VEGAN PICNIC BENTO

Hello everyone!

Cherry Blossoms season are almost over. Luckily the weather was great and warm so we had a chance to go on OHANAMI ( Sakura viewing) near our place. ☺️✨ So we went to picnic and made some special picnic bento 🥰 On the last part of this recipe, we would like to share with you guys some videos we took during our picnic 🌸

In this picnic, we made sure to lessen the use of plastics. Usually, tons of garbage and wastes are being collected after picnic. Instead of using plastic cups, utensils and plates, we used our own bento box, utensils and we used bamboo skin as our plate. I recommend everyone to do the same! It’s such a wonderful feeling not to have bags of plastic wastes after a great day.Isn’t it? ☺️

Warning! This is quite a long post since It took me almost 6 hours to prepare our picnic bento 😭 ✨ Woke up at 6 in the morning (Super sleepy😪) had my coffee to have some energy. But everything was worth it! We enjoyed the food and the beautiful view of Cherry Blossoms. 🕊🌸 My partner was also very happy about the taste of this bento! Glad that he liked it! 🥰 Hope you’ll enjoy it too! Have a great day everyone! Always remember that life is beautiful 💚

Lots of LOVE,

VegaNice Japan 💚

SANDWICH BENTO

We made three kinds of sandwiches in this bento. Simple and easy to make! And actually, no need for recipe in this one. You just need: a whole baguette.

Sandwich no.1

For this sandwich, we used a vegan creamy spread from Violife. It was actually our first time to try vegan spread from supermarket. We just got curious about the taste since it was really just recently available in our nearest supermarket so why not give it a try? 🥰 surprisingly, the taste was delicious. It is indeed a really creamy spread and delicious 💚

Ingredients:

Violife creamy spread

1/4 medium sized ripe tomato

1/4 ripe avocado

Sandwich no. 2

Ingredients: (Potato spread)

Potato-1pc (Unpeeled and boiled until soft)

Pommery mustard- 1 tsp

Vegan Mayonnaise -30g

Cajun powder- 1g

Fried onions-15g

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedures:

1. Cut the potato in to small pieces.
2. Prepare a salted boiling water, boil the potato until soft
3. In a bowl mix the remaining ingredients while mashing the potato a bit.
4. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper

Vegan cheddar cheese and lettuce

Sandwich no. 3

Ingredients:

Vegan mayonnaise

Carrots- 1/4

Cucumber-1/2

Red onion slices- 1/4

Procedures:

1. Using a slicer, slice the carrots and cucumber and onion.
2. Julienne the carrots
3. After slicing the onions, soak in the water to lessen the smell and strong taste. Strain.
4. Spread the vegan mayo into the baguette
5. Assemble everything and season by sprinkling some salt and pepper

OKAZU BENTO (Okazu means “side dish” in Japanese ☺️

OKAZU NO. 1 (Boiled Edamame and sweet corn)

Ingredients:

Sweet corn

Edamame

Easy and simple! Just boil the corn and edamame and that’s it! 💚

OKAZU NO.2( Teriyaki Nori Tofu)

Ingredients: (Recipe inspired from Vege is)

Firm Tofu( Yaki tofu)- 1 block

Nori sheet- 1/2

Cornstarch- for coating

Sauce:

Soy sauce- 2 Tbsp

Sake/Rice wine- 1tsp

Water-2 Tbsp

Fresh grated ginger – 1 tsp

Brown sugar- 1 Tbsp

Sesame oil- 1tsp

Procedures:

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Remove excess water from the tofu by covering the tofu with dry cloth or paper towel. Preferably overnight.
3. Cut the tofu into 1cm thickness, wrap the tofu with nori sheets
4. Cover the Tofu with some cornstarch
5. In a non-stick pan, drizzle some oil and sear the Tofu in medium heat until golden brown.
6. Sear all the sides
7. Add the sauce mixture and cook until the tofu are fully covered with sauce.
8. Sprinkle some dried chili and white sesame seeds. (Optional)

OKAZU NO. 3 (Daigaku Imo/ Sweet Potato)

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato-1pc

Maple syrup- 100g

Soy sauce-1 Tbsp

Pink salt- pinch

Black sesame seeds for garnish

Vegetable oil for frying

Procedures:

1. Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside
2. Wash the sweet potato thoroughly and cut into chunks
3. Soak in a water for about 5 mins and disregard water.
4. Pat dry the sweet potato
5. Prepare frying oil. Fry the sweet potato in medium heat until soft and cooked
6. Mix the fried sweet potato with the sauce mixture and toss it until evenly coat.
7. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds for garnish.

