Thai tuna salad: pantry tuna made bright, no cooking required

Thai flavor built entirely from real, whole ingredients: ginger, lime, coconut, basil. This salad keeps that bright, savory character and builds it from pantry tuna in about 30 minutes, most of it unattended, a real anchor on a week that needs one.

The ingredients are doing real work. Tuna is a source of omega-3 fats, studied for helping balance the inflammatory response, and of selenium, involved in thyroid hormone conversion and antioxidant defense. Ginger and lime carry the brightness, and the coconut cream adds a rich fat that helps carry those flavors and keeps a meal satisfying.

Choose a wild, clean-label tuna and let that small act of good sourcing be part of the meal. Spoon it into crisp romaine, make the plate green and fresh, and take a breath before you eat. A little presence at the table is part of how the food serves you.

Ingredients

• four 5-oz cans tuna, drained
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
• 1/4 cup coconut cream
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (clean-label, no added sugar)
• 2 tbsp chopped basil
• 1 head romaine, leaves separated for wrapping

Note: the source recipe includes 1/4 cup sesame seeds and 1/2 tbsp chili paste. Both are omitted here - sesame is a seed and chili paste is a nightshade, and both are excluded on AIP Core. The ginger, fish sauce, lime, and coconut cream carry the heat and richness without them.

Method

Put everything except the lettuce into a bowl - the tuna, red onion, green onions, ginger, coconut cream, lime juice, fish sauce, and basil. Stir gently until the tuna is coated and everything is combined.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes so the flavors come together and the ginger and lime soften into the salad.

Spoon the chilled tuna salad into romaine leaves and serve as wraps.

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*