What can be better than a composed salad uses the best superfood, the finest fish, and the most creamiest dressing? Yes, this seared tuna avocado salad with creamy ginger dressing includes all of those amazing ingredients.
There is no doubt that avocado is everybody's favorite fruit, now and forever. You can do a lot of things with just a single avocado.
Turn it into a delicious smoothie, or an amazing dipping guacamole, or better yet paired it with tuna to make the most delicious salad. One salad to rule them all, you may say.
Like this colorful tomato, peach, and spinach salad, this tuna avocado salad can be served as a main dish, especially for a light lunch. Or it can be served as a side dish or an appetizer.
Cooking schedule
- 11:00 am - grate ginger & garlic
- 11:15 am - make ginger dressing
- 11:20 am - dredge tuna in sesame seeds mixture
- 11:25 am - sear tuna
- 11:35 am - rest & cut tuna into pieces
- 11:40 am - assemble salad
- 11:45 am - serve
Reasons to love this salad
This tuna avocado salad has many amazing ingredients that make it stand out. Those ingredients include:
Superfood avocado - avocado is famously known for the number of nutrients and antioxidants contained in such a small fruit. Omega 3, magnesium, and potassium, to name a few. There are also 21 good reasons why avocado is a superfood.
Ahi tuna (yellowfin tuna) - is the most delicate and desirable piece of fish out there. I used ahi tuna in this recipe, but feel free to switch out for any tuna you have on your hands.
- Together with bluefin tuna, ahi tuna is usually used for sashimi and sushi.
- Because of that, both of these tuna varieties, especially bluefin one, are becoming very scarce due to over fishing.
Creamy ginger dressing - the creamiest and tastiest salad dressing you've ever tried, I promised. Though it is made of simple and easy-to-find ingredients, the approach used to make the dressing is what makes it so unique.
- Ginger and garlic are grated using a Japanese-style shark skin grater despite a regular aluminum grater. This grater is widely used in many Japanese restaurants.
- The grater helps to break down ginger and garlic's dense texture entirely by eliminating the rhizome's appearance.
- I have used this great grater in some of my recipes (here and here) to obtain such most delicate texture from ginger and garlic.
- This grater is also used in most Japanese restaurants. Everyone had the freshly grated wasabi? It is grated by one of these graters and not other Western types.
Types of salad
This seared tuna avocado salad belongs to one of two types of green salad: composed salad. A composed salad is prepared by arranging the ingredients on the plate in an ideal fashion.
The other type of green salad is tossed salad. A tossed salad can be found in many fast food restaurants. It is prepared by placing the salads, garnishes, and dressing in a large mixing bowl and tossing to combine everything.
Other types of salad include bound salad, vegetable salad and fruit salad.
- Vegetable and fruit salads are easy to identify by their main ingredients.
- A bound salad is included cooked meats, poultry, pasta, or even potatoes mixed/bound with a dressing.
A quick how-to guide
Shred salad into bite sizes, mix black and white sesame seeds with a pinch of salt, and slice or cut the avocado into cubes/pieces.
Coat all sides of tuna evenly with black and white sesame mixture. Slightly press sesame seeds to adhere to the tuna.
Sear tuna in a large frying pan, on medium-high heat, for 20-30 seconds each side.
Turn the tuna to the other side and keep searing until the outer part of that side is cooked. Keep turning and searing tuna until 4 main sides of the tuna steak are cooked (outer part only).
Let the tuna rest for 30 seconds. Use a sharp knife to slice or cut tuna into desired size. Lay them out on a bed of salad (tossed with creamy ginger dressing) together with avocado slices.
FAQ
Definitely. It'll take a while to grate ginger and garlic so it is best to make the dressing beforehand.
The dressing can be kept in an air-tight container, under refrigeration, for up to 1 week.
The best practice is to cut avocado right before eating/serving time. Or you can squeeze a little lemon/lime juice on to the flesh of the avocado to keep it from turning brown. Put cut avocado in an air tight container also helps it from browning.
Yes, there is. If you're not a big fan of sesame coated tuna, you can always try this ultimate blackened tuna steak. It tastes as delicious and ready in about 10 minutes.
Did you make this recipe? If so please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comment section. Also, don't forget to tag me #cookmorphosis @cookmorphosis on social media.
Seared Tuna Avocado Salad
Equipment
- Japanese grater
Ingredients
- 7 oz tuna steak prefer sushi grade
- 3 tbsp black sesame seed
- 3 tbsp white sesame seed
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 sheet nori cut into small pieces, optional
- spring mix salad as needed
- 1 medium avocado sliced
Instructions
For dressing
- Whisk all ingredients in a mixing bowl to combine everything. The dressing can be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge, up to 1 week.
For seared tuna
- In a medium size mixing bowl or deep dish, add sesame seeds in then coat all sides of tuna evenly with the mixture. Slightly press sesame seeds to adhere to the tuna.
- On medium high heat, heat a generous amount of oil (about 3-4 tbsp) in a large frying pan. Wait until the oil is hot, put tuna in and sear for 20 to 30 seconds. Remember to cook only the outer part of the tuna, not the whole tuna thoroughly.
- Turn the tuna to the other side and keep searing until the outer part of that side is cooked. Keep turning and searing tuna until 4 main sides of the tuna steak are cooked (outer part only).
- Let the tuna rest for 30 seconds so it's not too hot to handle. Use a sharp knife to slice or cut tuna into desired size.
Assemble
- Lightly toss salad with creamy ginger dressing and put them on a serving plate.
- Add nori (optional), slices of avocado & seared tuna on top. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on 3/16/2020, then updated with more helpful information.
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