I made that!

I know, this seems like a boring post. While tuna salad is pretty low on most people’s list of awesome food, I’m stoked to share this one. And my friend Pantea asked for my recipe and I fgured “What better way to pass it along?” For years I was a tuna salad hater (a part of my general condiment phobia). It just seemed like all the tuna salads I had encountered were blobs of mayonnaise. But then I learned how to make mayonnaise from scratch, and that opened up a whole new world for me. So this is my version of tuna salad, with some of my favorite things in it. My salad includes asian pear, lemon zest and juice, jalapeno pepper, another mild pepper, arugula and pecans. All of which make right now the perfect time of year for a tuna salad sandwich! Rule #1 in my salad though: good canned tuna packed in oil, not that cheap stuff in water. Since I go light on the mayo, that oil is needed for moisture. If I was feeling like a badass we would be talking about poaching fresh tuna instead of using canned, but that kinda requires making a much larger batch of salad.

Since the jalapenos pack a punch, you want to get them diced very fine.

Once you’ve got everything chopped, you basically just mix it all together. But first toss the tuna in a bowl and break up the large chunks. I usually drain the oil out of half and use the other half in the salad.

Then add everything else.

Mix and enjoy!

SPICY LEMONY TUNA SALAD RECIPE:

10 oz of tuna packed in olive oil

1/2 cup diced mild pepper (bell, gypsy, banana)

1/2 cup (2 oz) chopped pecans

1/2 jalapeno (or more if you’re into it)

1 (3.5 oz) diced asian pear or apple

3 TBSP mayonaise

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

large handful of arugula, chopped

2 TBSP finely diced red onion (not shown here, I forgot to buy one)

black pepper to taste