Back to the
Recipes
or the
Photos

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.