Carrot and Tuna Salad • Just One Cookbook

This Carrot and Tuna Salad combines pantry staples with a number of recent components for a light-weight, satisfying, and protein-packed dish! Serve this scrumptious recipe as a facet dish, sandwich filling, bento facet, or low-carb major course. {Vegan/Vegetarian Adaptable}

If you happen to’re in search of a easy, pantry-friendly salad with minimal prep, this Carrot and Tuna Salad is the proper alternative. Full of well-balanced, nutritious components, it’s a win-win for a fast and wholesome major dish or facet salad!

Searching for extra wholesome salad recipes like this? Strive my Japanese Potato Salad, Japanese Cucumber Salad, and Japanese Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing recipes!

Why I Love This Recipe

• Easy components. It requires solely a handful of recent components and pantry staples.
• Tremendous wholesome! It’s wealthy in fiber, minerals, and nutrients—due to the carrots and heart-healthy tuna.
• Straightforward to customise. You may add, swap, or substitute nearly each ingredient to avoid wasting time or spare you a visit to the shop. 
• Could be a hearty meal, facet dish, or snack. The addition of tuna makes the salad hearty sufficient to face alone. You may benefit from the salad as is or serve it over toast, in onigirazu (rice sandwich), or on whole-grain crackers. Yum!
• Glorious for meal prep! Carrot salad is among the hottest Japanese meal-prep dishes, often known as jobisai (常備菜). Because it shops nicely within the fridge, you may make a big batch and luxuriate in it all through the week.

Components for Carrot and Tuna Salad

• Carrots
• Purple onion or shallot
• Canned tuna
• Toasted black sesame seeds
• Dressing:
  • Further virgin olive oil
  • Rice vinegar
  • Soy sauce
  • Dijon mustard
  • Lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper

Discover the printable recipe with measurements under.

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How To Make Carrot and Tuna Salad

Preparation

Step 1 – Reduce components. Julienne the carrots, place them in a bowl, cowl with a moist paper towel, and and microwave for a minute. Microwaving calmly softens them whereas nonetheless protecting a few of their crunch. Subsequent, thinly slice the crimson onion (or shallots) and soak in a bowl of chilly water to take away the bitterness. Squeeze out the water and put aside.

Step 2 – Make the dressing. Whisk all of the dressing components in a big mixing bowl.

Assemble

Step 3 – Toss to mix. Add the drained tuna to the bowl, break it into items, and coat with the dressing. Then, add the carrots, onions, and many of the black sesame seeds. Give every thing one other toss.

Step 4 – Refrigerate and serve. Let the salad marinate within the fridge for at the very least 1 hour earlier than serving. When able to serve, sprinkle with the remainder of black sesame seeds for a nutty crunch and a pop of coloration. For elective garnishes, you can too add parsley sprigs and a lemon wedge.

Nami’s Recipe Ideas

• Use a julienne peeler – To create julienned strips, first peel the carrot. I exploit my Y-shaped Japanese peeler from our on-line store, JOC Goods. Then, slice the carrot into lengthy, skinny strips; I exploit my favourite Japanese julienne peeler, additionally from JOC Items.
• Microwave to shortly tenderize the carrot – The transient cooking time helps preserve their vivid coloration, pure sweetness, and crispness, providing a pleasant stability between uncooked and tender textures with out making them mushy. I cowl it with a moist paper towel and zap for 1 minute (1000W). Alternatively, you’ll be able to sprinkle the carrot strips with a tiny little bit of salt, let it sit for 3 minutes, and rinse beneath chilly water so it wilts barely.
• Versatile dressing – This vivid, zippy French dressing fantastically enhances the important thing parts of the salad. It’s so versatile—I like to recommend making an enormous jar! You need to use the dressing for different salads or roasted greens.

Variations and Customizations

• Strive totally different greens. Strive utilizing cucumbers, zucchini, and daikon radish. These are comparatively simpler to julienne than carrots.
• Searching for an improve from canned tuna? I extremely suggest this brand of jarred tuna. The big chunks are spectacular, and the standard is noticeably superior.
• Vegan/vegetarian? Skip the tuna and add chickpeas! You may also add grilled tofu, edamame, avocado, or different greens.

How To Serve Carrot and Tuna Salad

• As a facet dish – This salad goes nicely with any meal!
• In a sandwich – It’s fabulous as a sandwich filling! I add it to my Wanpaku Sandwich.
• As a snack – Put it on crackers as a topping and luxuriate in it as a snack.
• Packed in a bento lunch field – This salad provides a pop of vivid coloration to your lunch field.
• As a major course – I get pleasure from this salad by itself after I wish to go low-carb.

Storage Ideas

To retailer: Retailer the salad in an hermetic container. It is going to hold nicely for 3–4 days within the fridge.

To freeze: Place the salad in an hermetic container or resealable freezer bag. Freeze for as much as a month. Thaw within the fridge in a single day. Serve chilled.

Extra Salad Recipes

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Chill Time: 1 hour hr

Whole Time: 20 minutes minutes

Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you’d like substitutes for Japanese condiments and components, click on here.

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To Put together the Components

• Peel 2 carrots with a vegetable peeler. Then, minimize the carrots into skinny, lengthy strips with a julienne peeler. You may also julienne together with your knife utilizing the hosogiri slicing method.

• Save any leftover items of carrot you can’t peel to make use of in one other dish later. Place the julienned carrots in a microwave-safe bowl and canopy with a moist paper towel.

• Prepare dinner the carrots within the microwave for 1 minute (1000W) to calmly soften them. Take away the paper towel and let cool.

• Thinly slice ½ crimson onion. Soak the sliced onion in a bowl of chilly water to take away the bitterness.

To Make the Dressing

• In the meantime, make the dressing. To a big mixing bowl, add 1 Tbsp additional virgin olive oil, 2 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned), 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp soy sauce, ⅛ tsp freshly floor black pepper, and ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt.

• Mix with a whisk. Reduce the lemon in half (reserve the additional lemon for garnish). Squeeze 2 tsp lemon juice into the dressing and whisk once more.

To Toss the Salad

• Drain 1 can albacore tuna (ideally packed in olive oil) and add the tuna to the bowl. Break it into small items and coat with the dressing.

• Then, add the cooled carrots and toss with the tuna.

• Squeeze the water from the onion slices and add them to the bowl.

• Add many of the ½ Tbsp toasted black sesame seeds to the bowl (reserving some for garnish) and provides every thing one other toss.

• Cowl the bowl and marinate the salad within the fridge for at the very least 1 hour. Switch the Carrot and Tuna Salad to a serving plate.

Creator: Namiko Hirasawa Chen

Course: Salad

Delicacies: Japanese

Key phrase: canned tuna, carrot

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