Cook Your Week: ‘Bento’ great for grazers

Each Sunday in Cook Your Week, we'll offer three ideas for midweek dinners, all designed for last-minute preparation. We take advantage not only of the stellar fresh food and global pantry available in Bay Area markets, but also of all the new tech advances: online delivery services, meal-prep services and more.

The column is also a two-way street: Tell us about a new app or service you’ve found, or a quick recipe or photo, or what you’d like to see us cover. Contact information is below.

Living in the Bay Area bubble, it’s hard not to fall for the Next Big Thing. We’re suckers for shiny and new, and with each technological development, we expect things to be quicker and better than the day before.

I’m no different, so when I discovered Bento — a service promising to deliver build-your-own-bento boxes in minutes — I was totally intrigued.

I’m a grazer by nature, and the ability to have several different sides with my main dish is appealing. Plus, the model of driving around with food at the ready — think Sprig, Caviar Fastbite and Spoonrocket (which I'll write about in a future column) — appeals to the masses who don’t care an ounce about cooking, and it’s always fun to add a competitor to the space.

Yet, even though Bento launched a few months ago, every time I went onto the app and entered my home address, I got a message stating “Bummer! We don’t deliver there yet!” with a map showing the outlined delivery route. It’s been creeping slowly toward me, but at a glacial pace.

Fortunately, Bento was recently funded — just another day in the “bubble” — and so I fully expect to be included inside the boundaries of the delivery area soon. In the meantime, I ordered it delivered to my office and brought it home for dinner.

In addition to this week’s bento bliss are two easy recipes — seasonal flatbread and a grilled tuna rice bowl — both of which cater to the whole family.

 Dinner No. 1

Basics 2.0: Flatbread With Spinach, Corn & Burrata

When making pizza or flatbread at home, I usually stop by my favorite pizza place to pick up raw dough. You can usually buy the dough balls for a few bucks, and to me, it’s just not worth the effort of making it at home. You can also buy perfectly good dough from Trader Joe’s; it’s in the refrigerator section near the fresh pastas. I love the combination of greens and sweet corn, but this recipe works with any seasonal topping. If you can’t find burrata, any soft-ish cheese, from regular fresh mozzarella to goat cheese, would work.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Spread semolina or flour on a baking sheet. Place a 1-pound dough ball on a floured surface, and either roll or stretch until you have a thin crust (no thicker than ½ inch). I like to do this in a rectangle or oval, so it fits better on the baking sheet. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

While the crust is baking, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large saute pan. When hot, add 1½ cups thinly sliced leeks (rinsed well; it’s OK if they’re not fully dry). Season with kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste. When mostly softened (about 6-8 minutes), add 3 cups packed baby spinach and ¾ cup fresh corn kernels. Cook, stirring, until the spinach is wilted, another 2 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, to taste.

Remove the baked flatbread from the oven, and spread the corn mixture evenly on top, leaving about 1 inch around the edges. Dollop the burrata cheese over the top, drizzle with more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve hot.

Dinner No. 2

Phone-to-Table: Bento 

About the app: Filed under the “affordable food delivered in minutes” category, Bento, created by former “Top Chef” contestant Mattin Noblia, promises close-to-instant gratification. Each lunch or dinner comes in a compartmentalized bento box, with one entree and four sides. Diners can create their customized box from a variety of choices, and the boxes ($12 each) are delivered shortly thereafter (in my case, 10 minutes) by a driver zipping through town in a green flag-decked car.

Pros: It’s SO fun. Really. There’s something oddly satisfying about designing your own bento box, and feeling like you’re in control of the process. It’s quick. It’s affordable. And the recycled packaging looks pretty.

Cons: The packaging might look good, but there’s a whole lot of it — a seemingly unnecessary waste. Also, the bento designation can be confusing — it’s not necessarily Japanese food. It’s really more of an all-encompassing Asian box, with dim sum, sushi, Chinese rice dishes and Korean salads potentially all inhabiting the same box. Still, neither of these are major cons — I was pretty impressed with this service.

What we ate: From the three dinner main-course choices offered the day we ordered, we opted for the General Tso’s pork (other entrees were tuna poke and Thai red curry chicken). For our side dishes, we chose the Korean cucumber salad, portobello mushroom medley with peppers and onions, jasmine rice and chicken and shrimp siu mai (our favorite of the four). Also listed were a sun roll (sushi roll with yellowfin tuna, mango and fish roe) and chicken sriracha meatballs. The food totally gets the job done, but it’s still coming out of a car within a 10-minute window. So, even if it starts out very fresh, it doesn’t always end up that way.

Dinner No. 3

Quick & Seasonal: Grilled Tuna Rice Bowl

Serves 4

Use frozen brown rice (I like Trader Joe’s) to speed up the process for this one-dish meal from The Chronicle archives. The sauce can be made ahead of time, and you can always thin it out with more lemon juice or water. If you don’t have a grill, sear the tuna in a non-stick pan or on a griddle.

1½ tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ cup mayonnaise

¾ pound ahi tuna steak

1 tablespoon olive oil + more for greasing the grill

Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste

4 cups cooked brown rice

¾ cup shelled edamame

1/3 pound cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1 large or 2 small avocados, pitted and diced

Toasted nori, sliced thin, for garnish (optional)

Instructions: To make the sauce, whisk together the soy sauce, lemon juice and mayonnaise until well blended. Set aside.

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat (about 400 degrees). Rub the tuna with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Making sure that the grill is properly greased, sear the tuna for about 1-2 minutes on each side, leaving the inside rare. (It’s fine to cook longer if you prefer it that way.) Remove from the grill, let rest for a few minutes, and slice into thin strips.

Place 1 cup of rice in each of 4 bowls. Top each with a quarter of the tuna slices, edamame, cucumber and avocado. Drizzle with sauce, serving any remaining sauce on the side. Garnish with toasted nori, if using, and serve immediately.

Per serving: 697 calories, 30 g protein, 54 g carbohydrate, 41 g fat (7 g saturated), 46 mg cholesterol, 419 mg sodium, 8 g fiber.

Amanda Gold is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: agold@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @AmandaGold; Instagram: @agold_sfchron.