Nigella's Budgets and Bargains: Tuna & Beans

This week we are cooking up Nigella Lawson's "Budgets and Bargains" over at I Heart Cooking Clubs, so I chose the Tuna and Beans from Nigella Express. It's an easy pantry meal that fits into the budget and is healthy and satisfying too. I eat beans with tuna fairly often but usually using cannellini beans or chickpeas, so I liked the fact that Nigella's recipe used borlotti beans, also called cranberry beans. The recipe called for canned borlotti beans but they are difficult to find here and more expensive, while a bag of dried cranberry beans (from Bob's Red Mill) are more budget friendly and healthier as I can control the salt while cooking them.

Nigella says, "This has always been the Italian antipasto but although traditionally you are more likely to come across it as the combination of tonno and cannellini, I love the flecked terra-cotta of cranberry beans, giving you the colors of Tuscany on a plate. And if you are feeling less formally Italianate in mood, then this makes a simple speedy supper for two; all I'd want alongside is some good bread."


Tuna and Beans

Nigella Express, Nigella Lawson

(Serves 4-6 as a starter or part of a meal)

1/3 cup finely chopped red onion

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 14-oz cans borlotti or cranberry beans

1 8-oz can best-quality tuna to give 1 1/4 cups

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Put the chopped onion into a bowl with the lemon juice and let it steep while you get on with the salad. Drain the beans and rinse them to get rid of any gloop, then arrange them in a bowl. Drain the tuna and flake it into the beans.

Add the olive oil to the onion and lemon juice and whisk it to make a dressing, pour this over the tuna and beans, and transfer to a serving dish. Fork the salad through, seasoning with salt and pepper, and then scatter over the parsley; if you want to put this on a plate (rather than a dish), consider strewing the plate with arugula first, or using it to make a leafy border.

Notes/Results: Simple and delicious, this is one of those recipes where a few very simple ingredients come together really well. Because of the few ingredients, you'll want to use good quality tuna and olive oil--but even so it is still a hearty and economical dish. This is a great recipe to make ahead of time, giving the flavors time to meld and it tastes great cold or at room temperature and even better the next day, making it perfect for lunches. I soaked and cooked the beans the day before making the salad and then just tossed it all together. I like the creamy texture of the cooked cranberry beans and they give a slightly earthier flavor than cannellini beans. I will be happily eating the leftovers this week and would make this again.

You can see what Budgets and Bargains the other IHCC members made and what they thought of them by going to the post (here) and following the links.