Tuna cucumber and Bean salad is in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. I used a drained $2.00 pouch of wild light tuna instead of wasting $24.00 on fresh tuna that I’d rather eat as an entree. Most people will like the salad. It has a lot of the usual flavors of an Italian style salad but with a few surprises of sweet tangerines and raisins. I think the salad actually taste better if you let it sit a day because the raisins soak up the dressing and get interesting. It’s a pretty easy salad to prepare, it’s healthy and it cost very little to put together.
Ingredients for 4 servings
6.4 oz chunk light tuna drained
1 cucumber diced
1 16oz can large white beans (either butter or gigante) – rinsed well three times
1 celery rib – diced
1/4 large sweet onion – diced
9 katamata olives – cut in quarters
1 XL lemon – zest and juice
1 tangerine – peeled – cut sideways in four slices and separate each quartered segment
2 garlic cloves ground to paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic
1/4 cup raisins (I prefer the jumbo fancy mix)
1 Tablespoon capers
1 teaspoon anis seeds
1/4 cup parsley – chopped
fresh ground sea salt – to taste
fresh ground black pepper – to taste
Directions
In a big bowl combine the tuna, cucumber, beans, celery, onion, olives, zest, tangerine, raisins and capers. Mix gently.
In a small bowl whisk the remaining Ingredients.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy! Serve with a small chunk of crusty bread.