Springtime Tuna Salad

This dish is a take on a popular Andalucian salad, and it is very quick to prepare, perfect if you are in a hurry, or if you are feeling lazy and don’t want to do too much work! It also is a great spring or summer main dish, because it is light yet very filling and satisfying. There may seem to be a lot of spring onions, in fact that is the main ingredient of the dish, but the secret is in the use of the parsley, which calms the flavours down, freshens the palate, and complements the tuna perfectly. The result is a non-repeating and surprisingly non-oniony salad!

Ingredients

• 300g Spring / salad onions chopped (approx 4 large bunches of continental spring onions)
• 300g Tuna in oil (approx 2 large tins drained)
• 300g Ripe beef tomatoes (approximately 2 pieces)
• 3 tbsp Flat leaf parsley chopped (fresh)
• 1 Lemon
• 1 tbsp Olive oil

Serves 2 large portions. Approximately 475 calories per portion.

Firstly finely chop the spring onions. If possible try to use large spring onions or salad onions. In most supermarkets this is sold as continental spring onions, although larger varieties (as big as normal onions!) are sold in food markets. Next, drain 2 large tins of tuna in oil, and add to the spring onions. If you wish you can use tuna in brine, but the flavour is less rich and does not work as well with the spring onions. For the amount of calories that are saved by switching versus the end result, in my opinion it does not compensate to use tuna in brine for this dish.

Skin the beef tomatoes (large salad tomatoes will also do as long as they are ripe and full of flavour) and finely chop and add to the tuna and spring onions. Finely chop the parsley and add. It is important to use fresh parsely, which will have a fresh and clean flavour as opposed to dry parsley. Also, be generous with this, so make the tablespoons heaped ones! Squeeze the lemons and add the juice, and add the olive oil.

Mix well and serve!

Suggestions: For a interesting take on this you could try using fresh tuna , which although more expensive is definitely worth it. Also you could add some seafood, such as mussels or cockles in brine (which have not been pickled).