My granny, my three year old (Will), and I went out to lunch at a super cute little lunch joint in our downtown area about a month ago. I had this amazing grilled tuna sandwich. I don’t normally order tuna salad anywhere because it’s usually a dill pickle relish/onion mess on bread that gets soggy from the mayo or whatever super fattening condiment they use to stick it all together.
For some reason I sensed I might get something different from this place. And I did. This sandwich was packed with tuna mixed with all kinds of different vegetables. Looking back the item that stuck out most in my mind was the shredded carrots. How completely unique!
Yesterday I decided that I would make a twisted tuna salad. Really the only similarity about theirs and mine is the shredded carrots. I wanted to make mine super flavorful, super low cal, and loaded with fresh vegetables to offset the packaged tuna.
If you like tuna at all, you have to try this! It doesn’t matter if you are watching your calorie intake. I would eat this on a diet cheat day! This tuna salad does not taste low calorie! This is exactly the kind of food I want to create for my “fit recipe” part of this blog. You don’t have to use rice cakes if you hate them. They just save a ton of calories and I happen to adore them. I love their crunch and the slightly soggy quality they take on when you spread something like this tuna salad on them. A typical slice of bread is around 100 calories. These rice cakes have only 35 each!
Veggie Loaded Tuna Melt
Ingredients:
-12 to 13 oz. tuna in water (canned or in a pouch)
-1 Tbsp. mayonnaise with olive oil (I used Best Foods)
-1 medium carrot (peeled and shredded)
-1 medium stalk celery (thinly sliced)
-2 Pickled Sweet Cherry Peppers (seeded and finely chopped)
-1 to 2 Tbsp. red onion (diced small)
-pinch salt
-freshly ground black pepper (about 20 turns)
-1 slice of your favorite cheese (divided into 4 portions, I used Gouda)
In a medium bowl combine first 9 ingredients. Mix well. Place rice cakes on foil. Portion out tuna mixture evenly onto the 4 rice cakes. Top each with a portion of the slice of cheese. Place on top rack of oven and broil for 2 to 3 minutes (just until the cheese is melted). Remove from oven and EAT!!!
~600 total calories (for all 4)! You could eat all four for one meal.
/or/
I ate two of them on a large green salad with 100 calories worth of dressing for a total of about 450 calories including the lettuce. Not bad at all!
Oh and one more thing. The Greek yogurt mixed with the olive oil mayo was an awesome combination. I got that wonderful tang from the yogurt and it was mellowed slightly by the fat in the mayo. This recipe is also packed with protein from the tuna and the yogurt ~35 grams in total recipe!
OK, enough bragging, just try it:)
This is a very unusual tuna salad! I love your version! And your presentation makes it even yummier!
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I think I could learn a lesson or two from you about presentation! Your photos are so beautiful!
GOOD to see you’re buying good albacore instead of crap tuna. Good quality albacore is on the list of “best seafood” for nutrition and sustainability.
http://wfoa-tuna.org/
Thanks, but no matter what I buy in the way of tuna Ben always asks, “Why are you eating ChopChop’s (our cat) food?”