Not your childhood tuna snack
Remember being sent to young grade school student and the recess bell rings. You reach into your backpack and pull out the plastic container that perfectly held crackers and a little tin of tuna. Crack that open and then began the game of trying to put enough tuna on the cracker but not too much so that every cracker had the enough. Well, if you are like me and ate a bunch of those as a kid, here is a nostalgic recipe that captures that vibe but with a lot more flavour! This particular iteration leans towards a tuna mayo that you might find at 7-11 in Japan.
This recipe is super simple and works great as a party snack or in my case, a personal snack when I’m watching tv. You chop up some stuff, throw in a couple cans of tuna, add seasoning, sauce, a quick mix, and you’re done! You can also change up the ingredients to fit your personal tastes (some pickles might be a nice touch!).
Start by picking out your favourite cans of tuna. I chose to use albacore white tuna for this recipe. We then chop up all our fresh greens (this will be the hardest you’ll have to work for this recipe!). We will be adding green onions, celery, and jalapenos to this. Make sure to cut everything as small as you can. We want a nice even distribution of the crunch without feeling like we’re actually eating greens. The tuna is the star of this dish!
Throw everything into a mixing bowl. Break up the tuna if it comes out in huge chunks. Add the sour cream, tahini, and mayo and give it a good mix. A key point to note is that I use Kewpie Japanese Mayo for this recipe. This mayo has a delicious flavour that is rich and less tangy than other options out there. You can find this at most grocery stores. Pro tip, if you unscrew the red flip top cap, the bottle actually has a larger star tip built in to squeeze more sauce out!
The final thing to do is to grab a spoon or weird tiny plastic spatula that comes with the store bought snack versions and put it on your choice of cracker! If you want to be a bit extra, slice up some cherry tomatoes to give some extra freshness and colour to your dish. This will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. This also makes a great filling for a sandwich!
Nostalgic Tuna Snack Pack
Author: Justin
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 17 minutes
Yield: serves 8 (or 4 if you make sandwiches)
Ingredients
2 cans of tuna (184g each)
1/3 cup of 18% milk fat sour cream (500ml)
1/2 cup of Kewpie Japanese Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of mirin
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of tahini
2 jalapeno peppers
3 stalks of green onion
2 sticks of celery
1 tablespoon of black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
Salt to taste (I opted to not add any)
To serve:
1 large container of crackers
Cherry tomatoes (optional)
Instructions
1. Prepare the vegetables: Clean the jalapenos, green onions, and celery. Remove seeds from the jalapenos.
2. Cut the vegetables: Slice the green onions into 1mm thick rings. Dice the celery and jalapenos into 2mm cubes. You can choose to make these larger if you want bigger bites of the vegetables. Set aside in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Prepare the tuna: Remove the water from the cans of tuna (if present). Break up the tuna into easily scoopable pieces. Add to the mixing bowl with the vegetables.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, mirin, sesame oil, tahini, sesame seeds, onion powder, paprika, and ground black pepper. Mix until evenly combined.
5. Fold the wet mixture into the bowl with the vegetables and tuna. Combine until evenly mixed (be careful not to over mix and turn everything into a paste).
6. Serve: Serve the tuna with your choice of crackers. Rice crackers are a great choice for this.
7. Optional Garnish: Thinly slice cherry tomatoes to put on top.
8. Eat too many!
