It's Time To Graduate To Tunisian Tuna Salad

Ah, tuna salad, one of the most versatile and most widely adaptable lunchtime options out there. This classic mix of dressed, seasoned tuna is as at home pressed into a toasty tuna melt panini as it is piled into lettuce wraps or of course, simply layered between two slices of great bread. Quick and convenient — seeing as how it's typically made from canned tuna — tuna salad can also be a healthy, protein-packed choice, loaded with healthy fats, vitamins such as B12 and niacin, and minerals including iron and zinc (via SF Gate).

Beyond the standard mayo-slicked preparation that was a familiar feature of many of our childhoods, tuna salad can be prepared in a myriad of ways that are well suited to the adult palate, from chickpea-studded to tossed with herbaceous Green Goddess dressing to scented with warming curry powder. And if flavor-packed, veggie-accented tuna salads tend to be the types you prepare at home, then you're going to want to grab the ingredients for this hearty, exotic Tunisian tuna salad.

Are you a fan of the loaded Mediterranean salad known as Niçoise? According to The New Yorker, its standard formulation includes tuna, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and olives, among other tasty ingredients — which just so happen to play starring roles in this Tunisian tuna salad featured in Jewish Journal. In it, boiled potatoes are diced, mixed with drained white tuna, and tossed with a complex dressing made from olive oil, the spicy Moroccan chile paste known as harissa, and preserved lemon. 

Fresh parsley, pickles, cucumbers, and steamed green beans round out the colorful, flavor-packed salad, which is served with cherry tomatoes, olives, and hard boiled eggs. As remembered by the author of the recipe, Rachel Emquies Sheff, this version of tuna salad was toted to the beach by Sheff´s mother during holidays in Casablanca, Morocco, and makes a wonderfully complete meal on a warm summer night. Sheff recommends stuffing any leftovers into a crispy baguette and leading your tastebuds to a briny oceanfront far, far away.