[1]
Bento contents:
- 1 cup (about 220ml) brown rice (220cal)
- 2 Tbs. beef sorobo (80cal)
- 2 Tbs. iri tamago (70cal)
- Blanched Swiss chard leaves (5cal)
- Swiss chard stalks sautéed in butter (30cal)
- Hijiki with bean curd (50cal)
- 3 fresh lichees or litchi (15cal)
Total calories (approx): 475 (how calories are calculated) [2]
Time needed: 15-20 minutes in the morning, 20-30 previously
Type: Japanese
This bento relies on two staples (plus premade frozen rice): meat soboro [3], and stewed hijiki seaweed with carrots and tofu [4].. 3-color soboro (sanshoku soboro 三色そぼろ) is a classic bento combination, and as you can see it’s quite colorful. To eat it yo mix the toppings into the rice. You may want to bring a spoon along to make eating the mixed rice easier.
This is the man sized version of the bento. It just has a bit more rice (about 1 1/2 cups) and a bit more topping.
The ‘green’ part of the 3-color can be something else, such as finely chopped green beans, green peas, and so on.
[5]
Ingredients
Per bento:
- 2 to 3 Tbs. premade meat soboro [3]
- 2-3 leaves of Swiss chard or bok choy (or 4-5 leaves for two portions)
- 1/2 tsp. butter (or 1 tsp. for 2 portions)
- 1 cup or 1 1/2 cups rice (frozen [6] or cooked on timer in a rice cooker)
- Iri tamago [7] made with 1 egg (or 2 eggs if you’re making for two people, as I did)
- Some premade stewed hijiki with carrots and tofu [4]
- 3 fresh lichees (litchi) or other fruit
Steps
You’ll be using three burners on the stove.
- Pack the rice in the bento box (if it’s frozen, de-frost first) and let cool. Be sure to leave enough space on top for the toppings.
- Boil up a kettle full of hot water.
- Cut the green leaves off the chard. Chop up the stalks.
- Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Add the chard stalks and a little hot water. Sauté until the stalks are tender. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper, and add the butter.
- Add boiling water to a pan, and put in the greens.
- Mix the iri tamago mixture together. Heat up another saucepan.
- Drain the greens and refresh with cold water.
- Make the iri tamago.
- Squeeze out the greens. Chop finely. Put in the pan that you cooked the stalks in (push the stalks to one side) and stir around briefly to dry out.
- Pack the stalks and the hijiki in the bento box.
- Arrange the soboro, iri tamago and chopped greens neatly on top of the rice. If you have trouble keeping it neat, use a piece of clean paper folded in half (for stability), and use as a guide. Any soboro that spills on top of the paper can be tipped over on top. The red stuff on top of the soboro is pickled red ginger (ben sho-ga).
- Pack a few lichees or other fresh fruit (a small apple is good, or a clementine, etc.) If you haven’t tried fresh lichees, please try to find them - they are delicious! You can usually find them at Asian groceries. (Swiss shoppers can find them at larger Migros stores.)
Timeline
[8]
It actually only took me about 15 minutes to assemble this bento, but I allowed for a bit more time to arrange the 3 colored toppings on the rice.