Iri dofu or iri doufu (炒り豆腐) is a simple, homely dish, real Japanese style 'mother's cooking'. Probably every Japanese home cook has his or her own recipe, but the base is plain tofu that is crumbled and then stirred around or gently stir fried (the iri 炒り part means that) until it resembles dry scrambled egg. In fact, it's rather like the tofu version of iri tamago, but with more flavor and texture.

Iri dofu recipes often contain meat (usually pork), dashi or both, but here I have kept it vegan (in keeping with our vegetarian theme for May). I have added umami by including chopped dried shiitake mushrooms, miso and soy sauce. Garlic chives and ginger also add to the flavor, while the sansho pepper (also known as sichuan pepper) adds spice.

The best way to eat this is to simply pile it onto rice. Of course it's perfect for a easy, healthy bento.

There are three very commonly used Japanese egg recipes. One is _tamagoyaki_ or atsuyaki tamago_ (and its variant, _dashimaki tamago), a rolled omelette. Another is _usuyaki tamago_, a very thin omelette which is used as a wrapper or shredded and used as a topping. Ther third is iri tamago, finely scrambled eggs that are used quite a lot as a topping. It's here because it's such a handy ingredient for bento. If you think you need a bit of color and protein, there's no faster egg dish you can make.

A soboro is rather like furikake, except that it's moister. It's used like furikake in many situations - sprinkled onto rice, folded into other things like eggs, and more. Soboro can be made of ground meat, flaked fish (though fish soboro is often called oboro instead), or egg (egg soboro is often called iri tamago, just to keep you confused!) Meat soboro (niku soboro) keeps for about a week in the refrigerator, and freezes beautifully, making it a great bento johbisai or staple for the omnivore.