White Tuna & Fennel Salad
Prep Time: ~5 mins
This salad is the epitome of a light summer lunch, dinner, or side dish. It carries incredible flavour and takes all of five minutes to prepare and serve.
Doused in extra virgin olive oil, this salad has a refreshing citrusy and mildly acidic flavour, topped off with gentle heat from the chilli flakes. Both the lemon and red onion work together to nullify the strong aniseed flavour of raw fennel. That more neutral fennel then adds a delightful depth of texture, giving this salad a solid level of crunch. At the same time, the white tuna gives it a silky, rich mouthfeel. Deceptively simple, mind-blowing results.
Serves: 2-4
Prep: ~5 minutes
Cook: ~0 minutes
Ingredients
One Fennel
2x cans of Ortiz white tuna (~250g) in olive oil
Handful of capers
One lemon
One medium red onion
2x small shallot (or one large)
Fresh coriander (~25g)
Chilli flakes
Extra virgin olive oil (~125ml)
Notes
Tuna: This works with regular tuna too, but I highly recommend buying the specific brand I list in the ingredients.
Herbs: You may substitute the coriander for flat leaf parsley if you are not a fan of coriander, or simply wish to change it up.
Equipment
Large mixing bowl
Mise En Place
Roughly chop the coriander, and slice the fennel as thin as you can.
Slice the red onion lengthways (thin), and finely dice the shallot.
The Serve
The beauty of this salad is its simplicity.
Add your onion, shallot, fennel, and coriander into a large mixing bowl. Decant your white tuna into the bowl (olive oil from the can too). Throw in a handful of capers, a generous handful of chilli flakes, and the juice of a whole lemon.
Give that a mix with a spoon and some elbow grease, and then add a generous lashing of extra virgin oil and mix again.
Tip: Once mixed, taste it. Add more lemon, oil, or season to taste.
To serve, simply spoon the salad into a bowl, sprinkle over a few chilli flakes, and add a slice of lemon for garnish.
If you attempt this dish, let me know how it goes, and if you variate the recipe in any way. This newsletter relies upon word of mouth, so if you know someone who would enjoy this recipe please share it.
Thanks for reading,
Conor