Weeknight Cooking

The Tuna Salad Recipe to Feed You All Week

July 11, 2016

For dinner this week, turn fresh tuna flaky and silky by poaching it in olive oil. Then turn it into a salad with roasted vegetables packed with a little heat from a dried chili. It's substantial, but still light—and with a few additional ingredients, you're halfway to dinner for the week.

Here's how to turn this one recipe into a week of meals:

Set yourself up for the week by making the following over the weekend:

And stock up on the following ingredients for your weeknight cooking:

  • baguette
  • pesto ingredients of your choice
  • fusilli pasta
  • frozen peas
  • milk
  • heavy cream
  • breadcrumbs
  • Parmesan cheese
  • capers
  • bell pepper
  • scallions
  • fennel
  • lemon
  • Arborio rice
  • more corn!

And now, how to put it all together:

  • Grab a baguette, slice it down the middle, and spread on a heaping spoonful of pesto. Load leftover poached tuna with squash and potatoes to make a filling sandwich.

  • Make a quick tuna mac by making a cream sauce of milk, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese and mixing it with the tuna and al dente pasta. Throw in some frozen peas, put the mac in a baking dish, add breadcrumbs on top, and send it to an oven with high heat so the top gets toasty.

  • Make a hot gooey open faced tuna melt by loading a thick slice of bread with tuna, capers, bell pepper, scallion, and a soft cheese of your choice.

  • Shave a bulb of fennel to the squash, corn, and potatoes to make a lettuce-free salad. Add a squeeze of lemon to brighten it.

  • Stick the potatoes, corn, and squash in a tortilla for tacos—or roll them up for enchiladas.

  • Prepare a creamy bowl of Corn Risotto and place the tuna on top.

What other ingredients do you poach? Let us know in the comments below!

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A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).

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