Falafel Bento

It's time for another round of Taste & Create! This month, I was paired with the event's creator... Nicole of For the Love of Food. As always, there were so many yummy sounding recipes on her site. I considered tandoori chicken, chili lime honey chicken, tropical rice, & Buffalo chicken pizza (which I still plan to make sometime), paella, & vegetable soup with pistou, but then I saw her falafel recipe. I've been wanting to make falafel for a while, and I figured they'd be the perfect thing to take for lunch in one of my new bento boxes!

I altered Nicole's version slightly, using canned garbanzo beans instead of pinto beans, omitting the cilantro (it tastes metallic to me), and not coating them in bread crumbs before frying.

Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 big bunch of flat leaf parsley (about 2 handfuls)
1 small onion
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons cumin (powder)
2 teaspoons coriander (powder)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano [I actually used fresh]
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread crumbs

Olive oil for frying

Directions:
Place everything but the bread crumbs in a food processor and puree until the dough forms a ball.

Add the bread crumbs a little bit at a time and pulse until combined. Once it gets a bit harder, Once the mixture is thick enough--not too dry that it crumbles and not too wet that it falls apart--form into patties.

The patties should be slightly moist. Fry in olive oil until golden brown on each side.

I thought the patties seemed a bit too moist in the middle, so I put them in a hot even for a few minutes. Overall, they puffed up nicely and were really flavorful. I will definitely make these again!

I packed the falafel with hummus, cucumber & yogurt sauce, couscous with tomatoes, carrots & sugar snap peas, and pita.

Bento Obsession

I have no idea why, but all of a sudden I am obsessed with bento box lunches.

According to Cooking Cute, bento "refers to a packaged, single-portion, portable meal that is usually eaten at lunch, but also comes in larger sizes meant for use at picnics, dinner, and parties. A bento generally consists of rice or noodles and some form of protein (e.g., meat, poultry, fish, tofu) accompanied by side dishes of raw, simmered, or pickled vegetables. There are many different types of bento boxes, ranging from traditional handcrafted wooden lacquerware to disposable containers. Most bento boxes have compartments or internal dividers for separate dishes."

I came across a few pictures of bento box lunches on Tastespotting, which led me to click around and discover this whole cyber-world of bento packing cooks!


Cooking Cute has a great list of links and resources.


Lunch in a Box offers tips & techniques for bento fillers.


Soy and Pepper features mouth-watering pics of her bento love.

Some people even go as far as to press hard-boiled eggs and rice into hearts, cut veggies into flowers, and decorate their food with pieces of seaweed!


Anyway, I've always been fond of taking lunches in snazzy lunchboxes. In high school, my best friend and I both had these cool tall, rectangular, colorful plastic boxes with long straps. There were three pieces to each box: the top was a thermos, the middle divider held napkins & silverware, and the main compartment was big enough to pack food in.

A few years ago I bought a traditional metal Frankenstein themed lunchbox to commemorate earning my MA in English (I wrote my thesis on Frankenstein).


I've decided to take my lunches to work from now on, so as to eat a bit healthier (ie, no fast food), and I love the idea of packing bento boxes!

My first step was to order some boxes. I found a few on ebay that I liked, including two Japanese style boxes:




and one Americanized version:


I also liked the Laptop Lunchbox system (available at Lunchboxes.com) and the Fit & Fresh containers (available on Amazon). In fact, I might order the Fit & Fresh soup/salad thermos and possibly the Breakfast Chiller. Their Lunch on the Go is microwaveable and includes an ice pack.

Since I didn't yet have a real bento box, I improvised the past week by using small Gladware containers inside a larger, heavy plastic containter with a lid (something I already had in my cabinet for storing leftovers in the fridge).


Leftover chicken stirfry, grape tomatoes, cheese, yogurt, & a plum.


Turkey & Laughing Cow cheese on sunflower bread, veggie crisps, carrots, blueberries, & cheese.


Whole wheat cheese tortellini with tomatoes & pesto, cardamom & cinnamon olives, roasted zucchini with thyme.

Nothing too exciting, but I have some fancy recipes planned for the coming weeks! Look for more bento pics and recipes here soon!