I’ve been making a dish the same way for a long time. With some additional ingredients, it now has a spicy kick and a refreshing taste!
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
As I was browsing a blog that I referenced when making Honey Walnut Shrimp, I came across a way to make tuna salad that didn’t require too much of a change from how I made it before.
Inspiring Recipe
The recipe that I found, Japanese Spicy Tuna Salad, was the third one that I would use from the blog, Pickled Plum.
First Try
The great thing about making tuna salad is that the ingredients are usually already available at home.
Ingredients to Use
From the get-go, I planned to make 4x the default recipe and substitute a few items as follows based on availability and convenience:
- 2 cans each of solid white tuna and solid light tuna both in olive oil instead of 4 cans of chunk white tuna in water
- ~4 1/2 instead of 4 tablespoons of scallion
- Medium grain cooked rice, family style, instead of 4 cups of Japanese rice
- Roasted seaweed snacks instead of shredded nori
As for mayonnaise, I added more than 8 tablespoons as detailed in the next section.
Steps to Prepare
When it came to the process, I customized it slightly as follows:
- Step 1 – Instead of putting all the scallion in the bowl, I reserved about 1/2 tablespoon of it for garnish in Step 3.
- Step 2 – 4 tablespoons of Sriracha sauce was sufficient, but I wanted the salad to be creamier, so I included 10 tablespoons of mayonnaise instead of 8.
Time to Eat
Here’s a bowl of fancy tuna salad as compared to my old recipe that had only tuna and mayonnaise.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe after the first try:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 |  | |  |
With hardly any extra work, I was able to liven up the tuna salad, particularly with the Sriracha sauce and scallions. My older son even said that it tasted better with the extra ingredients.
Second Try
During the second attempt, I just wanted to stimulate my taste buds again while eating tuna salad.
Ingredients to Use
After I chopped up some scallion, I ended up with ~4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon instead of 4 tablespoons.
In addition, since I ran out of the roasted seaweed that I had used previously, I included green tea flavored seasoned seaweed that I had around.
Steps to Prepare
As compared to the first attempt, I only adjusted the steps as follows:
- Step 1 – Kept about 1 teaspoon of the chopped scallion for garnish in Step 3.
- Step 3 – Cut the full sheets of seaweed to smaller rectangles for serving and further shredded some for garnish.
Time to Eat
Here’s the bowl of tuna salad from the second try.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | | | |
The dish was too salty with the new version of the seaweed. However, there was still a nice crunch from the chopped scallion and kick from the Sriracha sauce.
To eliminate the additional saltiness from seasoned seaweed, I can do the following next time:
Continuous Improvement
- Follow the recipe and use nori instead of seasoned seaweed.
Since I found the tuna salad to be overly salty when I substituted the seaweed, I learned the following that I would like to share with my previous self:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Compare the salt content before replacing an ingredient with another item.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the recipe, Japanese Spicy Tuna Salad, from the blog, Pickled Plum?
- Share your favorite tuna salad recipe?
- Ask a question or leave a note in the Comment box below about this post?
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