Grassfed Cheeseburger Salad and a Fish Taco
First up, dinner the other night. Now some like to take the fixin’s and make up a lettuce wrap burger. I find Green leaf lettuce or iceberg to be the best for that, but I nearly never buy iceberg unless it’s for a little crunch in a salad with nutritious greens in it — but then why not just use radicchio? In this case, the store was out of green leaf, so romaine had to suffice. OK, I’ll stop stalling. This was for four of us Sunday evening. Of course, that burger is all mine. (Click images for the high-res versions).
Raw Materials
Others chose various means of salad or wrap and here’s what I chose to do.
Cheeseburger Salad
Requires a knife & fork. Or, maybe not.
This was lunch just now, one of my versions of a fish taco. As you can see, romaine was made for this. Make up tuna salad in your favorite way, garnish however you like, and it’s super simple, quick & tasty.
Fish Taco
I have a number of ways I like to do tuna salad but the common elements in all of them are: water packed white albacore, bacon (1/2 – 1 slice per 6oz can, and some of the fat, too), garlic powder, onion, salt & pepper.
Variations include a little yellow or dijon mustard, 1/4 tsp per can; a pinch of Indian Yellow curry powder per can; a sprinkle of paprika; chopped cornichon or dill pickles; and/or chopped celery. In this case I did the curry powder & paprika. Note that you should not be able to clearly taste the curry. It’s used for a subtile taste.
A first for this batch of tuna was that I finally succeeded in making my own mayo. It was whisking by hand that did the trick.
Anyone else have some great & secret tuna salad recipes?
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Interesting – you couldn’t make your mayo with the blender? (I have made mine with the blender with mixed results. At times I had to “rescue” it with another egg. ) Well, whisking by hand has its benefits anyway…so my question is: what type of oil did you use?
Recipe I use (found the base of the recipe from some Coconut oil/meat website. Also, I do this in my cheap mini processor attachment for my braun hand blender:
Here is the ingredients:
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon mustard – we use Dijon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/2 cup olive oil
Full recipe here:
Since I have yet to have success with olive oil and Stephan over at Whole Health Source says he keeps some sunflower oil around to make mayo, I used that.
It was a very small amount, like 3 tbsp. I’ll try with olive next time.
Other excellent candidates are almond oil, walnut oil and macadamia nut oil (all of which I have used). But only 3 TB of oil isn’t going to make mayonnaise, to speak of, if you used an egg, some lemon, etc. I use about 1 1/2 cups of oil for one egg 2 T. lemon and 2 T. ACV…salt, mustard powder, etc….heck, 3 TB doesn’t even make enough to scrape out of the blender 🙂
I used only a bit of an egg yolk, maybe 1/4 tsp. Yea, it wasn’t much, but that’s why I did it in a bowl with a wire whisk.
Trader Joe’s Tuna in olive oil. 2 bucks a can, but really worth it!
I just posted my favorite tuna salad recipe on my blog this morning so I could share it with you. I’m not sure how “secret” it is, but it is certainly edible and very yummy!
Looks great. I’m going to put the link here so I’ll know where to fin it.
http://memorable-meals.blogspot.com/2010/04/paleo-cold-curried-salad.html
I recently made tuna salad using homemade guacamole as substitute for mayo. Turned out great!
I think I may have done that way back when, too. Another idea would be to use sour cream, creme fraiche, or even yogurt.
YUM!!
The first recipe reminds me of a dish I make weekly: saute veggies and grass fed ground beef in coconut oil, add cumin, cinnamon and cayenne pepper (to taste), then you “gather” the stuff into little piles in the skillet and top each pile with cheese – immediately turn off the heat and put a lid on it. Go chop some avocados. A minute later, each little pile’s cheese should have melted. Scoop one onto each plate and add the avocados. Sour cream and salsa optional. Bon appetit! (Pardon, Richard. Je manque des marques d’accent.)
I always have to Google for correct spelling — especially the verb conjugations — and all the accent thingys.
mmmmmm yummy…. i just started eating avocado again… love, really at first bite
if you can get the good italian tuna packed in olive oil this recipie works:
to a bowl combine the following:
1 can/jar of tuna, drained of most of the oil
salt/pepper/chili flake to desired heat
1 diced red pepper
1 table spoon red onion finely diced
1 large tomato diced
1 torn leaf of basil
1/2 thin sliced cucumber
about 2 table spoons of good olive oil, some balsamic and 1 small teaspoon of djon mustard
mix together well, and go nuts!!
I have been successful every time with the blender mayonaise. You have to watch it, not blend too long…
I like pale tuna (not the white, its too dry) packed in water, but drained, with some of the homemade mayo and some chopped fresh cilantro, with some exceedingly finely sliced red bell pepper and some similarly finely sliced pickled ginger. That neon pink stuff that you eat with sushi… Wrap in lettuce or one of those rice paper rolls for a wheat-free wrap.
I use Greek yoghurt mixed with capers and a little lemon juice in place of mayo. A once-a-week breakfast for me is tuna mixed with mashed, freshly-boiled eggs, grated cheddar cheese, shredded iceberg and the yoghurt dressing. When I do make mayonnaise it’s with equal parts high-oleic (80%) sunflower oil and macadamia oil and it tastes great. I use the whisk attachment on my Braun stick blender on slow speed and it works a treat.
Could you give me some tips about making mayonaise using a whisk? I have been unsuccessful making mayonaise in my blender. Maybe I can try this with more confidence.
Initially, only 2-3 drops, whisk very well. It was about the 3rd or 4th time I noticed it begin to emulsify. At that point, I added more each round. Whisk clockwise & counter, very vigorously. I used a spiral wire whisk.
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This looks fabulous! It is awesome how creative you can be when you eat primal food. I have been doing so for a month and it gets better every day. I will have to print this one off and make it for the family 🙂
I always have my burgers protein style and I never miss the bun. I make curried lamb burgers using lamb mince and it tastes amazing!