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Obento お弁当
5 from 22 votes

Obento お弁当

Obento お弁当 refers to a traditional Japanese boxed meal featuring a balanced selection of dishes such as sweet and sour pork meatballs, tamagoyaki rolled egg, potato salad, and assorted vegetables like sugar snap peas, broccolini, and tomato. The meatballs are deep-fried and coated in a rich sweet and sour sauce, while tamagoyaki offers a softly cooked, slightly sweet rolled egg, adding a comforting texture and flavor to the box.

Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
1 hr
Servings: 1
Calories: 1765 kcal
Course: Side Dish, Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

  • 150 g rice 1, cooked
Sweet & Sour Meatballs *2
  • 5 g butter
  • 1/4 onion finely chopped
  • 250 g ground pork *3
  • 1/2 egg 12, large
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp potato starch aka Katakuriko
  • 600 ml oil 4, for deep fry
  • 1/4 cup water
  • Pinch of torigara soup powder *5
  • 1 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1/2 tbs mirin
  • 1 tbs rice vinegar *6
  • 1 tsp potato starch aka Katakuriko
Tamagoyaki Rolled egg roll *7
  • 2 1/2 egg 12, large
  • 1/2 tbsp shirodashi *8
  • 1/4 of nori sheet
  • 1/2 tbsp neutral cooking oil generic cooking oil
Potato salad *9
  • 1/4 onion
  • half Lebanese cucumber sliced
  • 350 g potato
  • 50 g ham chopped
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise 10, kewpie japanese mayonnaise
  • pinch of salt to taste
Other fillings
  • 4 sugar snap peas parboiled
  • 1 bunch of broccolini
  • 1 tomato mini
  • 2 shiso leaves *11
  • parsley for garnish

Instructions

Sweet & Sour Meatballs
    Cup of Yum
  1. Add butter into a small frying pan over medium heat.
  2. Add finely chopped onion and cook it until onion become transparent and soft. 
  3. Let it cool and set aside.
  4. Place ground meat in a mixing bowl and add egg, salt, potato starch and cooked onion.
  5. Combine them well with your hand until it become a little sticky. Make 18 pin-pong ball sized meatballs.
  6. Heat oil to 180°C (356°F) and deep fry the meatballs until it become golden brown. *13
  7. Set aside the meatballs. You could do up to this steps a night before in order to save time in the morning. 
  8. Place water, torigara soup powder, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, rice vinegar and potato starch in a saucepan.
  9. Bring it simmer and become thicken. 
  10. Add meatballs to the saucepan and coat the thickened sauce well. 
Tamagoyaki *7
  1. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and add shirodashi.
  2. Mix them all together and strain the egg mixture a few times.
  3. Heat the oil in a rectangle shaped frying pan(if you have)*14 and remove the excess with a kitchen paper. Keep the oil soaked kitchen paper for later steps.
  4. Pour about 1/3 of egg mixture, scramble them a little bit and when the egg solidified a little, push them towards an end ot of the pan. 
  5. Wipe the empty side of the pan with oil soaked kitchen paper and pour another 1/3 of the egg mixture. 
  6. Lift the pushed egg to let the egg mixture run under it. 
  7. Place the nori sheet over the newly poured egg before they get solidified. 
  8. Roll the egg from the one side of the pan. 
  9. Repeat the same for remaining egg mixture. 
  10. Turn the heat off and remove the rolled egg from the pan and let it cool. 
  11. Slice the rolled egg about 2cm(7.9inch) thick. 
Potato salad *9
  1. Chop the onion finely and soak them in water in a small mixing bowl. Soak about 10 minutes. Drain the water and squeeze out excess water and set aside. 
  2. Slice the cucumber thinly and sprinkle a pinch of water. Leave it about 5 minutes or the salt withdraw the water out of cucumber. Squeeze the moisture out of cucumber and set aside. 
  3. Peel the potato and cut them small. 
  4. Boil the potato for about 10 minutes or potato become soft. Drain the cooking water and mash the potatoes. 
  5. Place mashed potato, onion, cucumber and ham into a mixing bowl. 
  6. Add mayonnaise and salt to combine them all together. 
Assemble all together into a lunch box
  1. Place rice first, then shiso leaves, meatballs, sugar snap peas, rolled egg, tomato and potato salad. If there is any gap, fill the gap with green vegetables and parsley.  
  2. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the rice and top with Umeboshi. *See above step by step photos.

Notes

  • One serving of cooked rice is approximately 150g, typical for a Japanese bento.
  • The sweet and sour meatball recipe makes about 18 meatballs; 4 are used per bento box.
  • You can substitute pork with beef or veal for the meatballs.
  • Deep fry meatballs or alternatively pan-fry or bake them.
  • Shirodashi is a bottled liquid dashi; substitute with appropriate soup stock if unavailable.
  • Use white vinegar if rice vinegar is not accessible.
  • Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise can be replaced with regular mayonnaise.
  • Shiso leaves may be substituted with lettuce if unavailable.
  • Meatballs can be made up to a day ahead to save time.
  • The total calorie content is estimated based on listed ingredients and typical portions for one bento box.

Nutrition Information

Calories 1765kcal (88%) Carbohydrates 28g (9%) Protein 21g (42%) Fat 177g (272%) Saturated Fat 19g (95%) Cholesterol 181mg (60%) Sodium 563mg (23%) Potassium 656mg (14%) Fiber 2g (8%) Sugar 4g (8%) Vitamin A 230IU (5%) Vitamin C 13mg (14%) Calcium 57mg (6%) Iron 4mg (22%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 1 Serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories 1765

% Daily Value*

Calories 1765kcal 88%
Carbohydrates 28g 9%
Protein 21g 42%
Fat 177g 272%
Saturated Fat 19g 95%
Cholesterol 181mg 60%
Sodium 563mg 23%
Potassium 656mg 14%
Fiber 2g 8%
Sugar 4g 8%
Vitamin A 230IU 5%
Vitamin C 13mg 14%
Calcium 57mg 6%
Iron 4mg 22%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.