hapa bento

Once in while I’m able to pull off a pretty nice lunch using only grains and vegetables. So today’s featured bento box is vegan!   The main tier is filled with  sweet and sour seitan,  brown rice and a broiled pineapple ring  garnish.    The second tier is roasted broccolini, which I just learned is a hybrid of broccoli and gai lan (Chinese broccoli), and fresh tomato slices.

Normally, carrots are included in the sweet and sour recipe, but I didn’t have any and there was raging storm last night so I skipped the carrot part.

Sweet and Sour Seitan (wheat meat)

2 cups of bit sized pieces of seitan

1 cup of shoyu

1/2 cup of unsweetened juice from canned pineapple

grated fresh ginger to taste, about 1 teaspoon

grated fresh garlic (optional)

2 tablespoons of brown sugar syrup

1 cup of pineapple tidbits or chunks

Mix all the ingredients except the pineapple chunks and simmer in a pot until most of the liquid has reduced.   Add the pineapple and remove from heat.  Drain liquid and cool before packing in the bento box.

I must note that the pineapple is usually cooked a bit more than what’s shown in the photo, but without carrots, the meal needed some color contrast!   It’s a very versatile dish and totally optional to add bell peppers, water chestnuts or other crunchy veggies.  If  you’re not a vegan or vegetarian, it’s okay to use beef, pork or chicken instead of seitan.  Have fun with it!