This Salad Bento took a lot of planning and research. Each component took at least an hour of research, and ideas.

The first step is the base. I put two romaine leaves together to get the base. I then chopped up the stems for color contrast and completed the salad base with julienned carrots.

The second step is the bell pepper creatures. Instead of putting the salad dressing on the side or mixed the salad, I cleaned out one mini bell pepper and poured it in. I secured the top with a toothpick and made sure it stabbed the lower half. I filled the red one with Lemongrass Satay Peanut Sauce. (Waaay better than regular old peanut butter)

Next, I cut out the grapes and lined the side. Then, I cut a celery stalk into 5 segments. It has to be odd numbers for this design to work. You have to blanch the celery, so that the segments are pliable. Then, alternately fold in the segments. That was the easy part. The rest gets harder.

The mushroom is made out of kumquat and a seedless red grape. The stars are nori that are cut with a design puncher. As for the radishes, those are cut using vegetable carving methods. I found one site that gave information on watermelon carving, and I adapted it to the radish. It was a lot harder than I thought. I ended eating half my mistakes. I carved a rose bud, then dyed it blue to get the infamous Blue Rose. I also made radish spirals and other radish carvings. If you want instructions on any, just email me.

Enjoy!