Spanish Tuna Salad with Crispy Shallots

Credit: Flickr / Foodie Buddha

Smoked Spanish paprika enhances tuna with a deep smoky flavour in this main-course salad

Serve your tuna steaks as a main-course salad garnished with fried shallots for an extra kick of flavour

Smoked Spanish paprika, as a rub, enhances tuna with a deep smoky flavour. The crispy shallots make for a really different main-course salad. I prefer the peppery taste of arugula to the mixed greens, but both work well.

Ingredients

Crispy Shallots:

• 4 large shallots, thinly sliced
• Unbleached all-purpose flour for dredging
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil for frying

Dressing:

• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground Tellicherry or black pepper

Tuna Salad:

• 1 cup oil-cured olives
• 3 Tbsp. capers, drained
• 1 (7 fl. oz.) jar piquillo peppers, drained and sliced
• 3/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 3 Tbsp. smoked Spanish paprika
• 6 yellowfin or ahi tuna steaks (about 5 oz. each)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil for searing tuna
• 6 cups arugula or mixed greens

Instructions

1. Start by making the crispy shallots.
2. Dredge the sliced shallots in flour and shake off the excess.
3. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.
4. Add the flour-coated shallots and fry on medium heat, stirring constantly to promote even browning. A note of caution: They start slow then brown relatively fast, so keep stirring.
5. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and blot on paper towels. Whisk dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Toss olives, capers, piquillo peppers and pine nuts together in a separate bowl.
6. Rub the paprika on both sides of the tuna. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sear the tuna 2 to 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 to 5 minutes for medium. Remove tuna from the pan and set aside.
7. To serve, place the grilled tuna on a bed of arugula or mixed greens. Top each piece of tuna with the olive and caper mixture, and drizzle with the dressing.
8. Garnish with the crispy shallots.

Serves 6.

Originally published in TVW. For daily programming updates and on-screen Entertainment news, subscribe to the free TVW e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.