OKAZU NO.4 (Gobo and Mushroom with Pickled plum)

Ingredients:

Mixed fresh mushrooms (Shimeji, King oyster, Maitake)

Renkon/ Lotus root

Umeboshi/ Pickled plum

Pink salt- pinch

Chopped spring onions (Optional for garnish)

Procedures:

1. Cut the mushrooms and lotus root.
2. In a pot, saute the mushrooms and lotus root with olive oil, sprinkle a pinch of salt.
3. Add the pickled plum and continue to saute until the mushrooms are cooked.
4. Garnish with some chopped spring onions.

FRIED FOODS BENTO ( Simple and easy Fried potato wedges and Soy meat Karaage)

Soy meat Karaage

Ingredients:

Soy sauce- 150g

Grated garlic- 1tsp

Grated ginger- 1tsp

Sesame oil- 1 Tbsp

Boiled Soy meat ( Squeeze out excess water)

Cornstarch ( For coating)

Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Mix the Marination ingredients in a medium size bowl
2. Add the boiled soy meat and mix.
3. Push the soy meat lightly enough for the soy meat to absorb some marination mixture.
4. Leave in the fridge for 30mins. Be careful not to over marinate! Or else it will be too salty.
5. After 30 mins, strain the soy meat and squeeze out excess sauce.
6. Coat the soy meat with some cornstarch
7. Fry in a medium heat until golden brown. ENJOY!

For the potato, I just fried some Potato wedges I bought from the supermarket 😋 Garnish with some boiled fresh broccoli asparagus and cherry tomatoes! Don’t forget to put the dips too! Some ketchup and Vegan Mayo would definitely work! ☺️

ONIGIRI (Rice balls)

I made three Onigiri flavors. (Konbu, Sakura and Yaki Miso) Since it’s still a Sakura season, I tried making sakura onigiri. definitely a fresh taste for me! I love the aroma that Sakura gives with a warm rice. 🥰

Before making this, let’s cook some Japanese white rice! I added some mixed grains and beans before cooking the rice. It would give more flavors and bite and of course it is very nutritious!

For the wrapper, we used this called “Take no kawa” or bamboo skin since we don’t want to use plastic container in our picnic. This is actually the first thing I did before making this bento. Since it recommended to soak for an hour or two. But of course this is just optional especially if this is not available in your country. Maybe you could use some other alternative sustainable products too! 😊

Let’s make Onigiri! We’re almost done! 😄

ONIGIRI NO.1 (Toror Konbu/ Shaved Kelp)

Ingredients:

Cooked rice

Tsukudani(Simmered Julienne of konbu in soy sauce, sake,water, mirin) reduced completely.

Shaved dried Konbu

ONIGIRI NO.2 ( SAKURA)

Ingredients:

Cooked rice

Salted sakura leaves (Chopped) – 2leaves

Salted Sakura flowers (Chopped)- 4-5pcs

Roasted white sesame seeds – 1 Tbsp

Just combine everything!

ONIGIRI NO. 3 (MISO YAKI ONIGIRI)

Ingredients:

Cooked rice

Soy sauce-1 Tbsp

Mirin- 1 Tbsp

Miso paste- 1 tsp

Chopped spring onions

1. Mix the soy sauce, mirin and miso paste in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Add the spring onions with the cooked rice.
3. Shape the rice into rectangular shape, You need to squeeze a bit to avoid the rice from falling apart while searing.
4. Once you shape it, in a non-stick pan, sear the onigiri with oil in medium heat.
5. Turning gently until golden brown.
6. Once all sides are nicely golden brown, brush the onigiri with the miso mixture and continue to cook in low heat.
7. Be careful not to put too much or else the rice will fall apart. Gently flip until all sides are nice and brown.

Fresh fruits for dessert! I don’t have time to make dessert in the morning so I just bought so fresh fruits and cut in into bite size pieces, ☺️ I prepared pineapple, kiwi and strawberries! 🍓 🥝 🍍

Finally we’re done with our Picnic Bento! 🥰

Thank you so much for patiently reading until here! Hope you try making picnic bento too! Yes it takes a lot of efforts and time but definitely the most worth it bento I made so far! Thank you so much! ✨ 🌸 Here are some of the photos we took during our picnic 🥰

Enjoy the video down below! Thank you so much for your time! ✨ 🌸