My Lunch Can Beat Up Your Lunch!

Bento Recipes: Basic steamed vegetables

 
   
 

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Here's a no-brainer recipe page. Steamed vegetables are good in a bento box. The recipe I use for all of 'em is the same except where noted: cut up the vegetable, put it in the holder of your steamer, put hot water in the bottom of your steamer, and boil covered to steam the suckers until they are the right texture, which is usually about 20 minutes. Avoid overcooking, as that leads to mushy veggies, which are nobody's favorite. Some people boil vegetables, but I find that leaches out the flavor, not to mention the vitamins.

Stuff I like to steam and put in my bento lunches:

    Broccoli*
    Carrots
    Green beans
    Wax beans
    Pole beans
    Snow peas
    Sugar snap peas
    Sweet potato
    Japanese sweet potato (particularly if it's dry!)
    Yellow squash
    Zucchini
    Zucchini & yellow squash & carrots, all together
    Zucchini & yellow squash & carrots & broccoli & mushrooms, all together

* Before or after steaming, you can cut the stems into coins close to where they split into florets to make funky, Laugh-In type "stars." They look cool on rice or just by themselves.