I was leafing through a magazine while traveling and came up with a really tempting looking – and sounding salad.
Instead of a more traditional vinaigrette method, this salad – based on a recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook – uses the oil from oil-packed tuna to make a wicked tasty dressing that is actually not too, too bad for you! Not really any sugar, very little salt added – and that bit o’ sodium is a home made seasoned blend, so the wee, tiny bits of sugar and salt added are negligible.
Besides. It’s summer. It’s a big, beeYOUtiful bowl of salad, and, as I noted above, it is wicked tasty!
Note: I was making a double batch – some for lunch with friends, and some for dinner at home, so I doubled up on the tuna recipe.
Another Note: the magazine suggested making the vinaigrette in the salad bowl, which, would be fine, if I wasn’t kinda wanting to make a bunch o’ stuff ahead (lunch with friends, recall?) – so I added the dressing ingredients to the tuna, added the chopped olives and peppadew peppers, and stashed ’em in a covered bowl in the fridge until I needed to put it all together. The upside? I nicely blended tuna dressing and no soggy greens!
Last (I PROMISE!) Note: I used my fave sherry vinegar. If you don’t have any, cider vinegar, or red wine vinegar will work a treat. Who knows, even rice vinegar might could be good here!
INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
•2 cans tuna packed in olive oil
•1 tbsp sherry vinegar
•1 tbsp lemon juice
•1 tsp dried oregano
•1/4 tsp Seasoned Salt
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•Chopped Kalamata olives
•Chopped peppadew peppers
Salad:
Have a ball here, I used:
•Shredded green leaf lettuce
•Romaine lettuce
•Blanched asparagus
•Thinly sliced radishes
•Shredded carrots
•Thinly sliced sweet onion
•Chopped grape tomatoes
•Grilled Corn cut from the cob
•Crumbled Feta cheese
•Cooked and crumbled bacon
Empty the tuna into a large mixing bowl, then add the vinegar, lemon juice, and remaining ingredients and stir to blend well.
I got my olives and peppadew peppers from the olive bar at my market, and, since they already had a bit of a brine to them, I stirred ’em into the tuna before covering and chilling until needed.
That is it!
I also assembled the rest of the salad and set it aside in another covered bowl to crisp.
When it was time, I turned the greens into a large salad bowl, added the tuna dressing, and tossed it all to mix well.
We all thought it one fine salad, except…
We also really loved the addition of this nicely spiced Cherry Pepper Vinaigrette.
Let’s see…
lunch with friends, a pretty spectacular salad, some tasty brats and potatoes, and, of course… a bit of wine – a nice Vouvray to kick off the summer.
Go ahead and really enjoy the heck out of your salad!