Saturday, August 24, 2013

{Recipe} grown up tuna salad


This lunchtime classic often lacks excitement and flavor, so I've given the old tuna salad an overhaul by adding a few select extras. Don't forget: better ingredients make a healthier, better-tasting product, so I use premium canned tuna here. I prefer my tuna salad kicked up with a super hot serrano pepper, but you can use whatever kind of pepper suits your taste, or even some cayenne from the cupboard. 



Recipe

Yield: makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 (4.5 oz) can solid light tuna packed in olive oil, drained
1 (4.5 oz) can solid light tuna packed in water, drained
2 T capers, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped or thinly sliced
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, finely chopped OR 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp coarse salt 
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
Juice from 1 lemon
Zest from 1 lemon
5 T Hellman's Light mayonnaise 
2 T quality brown mustard





Directions
Chop the capers, onion, and pepper. Put into a large bowl. Grate the lemon zest into the bowl and then add the fresh lemon juice. Add the tuna, salt, pepper, mayonnaise, and mustard and mix well. Divide into four equal portions.   



Nutrition
Tuna is a super protein source and also full of one of the healthiest kinds of fats--omega-3s! Each serving of this tuna salad has over 140mg of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. Adding onion, pepper, and capers increases the volume of the salad which makes you feel more full without adding a lot of calories. I love tuna packed in olive oil because I think the taste is so much better than water-packed tuna, so to balance out the extra calories from the oil-packed tuna, I use Hellman's Light mayo versus the regular version. Feel free to use regular mayo, if you prefer, but realize you'll be adding a few more calories to my per serving calculation. :)  

Each serving contains ~167 calories.

Pro Tips
You can skip the bread (or at least make your sandwich open-faced) with this flavor-packed tuna salad. I serve it over a bed of spinach. Add some fruit and a small handful of nuts on the side and you've got lunch!  



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