Happy Daylight Savings Time (to us North Americans)!! To me Daylight Savings means Spring is just around the corner. Going by most of the posts lately and the general attitude in the air, I think it is safe to say we are all over winter. I’m over everything about it including the food. I cannot wait for all the fruits and vegetables to start showing up again at our farmers market and to be able to throw together a big salad for lunch. Yes, I know I can have a salad during the winter but a cold lunch is not appealing to me when it is cold outside. Most weeks our dinners provide us with enough food for our lunches during the week, so I don’t have to worry about separate lunch options. This week, I knew we would be short on lunch and I decided I needed something a bit more green in my life. So enter, my take on tuna salad, the Parsley Pesto Tuna Salad. This recipe would also work really well turned into a tuna pasta salad.
Adapted from Blissful Eats: White Bean & Tuna Salad
2 cups packed flat-leaf parsley (remove stems below leaves but you can use the stem holding the leaves)
¼ cup olive oil
1 avocado
3-4 tbls fresh lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 jalapeño (seeded)
2 tbls water (add only if needed)
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 pouches or cans of tuna (drained)
1 can garbanzo beans (or white beans), drained and rinsed
2 carrots (or a handful of baby carrots), diced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
Place parsley, olive oil, avocado, 3 tbls lemon juice, garlic, and jalapeño into food processor and process until well blended.
Taste, decide if you want more lemon juice. If you add more lemon juice, process and then decide if the texture is what you want. The texture should be smooth but thick, almost like a mayo, you could add more water if you wanted a thinner dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place tuna, beans, carrots and celery in a large bowl and then spoon parsley pesto on top. Start with about half to ¾ of the pesto and mix together, taste and add remaining pesto if too dry or not to your taste. Season to taste with salt and pepper. I like a dash of Tabasco in mine as well.
I think pasta would work very well as an addition to this; ½ lb shells or macaroni could be added without having to increase the amount of pesto made.
The Rest of The Week
- Roasted Fennel, Red Onion, and Orange Salad & Parmesan-Panko Crusted Halibut: the salad was really interesting, the orange was bitter except for the few that were well roasted.
- Kale, Mushroom, & White Bean Stew: we didn’t actually have this soup, though this was the plan. We got a bad batch of kale and ended up doing a refrigerator clean out soup.
- 20 Minute Sriracha Lime and Creamy Cashew Fettuccine : quite good, the sauce was a bit thick, but the flavor was great. Make sure to get the cilantro, onions, and peppers as topper because they provide a nice bright addition to the dish.
- Cream Cheese Enchiladas
