggestions and tutorials for basic bento followed by chapters arranged roughly thematically: classic Japanese bento, pan-Asian, western style, and staples and partial ingredients.
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. Nutritional info is included per box, with the suggested combinations and bento box build. Some of the recipes are vegetarian and vegan friendly. Many additional recipes can be adapted to a plant based diet.
This is a very well written and organized collection. 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 for me without a lot of effort.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 8 July, 2021: Finished reading
- 8 July, 2021: Reviewed