When you are eating vegan, presentation HAS to be good! We eat with our eye’s first. Luckily, vegetables and fruits provide a colorful array so it is a little easier to make it pretty.
Non vegan food has a tendency to be all brown! As a food editor, I have a difficult time making my Mexican dishes, country blue place specials and more traditional food look great on camera!
There is a large variety of bento boxes. When I first went WFPB, I made Japanese quite frequently because it was the easiest cuisine to convert.
A bento box forces you to create some sides but it’s easy! With a Japanese meal, you want to provide an array of dishes that meet all of the senses. Tastes of something sweet, savory, salty, then textures of creamy, crunchy, crisp, etc.
Don’t be afraid to experiment! Focus on one main section then fill in with simple additions!
In the dishes below, I create the “Main” dish, like grilled tofu, glazed eggplant, stir fry or just sushi.
Anything that can be in a salad or sushi place can be placed into a bento box.
I may add a pickled salad or two, steamed vegetables, mixed rice or noodles, crispy wontons, or whatever I can think of to round out the plate.
I consider these dishes my “pretty” Japanese dishes. They can be a salad, or have components of a favorite sushi roll and just scattered on the plate. 
On the right, I put rice into mini cupcake tins, flipped them out and decorated them with thinly sliced ingredients.
I was careful to include an herb leaf, lemon slice, pepper slice or something to give it punch.
Have fun and experiment with the flavors. Stuff some fillings inside the rice balls like a little dot of umeboshi plum paste!
Arrange everything on a tray and let your kids decorate their own plate!
Japanese can be constructed very fast although there are more time consuming dishes like sushi, egg rolls, wontons and the like.
Provide a nice sauce, or quick pickled vegetables in the sauce well.
Make sauces and place them in a plastic zip log bag. Snip the corner and pipe the sauce onto your dish.
Finish the dishes with sesame seeds, green onions chopped on the diagonal, fresh sprigs of herbs, a sprinkle of chopped nuts. Don’t be afraid to mix in fruits. This dish to the right is a simple mango half placed over a Japanese slaw and topped with sriracha. The plate is finished with a green onion, asparagus spears and some thinly sliced radishes.
The best thing about a bento box is the FUN and versatility! It looks like you worked for hours and you didn’t!
