Supergreen Tuna Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing

We don't know about you, but we're always on the lookout for tasty, nutritious and satisfying recipes that help us sneak more greens into our diets. So imagine our excitement when our friend Marisa from Uproot Kitchen shared her recipe for a Supergreen Tuna Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing. Believe it or not, making a good and healthy salad is somewhat of an art form. You need to consider things like texture, the type of greens, ingredient quality and flavor profile, while also ensuring that your salad is well-balanced, healthy and nutrient dense. In today's blog post, Marisa explores what it takes to build the perfect salad - with the recipe to prove it!

Salads are such an easy meal to turn to in the summer, especially if you're trying to avoid the heat of your oven! But while healthy, I've found that salads can often become boring. Ironically, in an attempt to make salads a bit more exciting, we have a tendency of depleting its nutrition either by adding too many ingredients or too much dressing. That's why, when making a salad, it's important to keep balance in mind. This Supergreen Tuna Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing is a healthy and filling meal packed with dark leafy greens, crunchy cabbage, cucumber, red onion, and peanuts, drizzled with a sesame peanut dressing - which, if I might add, is practically drinkable.

I’ve introduced you to some of my favorite salads in the past, such as the Supergreen Power Salad, Kale Cobb, and Simple Warm Lentil Salad, among many. This Supergreen Tuna Salad is my new top pick – the creamy peanut butter-based dressing just takes it over the top, alongside protein-packed tuna.

I've been trying hard these past few weeks to up the nutrient density in meals, using my own advice shared recently on my blog (see my 7 tips to increase your veggie intake!). The salad mix used in this recipe combines baby red chard, baby tat soi, baby spinach, baby green swiss chard, and baby arugula mixed together for a nutritious punch. In addition to healthy, leafy greens, protein is also a key component to making a great salad. One of my favorite options is tuna, which I believe is a great, nutrient-filled, high-protein pantry staple but I've found that tuna tends to vary in taste and quality, depending on the brand. Over time, I've learned that the best tasting options are usually sustainably-caught, wild albacore tuna canned in water.

Wild Planet's brand of tuna contains no added preservatives, GMO's or fillers – only tuna and sea salt. In fact, the brand cooks its tuna right in the can, soaked in its own natural juices. As a result, I recommend keeping the extra juices from the can when you flake the tuna and add in some salad dressing" - this way, you can use less dressing without sacrificing flavor! One important note to keep in mind while shopping for canned tuna, is that if the catch-method is not listed on the can, it is safe to say that it was not fished sustainably.

Now that you have all of the knowledge needed to make a tasty, well-balanced and nutritious salad, why don't you put your skills to the test and give my Supergreen Tuna Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing a try?