seafood

Wafuu Quinoa - Quinoa with Japanese flavors

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Here's an East-meets-West type of dish that is great for bentos, using one of my favorite grains, quinoa, with some very Japanese ingredients.

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Here is a bento assembled mainly with leftovers and stocked items from my mother's Japanese kitchen.

Bento filler: 3-color Spring Vegetable Namul with Crabstick

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This is a very simple and quick vegetable side dish or filler for bentos, using vegetables available in the spring - new or spring cabbage, little carrots, and greens, with shredded crabstick or surimi. You could use shredded ham instead of the crabstick, splash out a bit and use real crabmeat, or just keep it all-vegetable. This is a namul, a Korean salad-like side dish. More about namul (and another namul recipe) here. The addition of a bit of vinegar is very unauthentic, but I think it enhances the flavors.

The most time consuming part of this recipe is shredding the vegetables. You can cheat and use pre-shredded carrots and cabbage, or use your food processor, if you're not too handy with a knife.