tuna salad salad
Tuna Salad sandwich
When I was a little girl going to school, my dad always prepared a roast-beef or ham sandwich for our lunches. If we were lucky and he had time in the morning, he would make us tuna salad with S&P, a bit of green relish and mayo. That’s my earliest memory of tuna.
When I was older and working on boats, my aunt introduced me to the world of Dill– and lots of it. Now I cringe at the thought of eating it without Dill.
Instead of putting relish into the mix, we started adding chopped celery, then we started adding onion and lemon/lime etc etc. After we thought we had perfected our recipe, along came broccoli. But not the bushy part, no, no, no. We were using the stalk–one of the most nutritious parts of the broccoli. If we had a broccoli stalk, we would replace the celery with it.
Anyways, you’re probably saying: get on with it right? Well, today I added another ingredient, a ninja ingredient (because it’s so sneaky but very flavorful): Basil!
I have been growing Dill and Basil from the seed and I’ve been letting it get so big (without using it) because I find something oddly morbid about planting something with love, watching it grow and nurturing it–even bringing it inside on cold nights– only to rip off their limbs and chop up their leaves and of all things INGEST it! It feels like some sort of backwards cannibalism. I got over it though; I brought a couple stalks of the Basil in with me, placing what was left of their roots into a tall shot glass filled with water. They’ve been there (alive) for three weeks now [below/right]. The rest of their family sits outside awaiting their fate. So when I was making this tuna salad, I glanced over at the aromatic basil and I thought “why not?”.
Domesticated Basil
I then reached over and brutally tore two leaves off and diced them into little bits!– I’m sure I heard it yelp. I dumped the finished tuna salad on top of some greens and ate away. I know this recipe is a no brainer, but tuna is one of the favorite things among vegetarians and it’s such a quick and easy thing to make and it’s so easy to make it SO delicious, so why not! Plus adding protein to any meal will help you stay full longer!
So, without further ado, here is my latest Tuna salad recipe whether you would want to add it to a salad or keep it the old-fashioned way: in a sandwhich (like the picture above right.)
Ingredients: Serves 1 person (large portion) or two people (small portions)
- Lettuce of your choice/ Bread (if making a sandwich–not for the salad)
- Normal size, canned Tuna (in water–for obvious reasons)
- About 1 heaping tbsp of chopped onion
- S&P
- Tsp of Dill
- Tsp of Basil
- Chopped up celery stalk OR Broccoli stalk (for crunch)
- Juice of half a lemon (if you want to add lemon zest, that’s a great idea–This makes such a difference it’s insane!)
- 0-1 tbsp of mayo (If I’m puting the tuna on top of a salad, I use as little mayo as possible–if any. If I’m making a sandwich, I add max. 1tbsp just so that everything sticks together and the sandwich doesn’t fall apart.)
- Tsp mustard (optional)
- Chopped pepperoncinni aka. Banana Pepper (optional)
- Tsp Capers (optional)
(The “optional” things are what my husband likes in his–They’re good too, but it makes the recipe a little more complicated)
- Mix together all the ingredients in any order you choose. Make sure to drain the tuna before adding.
If you’re making a salad, just place on top of the lettuce, and eat away. It goes really well with some basalmic dressing. Or, if you have a head of lettuce, try making Tuna Salad wraps.
If a sandwich, just add your fixin’s and smoosh in between a couple pieces of bread (or in my husband’s case a bagel)
Sprinkle with love and enjoy!
Kristi
Cooking With The Undomestic Housewife 