Smoked Tofu and Japanese Coleslaw Bento with Green Tea Noodles

The Bento adventures continue! A recent Bento Box I made for my packed lunch at work wasn't quite as exciting in apperance as previous efforts but it sure was mighty tasty. 

Bailey has been out in the garden a lot recently, smoking a variety of foodstuffs using his new ProQ smoker. While he has had the chance to bang out the odd bit of stunning meat, unfortunately for him he has also spent a large portion of his time making vegetarian treats for me, the favourite being the delicious smoked tofu that has been so popular round here! The tofu I used in my bento box was really yummy and made using a top secret rub recipe (OK, not secret I just don't know the recipe) that Bailey puts on his meats. You could ask him for the recipe or used some of the ready smoked stuff!

Tofu: ready for the smoking.

I also found some intriguing green tea flavoured vermicelli noodles in W.H. Lung supermarket and couldn't resist! I was slightly concerned that the flavour of green tea was going to be gross / overpowering but they were in fact very subtle.

I also whipped up a variation on a Japanese coleslaw recipe I found in my Just Bento Cookbook. This was by far my favourite part of the lunch, I could have eaten a tonne of the stuff, but had to make do with a little silcone cupcake case-sized serving. In fact, while we're on the subject, if (like me) you struggle with portion control, bento boxes are perfect as you are distracted from the fact that you are actually eating quite a small and healthy lunch!

Finally I have to give props once again to Tokyo Purple Girl for the amazing bento stuff she sent me. I made good use of the wasabi and red shisho sprinkles in this particular dish and they made my lunch look so pretty. Super tasty they were too.

Recipe:
100g green tea vermicelli noodles
35g cabbage
35g carrot
2 crab sticks
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
Salt and pepper
Cherry tomatoes
Akashiso Furikake Red Shiso sprinkles
Wasabi sprinkles
Smoked tofu

Cook the green tea noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain and place in cold water until you're ready to use them when assembling the bento box. Drain the cold water when doing so!

Prepare the Japanese Coleslaw by finely grating the cabbage and carrot and placing in a bowl. Shred the crab sticks and add to the bowl also.

Dress the coleslaw with the rice vinegar, mirin and some salt and pepper. Mix well.

Now assemble your bento box however you like. I served my coleslaw in a silicone cupcake case and put two little twists of green tea noodles, before pushing some cherry tomatoes into the gaps. Sprinkle the noodles with the red shiso and sprinkle the coleslaw with the wasabi spinkles.

Cut the smoked tofu into squares and assemble in your bento box. And there it is, a super healthy lunch to make your colleagues "well jel".