- Do you love Bento Boxes,
but can't figure out how to make them vegan?
Hi, I'm Natsko.
Today, I'm gonna make three vegan Bento Boxes.
So Bento Box is Japanese packed lunch box,
and we usually put rice and some kind of side dishes,
some kind of vegetables, and often meat.
Today I'm gonna make vegan version of Bento Box.
I've been cooking plant-based food for my family,
and I pack vegan Bento for my kids.
Often mom make Bento Boxes that has cute characters,
called Charaben.
It's short for character Bentos.
Often it has cute faces from character from movie or anime
to get kids excited and encouraged to eat.
So I'm going to make
Totoro (speaking in foreign language) Vegan Bento.
"Totoro" is Japanese animated film "My Neighbor Totoro."
It's one of the most iconic
Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki.
And it's like, kids' classic everybody's favorite.
My kid's favorite.
So I'm gonna make the character Totoro
and some characters from the movie.
So this is the (speaking in foreign language)
flavored bean curd pots.
I made a hole and I put the brown rice, the sesame inside.
I kind of shoved these little two ears on the head
so he's gonna be Totoro.
He has this leaves on his head.
So this vegan cheese, I used round kind of cookie cutter
make this round cheese and eyes, mouth,
and he has little pattern.
I use nori seaweed, here's Totoro.
Then I'm gonna put those black little bold character
in the movie the movie
they're called (speaking in foreign language).
I'll do the same thing, little eye.
If it's hard to stick sometime I use vegan mayo
as a kind of glue.
So my six years old son is very picky eater
but he loves this (speaking in foreign language),
that's his one of the favorite food.
And I'm gonna put some side dishes.
This is kabocha, it's kind of like potato tots
but made out of mashed kabocha and chick peas,
sauteed onion and mushroom and form the shape.
I made a heart shape, yellow kabocha croquet
and I coat it with organic cornflake
blended to make like a Panko like a thing
and then I roast them in the oven.
So this is not character from Totoro
but this kind of looks like heart
from (speaking in foreign language).
Put some sweet peas and flower carrots, and broccoli.
Carrots is just sliced and boiled
and I used small cookie cutter
like cutter to make flower shape.
Next I'm gonna put string beans and carrots
with brown rice paper roll in a teriyaki flavor.
This is kind of typically done
with thin slice of beef or something
but I use rice paper
and it gives quite nice texture and flavor.
I'm gonna put reddish tomato.
Here is Totoro (speaking in foreign language)
vegan Bento Box.
Inarizushi which is bean curd pouch filled with brown rice
and small mini seaweed rice bowls.
And we got kabocha and chickpeas croquet,
string beans and carrots, and a brown rice roll.
There you have it.
So this Bento Box is Vegan Panda Pancakes Bento Box.
I made a little mini panda pancakes.
The inspiration is my son's school
has this school picnic lunch tomorrow
and it's called Picnic with Precious Person.
So we have to bring every food that starts with P.
Okay, so maybe I'll make panda pancakes.
It's got banana and flour and rice flour.
When you mix milk, oat milk
and a little bit of apple cider of vinegar, it thickens it.
So it kind of works like egg and with baking powder
and a little bit of salt and some agave syrup
'cause I wanted to keep it kind of lighter color.
And for the black part I used black sesame tahini
and little bit of cocoa powder.
I'm gonna put little nose and mouth for this panda.
So this is melted vegan chocolate, there you go.
So I got this perfect panda Bento Box.
I don't remember eating pancakes as a breakfast
growing up in Japan, but I make them here.
I make them almost every Sunday
'cause they are my kids' favorite.
And I usually put some kind of fruits or vegetables
in a pancake 'cause when you hide them, they eat them.
So for side dish, this is a vegan sausage kebab
and I use carrots, zucchini and yellow squash.
And here I have vegan cheese spring roll.
I put vegan cheese, basil and red pepper
inside of egg roll wrap and I fry them.
This is apple, heart shaped strawberry, some raspberry.
