6 Ways to Use Tuna Salad

Here are 6 ways in which you can use tuna salad. You can use your own tuna salad recipe, or you can find a one recipe here, to which I would suggest the following modifications:

For the stuffed peppers, skip the jalapeño peppers and their juice
I would make the tuna salad a bit saltier than usual

These can all be served cold (my preference, except for celery), room temperature or warm, and they make great first courses, salad courses or hors d'œuvres. You can garnish these with a dusting of paprika (sweet or hot), slices or pieces of roasted red peppers, with coriander or parsley or anything else that might strike your fancy.

Stuffed Jalapeños
Stuffed Cucumbers
Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffed Celery
Stuffed Tomatoes
Stuffed Avocados

1. Stuffed Jalapeños

10 large jalapeño peppers or 4 poblano peppers

tuna salad (no jalapeños or juice)

Jalepeño and poblano peppers are hot, and the seeds and veins can irritate skin. It is advisable to use food preparation gloves when handling the peppers, especially when de-seeding and de-veining them. Make sure you wash your hands after handling and before touching your eyes.

Broil jalapeños in an oven broiler or heat them in an ungreased griddle or pan until they are blistered all over. It's alright if they char a bit, but take care that they don't get too charred, or the flesh will be soggy and will stick to the skin. (The way our cook would char them was to place them directly over a medium flame in a gas stove and keep turning them around.)

Place the blistered jalapeños in a plastic bag and let them "sweat" for 10-15 minutes. After they are done, peel off the skins. This should be fairly easy, except perhaps where the peppers weren't blistered. I like the peppers to be totally skinless, but if the skin is stuck to the pepper (where it wasn't blistered), I won't worry too much about leaving it.

For each jalapeño, look for a place where the flesh is open; if there is no such place, make a vertical slit. Either way, ensure that there is an opening from almost the top to before the tip of the pepper, but do not open the pepper all the way to the tip. Using this opening, remove the seeds and the veins that the seeds are attached to. This is what gives the pepper its heat. The better you remove the seeds and veins, the less likely you will have a hot pepper. Take care when removing the vein -- if you just pull them out, it is likely to shred the pepper to ribbons. Using a paring knife, cut the vein (and the membrane that holds it) carefully. Rinse the peppers in running cold water to remove any leftover seeds, then pat the peppers dry.

Stuff each pepper with the tuna salad. I like to stuff them so they are completely full and the tuna salad mounds above the slit a bit. Garnish.

I prefer to serve them cold, straight from the fridge. You can also serve them at room temperature, or even warm them up in a slow oven.

2. Stuffed Cucumbers

This dish takes be back to Mexico and midday meals (which we ate at 4pm) on hot days. It is a perfect Summer dish.

3 large cucumbers

tuna salad

Wash the cucumbers and slice off a tip of each one, rubbing the tip on the cut part of the cucumber. (The cook we used to have in Mexico taught me to do this to remove any bitterness from the cucumber. I've never tested to see if this makes a difference, but it has become the way I work with cucumbers, and I expect you don't have to do this is the cucumber is very fresh.) Also slice the other tip of each cucumber.

You can peel the cucumber, leave the peel on or use a fork to create beautiful lines of dark and light green.

Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise and remove and discard the seeds and soft pulp. Cut them in half widthwise. Stuff each cucumber quarter with tuna salad, creating a mound lengthwise. Garnish and refrigerate.

3. Stuffed Mushrooms

I like serving these as warm hors d'œuvres, and they usually impress guests. They are also delicious cold.

15 large cultivated or Cremini mushrooms

tuna salad

Wash the mushrooms well with water, using a soft brush to remove any dirt, but take care not to bruise the caps. Remove the stems. (You can save them for another use, like making vegetable broth.)

Blanch the mushroom heads by submerging them in boiling water for 10 - 15 seconds, then rinse in cold water.

Stuff the mushrooms with tuna salad, garnish and refrigerate. You can also heat them in a slow oven (150-175° F) until the mushrooms are tender.

4. Stuffed Celery

I came up with this idea once when I was going to make stuffed cucumbers and found out my cukes were old and soggy. I had to serve lunch soon, so I raided the fridge to see what else I could cook. I found celery that we needed to finish off soon, anyway, so I stuffed the stalks with tuna salad and heated them up. They were delicious, so I decided to add them to my repertory.

8 celery stalks

tuna salad

Trim the celery stalks, removing the leafy part and the bottom part where the stalk was attached to the bunch. Peel the back of the stalks or remove the strings that run through the ribs.

Cut the stalks into serving portions (about 4" in length) and stuff the concave part of the celery with tuna salad. Garnish and heat in a slow oven (200 ° F) until the stalks are tender but still have some crunch.

5. Stuffed Tomatoes

Whenever the cook would make stuffed cucumbers (which I loved), she would also make stuffed tomatoes, which I didn't like because I felt the tomatoes were too soft for this dish. When I started to cook, I simply ignored the tomatoes. When I discovered cherry tomatoes in Canada, I loved that the weren't squishy at all, and eventually had the idea of stuffing them. They are great as cool appetizers on a hot day.

15 ripe cherry tomatoes

tuna salad

Wash the tomatoes and cut a thin slice where the tomato was attached to the plant. Remove all seeds and pulp, leaving tomato shells. Discard the seeds, pulp and slice. Stuff the tomatoes, garnish with chopped parsley or coriander, then refrigerate.

5. Stuffed Avocados

2 ripe avocados (for 2 people)

tuna salad

This one is pretty easy. Cut the avocados in half. Peel them and remove the pit. Cut a thin slice of the avocado from the peeled edge. (This will allow the avocado to lie flat when served.)

If you want, you can add the cut avocado slice to sit on one of the edges. Stuff the avocado with tuna salad where the pit was. Et voilá.

As with other tuna recipies, you can top the avocados with roasted red pepper, paprika, or any other topping you'd like.

I like to serve 2 stuffed small avocado halves per person as a first course. If the avocados are not small, then one avocado half would be enough.