Monday, June 6, 2011

Tarragon Tuna Salad

Tuna salad is a classic that we eat a lot at my house. It's a budget-friendly lunch staple, but let's be honest. Tuna salad isn't exactly the most exciting thing to ever grace a plate. I decided to try to add some pizzazz to it.


Notes: This makes a small batch of tuna salad. It fed the two of us for two days. If you need to feed more people, I think doubling it would be no problem.

Normally tuna salad is heavy on the mayo. My husband is not a mayo guy. Ergo, my goal was to use a smaller amount of mayo and use something else as a binder. For me, the clear choice is mustard. I'll confess: I'm anti-yellow mustard (unless we're talking hot dogs). Too plain, not enough depth of flavor. There are so many different kinds of mustard out there, squirting out some French's just seems like a waste. My favorite mustard is whole grain, but we had some sweet and hot on hand, so I used that.

I had some leftover tarragon from my brown rice risotto and I thought the mild licorice flavor would round out the sharpness of the mustard. 

I planned to make tuna salad wraps, but the Louisiana humidity plus Target's subpar packaging resulted in an entire package of wheat wraps that were fused together. So, I served it over spinach instead -- a tuna salad salad, if you will.

Ingredients:
1 large can of tuna or 2 small cans, drained
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of mayo
1 tablespoon sweet relish
3 celery stalks, diced
1/4 cup tarragon, chopped
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a bowl (you can even make it right in your storage container to save time). Mix well. Refrigerate overnight.


Summer makes me naturally nostalgic, so I ate my tuna salad with a classic childhood snack:

Ants on a log, anyone?

 I plan to test out more versions of snazzier tuna salad, so you'll likely be seeing more posts like this in the future.

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