So here Vegan Panda Pancake Bento Box.
Vegan sausage kebab with carrots,
zucchini and yellow squash.
And we got vegan cheese spring roll.
So today I'm gonna make Vegan Sushi Bento Box.
It's in the form of Temari Sushi
or Temari Sushi Ball Shaped Sushi.
This is more of a kind of special occasion thing
when we go out as a group or it could be for party.
So this one is tomato kind of (speaking in foreign language)
tuna inspired sushi.
And this is pickled radish flower sushi, bamboo sushi.
This is king trumpet oyster
kind of inspired by scallop sushi.
Here we have carrot, vegan cheese and asparagus sushi.
Red and yellow pepper striped sushi.
Pickled woven cucumber sushi, baby corn sushi.
And this is konnyaku, konnyaku is a Japanese yam cake
kind of vegan squid sushi.
So I can show you how to put together
this radish flower sushi and carrot asparagus sushi,
and cucumber sushi.
For this sushi I use wrap to form the ball
this oil plant base non-plastic wrap.
So what's facing here is the bottom part of it.
So you wanna put backwards
of what you want sushi to look like.
And this is pickled radish, formed them in a way
that could look like flower petal.
Brown rice mixed with rice vinegar, salt,
and a little bit of agave syrup.
This is exactly 30 grams of rice.
So every sushi has the same amount of rice.
Form this to make it look like flower.
So next I'm gonna do carrots and asparagus sushi.
So you design however you like.
I think this is really kind of free form
creative way of making sushi.
It's kind of like the combination is endless
and put sushi rice and form the round.
And this is the face up.
and I use warm rice 'cause we want sushi to have
either warm or room temperature rice.
Last one, woven cucumber, very thinly sliced cucumber.
I use the peeler and pickle with salt, place them...
So you wanna make them look like woven fabric.
It's kind of like what you do on pie.
So this is a lattice designed cucumber, the rice....
So I'm gonna put them in a box.
So this square Bento Box,
well, this is called (speaking in foreign language).
You usually use it for new year' food
or special kind of Bento or a party.
This is bamboo shoot radish flower.
So this tomato, I boil them,
peel the skin and I marinate it.
In soy sauce, (speaking in foreign language),
(indistinct) powder, and (indistinct)
and some salt, and nori seaweed.
And this red and yellow pepper is roasted
and peeled and marinated in the same kind of marinade.
This king oyster mushroom I cut it and make those slices.
Then I cook them with soy sauce and (indistinct),
that kind of flavor.
I just try to put like the color wise, evenly distributed.
So that's the cucumber and that's a baby corn
and konnyaku, the yam cake,
it's got very similar texture to squid.
I boil them first and cook them in
dashi and salt and kombu dashi.
So again, given the kind of seafood like flavor
I'm gonna put some garnish, this is nori seaweed.
Put some black sesame on this one.
I used to eat sushi and I used to love all those fish.
Creating something in all plant based
that's challenging, but it's also very interesting.
I mean for obvious things like sea urchin (laughs)
could it be hard to veganize?
Sometimes I use watermelon rind,
but just the kind of white part.
And when you grill in and kind of marinate it
in the same way, the texture is so similar to tuna
or those raw fish.
And there's like so much beauty in Japanese cooking
and also so much beauty in vegetables,
the colors and the shapes, you can go creative with it.
So this is Vegan Temari Sushi Bento Box.
Tomato, tuna sushi, and I put black sesame on the radish
Chives on bamboo shoot and a sprout on mushroom.
And I put sesame on cucumber, sweet pea on corn,
and cooked chive on vegan squid sushi.
Thank you for joining me today.
I'm Natsko, here with three vegan Bento Boxes.
Totoro (speaking in foreign language) Vegan Bento Box,
Panda Pancakes Bento Box and Vegan Sushi Bento Box.
So if you make your own version of vegan Bento
let me know I'm on Plantnats on Instagram, TikTok,
putting kids friendly plant-based food.
(lighthearted music)