How to make vegetable flowers

Flat vegetable flowers are great for dressing up your bento to finish up.
Put them on broccoli, on rice, on sandwiches, etc… anywhere you want. It adds a nice finishing touch and will definitely cutify your bento.

Carrot flower:
– Carrrot
– Cheese for #2 (optional)

[Carrot flower #1]
1. Slice a carrot and make upside down V-shape incision around the carrot.

It doesn't have to be 8 V-shapes, any number of V-shape will do.

2. If you don’t like eating carrot skin, you can cut the outside part.

[Carrot flower #2]
1. Slice a carrot, and use any flower shape cookie cutter to cut out the carrot. *You can just stop right here, and your carrot already looks much cuter than ordinary boring carrot like. (Check out the Path to Totoro Forest)

2. Use a straw to make holes on where petals are, and on the center.

Carrot flower #1 looks really adorable on broccoli. I usually use baby carrots for this, but you can just use the smaller part of a carrot.
And the secret weapon to make simple yet fancy-looking Carrot flower #2 is a straw! You can also make flowers out of cheese, apple, ham, anything that’s soft enough to make a hole with a straw. In the picture below, I made a flower with cheese, and swap carrot bits & cheese bits.
If you don’t have a cookie cutter, don’t worry. You can make a Carrot flower #1, and use a straw to cut out holes. (like the one at the right bottom) If you have hard time getting a veggie piece out of a straw, just blow it from the other end.
I save carrot bits I get from cutting carrot with a straw. You can use them as eyes or cheeks (if you’re making animals or people), or just sprinkle them around in your bento!

A cookie cutter and a straw can make an ordinary carrot look pretty fancy!

Carrot tulip is more 3D, so you can stick it in the corner of your bento box like veggie sticks.
[Carrot tulip]
– carrot
– cucumber

1. Slice a cucumber about 3/4 inch thick, and cut it in half.
2. Cut out V-shape where seeds are.

3. Cut the carrot like a tulip.

This is what a tulip looks like in my head.

4. Stick toothpick through the cucumber and carrot, and done!

Also great for a party!

You can also check out more “how to” on my blog and my flickr.