Zesty Tuna-Salsa Salad: Your New Favorite Lunch
Maybe it’s dinner that’s stymieing you. Maybe it’s the lunch you know you should be eating, but don’t want to take the time to prepare. Zesty Tuna-Salsa Salad can be your new favorite, in either case. It’s quick to prepare, healthy, and most importantly, delicious! It takes only a few ingredients and once you’ve tried it you just may find it’s your new favorite way to enjoy tuna.
Zesty Tuna-Salsa Salad as a concept
It’s important to point out here that the salad ingredient referring to is Pico de Gallo, the fresh chop of tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper. It’s not the bottled, sometimes watery, thin, distant cousin to pico de gallo, or bottled salsa.
Pico de gallo translates literally from Spanish to “rooster’s beak.” It’s one of those food names that sounds like it must have a story behind it, and it does, though no one is entirely sure which version is true.
What does pico de gallo mean
The most popular theory is that the name comes from how the salsa was traditionally eaten. Before tortilla chips became the standard delivery vehicle, people would pinch small bites of pico de gallo between their thumb and forefinger, scooping it directly to the mouth in a motion that looked like a rooster pecking at the ground. The name stuck.
The beauty of pico de gallo, beyond its taste and versatility is the fact it can be nearly as tasty store-bought as home made. The trick is in the quality of the tomatoes. While there’s definitely a seasonality component to it, when using pico de gallo in a recipe, the just-picked perfect tomato isn’t quite as important. The store bought version works particularly well in our Easy Crab Enchiladas.
Zesty Tuna-Salsa Salad with a twist
Tuna salad isn’t a huge time-suck to make but it often tastes a bit tired. I’ll often add chopped, briny olives or capers to a batch to kick it up. But sometimes you just want something more. A stir-in of freshly made Pico de Gallo can be just what your tuna is calling for. Or, when you don’t have the 10 minutes to spare, just add a a freshly made container of the store-bought condiment to your supermarket list.
Home made or store bought, this is a simple mix of fresh ingredients. It can be ready in no-time, and its zesty taste belies its ease.
Scoop it up on chips, put it between slices of whole grain bread, scoop it out onto a bed of lettuce, you can’t go wrong. I’ve even formed it into patties, and fried it in a pan to make tuna patties. A slice of Swiss cheese on top is the perfect end to what’s an amazingly delicious, perfectly simple recipe.
Zesty Tuna-Salsa Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup pico de gallo you can buy this already prepared at the grocery or mix up your own batch
- 1 lime
- 10 oz solid white Albacore tuna in water
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Using a mesh strainer, strain pico de gallo over a bowl. You can leave to drain while you prep the rest
- Grate 1/4-1/2 tsp of lime zest. Slice lime and squeeze to capture 1 Tbsp of lime juice.
- Open and drain the tuna, adding it to a bowl. Flake it well using a fork.
- Once drained, add the pico de gallo and mustard to the tuna. Add mayo and lime zest and juice. Stir until combined.
- Serve scoops of this over lettuce, between slices of bread, or serve with chips.
- This will keep for about three days in the refrigerator. If it lasts that long!
