Tuna Salad with French Beans

  • One of my friends from Leeds came round yesterday with freshly picked produce from her allotment.
  • Green & Purple French beans were amongst them.
  • I topped and tailed these and steamed them.
  • Sadly the beautiful purple ones loose their colour and are just a slightly darker green than the others.
  • I served some of them with buttered dried breadcrumbs – à la Polonaise and
  • Used the rest, cold, in this tinned tuna salad with other ingredients I had in my store cupboard and freezer. 
  • The proportions are not so important.

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of tuna chunks- in brine or oil
  • Crisp lettuce leaves 
  • Steamed French beans
  • Cooked peas
  • Cooked sweetcorn – frozen or tinned
  • 2 hard boiled eggs
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Chop the French beans into small pieces.
  • Mix these with the peas and sweetcorn
  • Drain the tuna from the brine or oil and break up the chunks.
  • Mix the tuna with the cooked vegetables.
  • Add the lemon juice and mayonnaise and mix well.
  • Season to taste.
  • Shred the lettuce leaves.
  • Arrange lettuce leaves over a large plate plate or a shallow bowl.
  • Place the tuna mixture on top of the lettuce leaves.
  • Chop the hard boiled eggs into small pieces and sprinkle these over the top of the tuna mixture.

Another Pasta Salad

  • When I am cooking some pasta for a meal,  I often do a bit more so I have some left to make a pasta salad the next day.
  • Small shapes are the best or you can chop larger or longer pieces up.
  • Try not to over cook the pasta.
  • Mayonnaise or mayonnaise based dressing  are best with these salads.
  • Cooked vegetables work well with pasta salads and also tinned or bottled vegetables and so this is a good store cupboard dish.

Ingredients

  • 400 – 500g cold cooked pasta.
  • 1 small tin of sweetcorn, drained (or frozen loose sweetcorn – cooked)
  • 150g of cooked frozen peas
  • 150g of cooked whole green beans – chopped.
  • 1-2 tablespoons of full fat mayonnaise
  • *
  • Salt & ground back pepper to taste

Method

  • Mix together the pasta and cooked vegetables.
  • Mix in the mayonnaise.
  • Season to taste.