Avocado and Tuna Salad with a Kick

Unlike Kermit, sometimes being green is easy, and delicious.  Now, I have a bit of a confession to make, I'm among those weirdos that isn't a fan of mayo.  In fact, up until the last few years, I never touched the stuff.  I'd get the stink-eye from servers every time I would ask to have butter in place of mayonnaise on sandwiches or burgers, my brother would just roll his eyes, my friends would tell me I was missing out on one of the culinary wonders of the world.  Ok, maybe that's going a bit far, culinary wonders to a ten year old consists of things like squeezie cheese in a can and ravioli that takes a can opener and a microwave to prepare.  It could also be lumped into my aversion of other white foods, mashed potatoes on my plate usually foreshadowed me sitting at the table for hours because I couldn't be excused from the table until I had choked down three bites.  Again my brother would roll his eyes but I swear if you fashioned a life sized snowman out of mashed potatoes, he would have inhaled it.  

Thankfully I outgrew my fear of potatoes but I'm still not a huge fan of mayo.  I set out one day to come up with an alternative way to make traditional creamy salads (tuna, chicken, turkey etc.) using little or no mayonnaise.  I had an aha moment while making guacamole, avocados are creamy and super delish so I grabbed a can of tuna and crossed my fingers and toes and...it worked!  I've experimented a bunch over the years since, straight up tuna salad is good but sometimes you just crave something zippier, know what I mean jelly bean?

One of my favorite tuna avocado salad recipes I've come up with puts a bit of an Asian (and utterly delicious) spin on the classic, using fresh ginger and wasabi. 

Wasabi, Avocado and Tuna Salad

1-12 ounce tin of albacore tuna in water, drained

1 avocado

1 lime

1/4 onion, finely diced

1-2 inches of freshly grated ginger root

1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) wasabi paste 

1 Tablespoon sweet pickle relish 

Mayonnaise (if needed)

Salt and pepper to taste

Pit and spoon avocado into a bowl and immediately squeeze the juice of half the lime over the avocado (this prevents the avocado from browning, you may substitute lemon juice of you don't have limes on hand).  

Using a fork smash the avocado till smooth.  Add the onion, ginger and tuna to the bowl and mix well. Begin adding the wasabi paste little by little, tasting often, until desired heat level is accomplished.  I use around a tablespoon if I'm making it for myself since I'm a spice junkie, but keep it tempered if others will be eating it.  You can always adjust the wasabi level once divided in portion sizes.  If you have a small avocado and the mixture isn't quite creamy enough, add mayonnaise a little at a time until it is to your liking. 

Finally, add relish (wasabi and ginger don't typically cry out to be combined with pickles but the sweet and the heat balance each other) and salt and pepper to taste. 

A few wee tips:

If you are looking for an alternative way to serve this salad (other than slapping it between two pieces of perfectly toasted bread) serve it up in the avocado peels, they make whimsical little bowls, with a wedge of lime to squeeze over the salad last minute.  If you are craving a bit of crunch you can crush crackers and stir them in gently just before serving. 

After halving the avocado, carefully smack the pit with the blade of your knife, twist gently and the pit should pop right out.  Using your knife, make lots of little criss-crossing lines (see picture) then once you scoop it out of the skin, most of the work is done for you and the mashing will be a breeze!  

Don't pitch the pit, you can place a few toothpicks in it, suspend it in a glass of water and place it in a sunny spot and you can grow a little avocado plant.  Once roots are established and the plant is a few inches tall, transfer it into a pot with soil. 

Once you squeeze most of the juice out of the lime, turn it inside out (it sorta looks like a fuzzy green hat for a little house gnome) and run your fingers on the pulp, you will be amazed how much extra juice you can get. 

 

And the biggie...AVOCADOS ARE POISONOUS TO DOGS!  I learned this the hard way, my little Pippin had the teensiest piece of avocado and it made him incredibly sick very quickly.  Luckily I was able to get the avocado out of his system quickly but I had never known they are toxic to dogs.  So make sure that the peels, pit and flesh are safely out of your furry friend's reach.  Here's a pic of Pip, the most adorkable pup in all the land...