Making bento is easier and more fun once you get the hang of it!
Preparing a bento while making breakfast every morning is no easy task. Many people want to make a variety-packed bento without spending too much time on busy mornings. We therefore turned to culinary expert Kitasaka Nobuko for some bento-making tips. She’s been making bento for her family for well-nigh two decades.
“I spend around twenty minutes making bento,” says Nobuko. “It’s a morning routine, so I couldn’t keep it up if it took any longer. Making everything from scratch every morning would take too long, so when preparing dinner, I always keep the next day’s bento in mind as well.”
Take, for example, one of the mains Nobuko shares in this article: instant roast pork-style thin meat slices. While making dinner the previous evening, she pre-seasons the ingredients so everything is ready to cook in the morning. She also washes the leafy greens to be used as dividers and puts them in a ziplock bag. Then, as side dishes, she adds make-ahead foods and leftovers from dinner to complete the bento.
“I like to vary the foods I put in my bento, so I usually make extra portions when preparing dinner, then freeze them. So many times when I’ve been making a bento, something from the freezer has saved the day. That’s why I find it handy to freeze foods, even a single grilled fillet of fish.”
The important thing when making bento, says Nobuko, is not to push yourself too hard. “It’s tough to do everything at once, so all I make in the morning is the main dish. On some days, when I really don’t have time, I’ll just make a rice bowl bento or onigiri and salad. Once you get the hang of it and learn how to cut corners, you’ll find making bento a lot more fun.”
Kitasaka Nobuko’s bento-making tips
(1) Prepare everything you can the night before.
Doing as much preparing as you can the night before makes things go more smoothly. Season the meat and boil the vegetables for aemono (dressed salad). Just washing the leafy greens to be used as bento dividers will save you time in the morning.
(2) When turning dinner items into bento, add an extra twist.
When putting something you’ve made for dinner into a bento, don’t just use it as is. Give it an extra twist. Simmered kabocha squash can be tossed with finely chopped cucumber and mayonnaise to make a salad. Sweet potato simmered in honey can be cooked in butter to bring out the fragrance. Each will look and taste different than at dinnertime, making it enjoyable in a new way.
(3) Freeze a little of whatever you prepare for dinner each day.
Prepare extra of whatever you’re having for dinner and freeze it. You’ll find it a lifesaver when making bento on a hectic morning! Frozen squid seasoned with soy-based sauce can be defrosted in the fridge overnight. All you have to do in the morning is cook it. Grilled salmon cut into bite-size pieces and frozen can be added to a bento as is. A small amount of leftover chicken soboro (seasoned ground meat) or gyoza filling can be used in stir-fries or fried rice.
(4) Keep a regular supply of “fillers.”
When packing a bento, it’s handy to have a few items to fill in the gaps between foods. Keep two or three such “fillers” in the fridge, and you won’t lose time wondering what to do about any empty spaces. They also increase the number of foods in the bento, creating greater variety. Foods that keep well and are easy to shape make the best fillers: dried and simmered daikon strips, simmered beans, kombu tsukudani (soy-simmered kelp). Needless to say, they also come in handy for daily meals.
Kitasaka Nobuko’s bento recipes
＜Instant roast pork-style thin meat slices＞
A real treat that makes the perfect accompaniment to rice. It consists of lean pork marinated in a sweet and salty sauce, then cooked until deliciously fragrant. It can be turned into many different dishes. Cook it wrapped in green beans, nanohana greens, or whatever vegetables you prefer. Or use it in a salad. The only limit is your imagination.
［Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch］
200 g pork loin (thinly sliced)
Touch of rapeseed oil
(Sauce ingredients)
1 tbsp. ea. miso, mirin (sweet cooking sake), and soy sauce
½ tbsp. sugar
⅓ tsp. grated garlic
½ tsp. grated ginger
［Instructions］
【1】Place the pork in a storage container or ziplock bag. Add the sauce ingredients and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
【2】Heat the rapeseed oil in a frying pan and cook both sides of the pork until fragrant.
Keeps in the fridge for three days (in the marinade).
●The featured miso
<Plus Koji Additive-Free Koji Bijin>
An additive-free miso made with 100% domestically grown Japanese rice and generous amounts of rice koji. A popular item in the Plus Koji series, it lets you enjoy the natural sweetness of miso and its rich umami notes.
Plus Koji Additive-Free Koji Bijin
＜Colorful vegetable pickles＞
Fresh-tasting pickles combining the distinctive umami of shio koji with a tang of lemon. The pickling brine used consists of just shio koji and lemon juice. The carrot and red bell pepper give the dish an extra dash of color. A nice palate cleanser for your bento.
［Ingredients for an easy-to-prepare batch］
½ celery
1 turnip
½ cucumber
¼ carrot
Red bell pepper and daikon, as needed
NOTE: Use approx. 200 g of vegetables in all.
½ tsp. salt
(Pickling brine)
1 tbsp. shio koji (salted rice malt)
1 tsp. lemon juice
［Instructions］
【1】Cut the vegetables into thin slices, place in a bowl, and salt. Let sit until the moisture is released, then squeeze.
【2】Add the pickling brine ingredients and mix in. Transfer to a storage container to pickle.
Keeps in the fridge for three days.
●The featured shio koji
<Plus Koji Shio Koji>
A fresh shio koji (salted rice malt) that brings out the best in the ingredients. This all-purpose seasoning can be used in place of salt in nimono (simmered dishes), aemono (dressed dishes), and stir-fries. Bursting with natural umami flavor, it takes delicious to a new level!
Plus Koji Shio Koji
＜Rice with shiba-zuke pickles and green shiso＞
An uncomplicated dish consisting of minced shiba-zuke pickles and toasted sesame seeds mixed into rice, all topped with green shiso. The pickles give it a refreshing aroma and a crunchy twist. Goes with just about anything you choose to put in your bento.
［Ingredients for a single serving］
1 serving cooked rice
½ tbsp. minced shiba-zuke pickles
½ tsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 green shiso leaf
［Instructions］
【1】Mix the shiba-zuke pickles and sesame seeds into the rice.
【2】Top with the shiso leaf (chopped) to finish.
