A weeknight recipe - 15 minute Tuna Nicoise!

In line with my birthday resolution for planning healthy meals and because I thought it had been a while since I posted a recipe, here's a quickie for the work week: 15 minute Tuna Nicoise.

What you see is what you get, seared tuna served on a bed of green beans with new potatoes and hard boiled eggs and a light balsamic mayonnaise sauce. I usually have hard boiled eggs on hand, because I think they make a great snack or a nice quick breakie on those mornings that I'm running behind. But if you haven't got any, they only take about 10 minutes to make and the trick to an easy peel is to douse them in cold water as soon as you've pulled them off the stove top. I usually just put the whole pan in the sink under the running tap for a minute or so.

First, marinate your tuna in about a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of coarsely chopped garlic (from a jar!) and freshly ground black pepper to taste. In my family, the waiter always dreads the question - can I offer you fresh ground pepper for your salad? He'll be there the rest of the night.

While the tuna's soaking, start boiling your new potatoes and after a 5 minute head start you can add the green beans to the same pot. While things are boiling, mix up your sauce. For two people, I'd use about 2 tablespoons of light mayo, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a half tablespoon each of fines herbes mix (chevril, chives, tarragon and parsley) and dried dill - even better if you have fresh dill at hand, but the dried stuff is just as good.

Drop a little olive oil in a hot pan on medium-high heat and cook the tuna steak for about 2 minutes on each side for medium rare and about 4 minutes each side for well done. Honestly, the trick with fish is not to overcook it. It continues cooking after removed from the heat, so always err on the side of underdone because by the time the plate gets to the table it will cook it's way through. Besides, tuna really is best as sashimi!


When that's finished, lay the beans down first to make a 'bed' for your tuna steak to rest. Accompany with a sliced hard-boiled egg and new potatoes and drizzle the balsamic sauce over everything. Wasn't that easy? And low-fat/low-cal? And delicious?

Apologies for the photo quality on this post, but as it's winter and it's England, good quality daylight is hard to come by!

Want to see other recipes from the Queen Bee? Click here or here or here.