The cucumbers are on discount and I had some leftover salad. Sometimes good ideas just hit you on the spot. I thought of a way to present the salad in the bento and decided that I would make cups from cucumber. I have no clue if I have seen this somewhere before and that it popped back from the back of my head, but it works great!
I measured the cucumber next to the box to see how high the cups needed to be. Then I traced the shape of the cucumber with a small knife to make it easier to scoop the seeds out. Be careful though that you don't scoop too much. Dry them with some kitchen towel to drains some of the fluids. The cups then look like this:
Of course the pictures have been taken with my iPhone by night ;) But you get the idea. I filled them with pre bought chicken-pesto salad that I had left over from an evening with friends. But you can fill them with any kind of salad. I used the scooped out cucumber as a lid on top of the filling so the bento lid will stay much cleaner and you won't waste anything. Again use kitchen towel to drain them of moist. Like this:
Lastly I decorated them and filled the rest of the bento. I used 3 cups now because I have a lot of leftover salad, but I can see myself using this easy and fast method in the future to add one cup to a bento. And now on to the bento:
Rice with teriyaki sauce, peas, spring onion & mushrooms, the filled cucumber cups decorated with nori hearts and grapes on a skewer.
yummie.
ReplyDeletei made it too but using eggplant instead the cucumber. it became side dish though for the rice, not salad like yours. you can find it in my today's bento (http://bentosiayah.blogspot.com/).
i'm eager to try yours, may i? :)