White Bean and Tuna Citrus Salad

This recipe is easy to throw together if you have a handful of fresh veggies you need to use and don’t know what to do with them. Feel Free to also use whatever type of bean you like. I prefer the flavor of the white beans because the taste is not overpowered by the rest of the ingredients. I have made so many variations to this dish, you can use whatever fresh vegetable that you like, Also play around using your favorite beans, this is also very good with black beans. You can serve this on top of lettuce, with pita chips, in a wrap, or just by itself. If you have any variations you particularly enjoyed please feel free to let me know.

 

Ingredients

• 2 cans beans (I used northern and black-eyed peas)
• 1 cup flat italian beans (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 pint of grape tomatoes cut in half  (or variety of garden matoes in different colors)
• 1 green onion (diced)
• 2 stalks celery (diced)
• 1/2 each red pepper, yellow pepper, orange pepper
• 12 oz fresh tuna cubed
• 1 orange
• 1/2 grapefruit
• 1 lime
• 1 salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 c of your favorite vinaigrette
• chopped cilantro, basil or parsley (optional)

First you want to prepare your tuna. After it has been cubed put it in a non reactive bowl. Add all of the juice from your citrus and salt and pepper. Stir and cover. Place back in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. The acid from your citrus will cook the tuna.

Blanch your italian beans for approx 5 minutes in boiling water and then rinse in cold water. Drain and rinse your canned beans. Dice your celery, peppers, and onion. Mix everything together and toss in your slice tomatoes. When the tuna is done drain it and then add it to your vegetables. Toss with your favorite dressing and refrigerate till ready to serve.

This tastes even better the next day.

white bean and tuna citrus salad. YUM!

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One of the Many faces of Quinoa.

   So the other night Kev and I decided we want Quinoa for dinner. I am desperately trying to monitor how much food we are eating as of late, so I thought this would be a great alternative as opposed to couscous. Rather than do the usual adding of herbs and chicken stock. I also decided to make it plain. This way if there were leftovers we could heat them up and have them either for breakfast or lunch. The easiest way for me to make quinoa is in my rice cooker (which I cant live without). Ratio is about 2:1 water and grain, or is it more of a seed? This came out scrumptious without the saltiness of the broth. I just added a squeeze of lemon juice to mine and I think Kev added a touch of olive oil to his.  I had 3 cups cooked quinoa left after dinner that night so I packed them up in one cup containers and put them in the fridge.    

Plain fluffy white quinoa

 The next day is when I got creative though. I had never made a cold quinoa salad b4. I figured since i was going to be grilling, the best way would be to have a cold salad, minus all the mayo from a pasta ot potato salad. So I got all of my veggies that i had chopped in the fridge and added them to my cold quinoa. A bit of dressing and then put back in the fridge for the evening, it was awesome! SOO hard to put down and not finish it. After all the veggies I had added to it. Kev and I both had 1 cup of it, but I was able to store 3 more 1 cup containers back in the fridge again. 1 for him to take to lunch and 1 for each of us the next nite with dinner. I think this is my new favorite way to serve quinoa.    

Easy Cold Quinoa Salad    

1 cup dry quinoa    

2 cups water    

Add to rice cooker and cook. Since this cooks soo much like rice in the rice cooker and takes about 15-20 minutes to cook. I imagine if you cooked it on the stove the same way you do rice it would be about right. If you do not buy in bulk like I do, you may want to just read the directions on your box. Once done, put in a shallow dish and let chill for a few hours. Overnight is best.    

For the salad    

1/2 c chopped peppers (red, yellow, orange, green or whatever you have on hand)    

1/4 chopped carrots    

1/2 small bag of cooked and chilled edamame    

1/2 a seedless cucumber diced    

1/2 cup of diced fresh tomatoes    

1/4 c light raspberry vinaigrette or you can use a balsamic vinaigrette    

Mix all of this together. If you have any other veggies you would like, add them. If you would like more or less dressing. this is a very forgiving recipe. Chill it the rest of the day and serve . you can serve this as a side dish or as a meal in itself.    

Veggies added to the quinoa

As a main course.

As a tasty side dish.

Like I said this is my first time making it cold, but i bet it would be awesome with some diced grilled or rotisserie chicken thrown it in. Feel free to play around with it.

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