White Bean & Tuna Salad

This was surprisingly fresh, light and super delish! I found the recipe on another blog that I just adore. Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She has some fantastic recipes on there...great stuff.

Anyway, I followed the recipe pretty closely...just a couple tweaks. Here's how I did it:

*Makes about 6 cups of salad

1 red onion (chopped)
The zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 (5 or 6-ounce each) cans of tuna
3 (15-ounce each) cans of Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
A few splashes of Tabasco sauce or other hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup of shredded Cheddar Cheese
Salt and olive oil to taste

In a small bowl, sprinkle some of the lemon juice over the chopped onions while you prepare the other ingredients. This will take some of the oniony edge off the onions.

Drain the tuna and put it into a large bowl. Add the beans to the tuna and gently stir to combine. Add the onions, parsley, cheese, black pepper, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix to combine. Add Tabasco or hot sauce to taste. If the salad needs more acid, add a little more lemon juice. If the salad seems a little dry, add a little bit of olive oil. Add salt to taste.

I toasted up some sourdough bread drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of cheddar. 

I served the salad on the bread. 

I really, really loved this. It was very filling, yet light. The flavor was not really what I expected, so it was a nice surprise and change to good old tuna salad.

The recipe made a TON, so I'll gladly be snacking on it today.