Seared Tuna Salad with Fennel and Lemon dressing

Where did the time go?! I ended up making dinner tonight much later than I planned, so I had to make some adjustments, but thankfully they didn't effect the overall dish.

I made this seared tuna salad tonight from Bill Granger's Bills Food, but as I just mentioned, had to tweak it a little bit. This recipe is actually found in the lunch section, but I thought it would be good for a summer dinner and also to use up some tune I had left in the freezer.

The first change I made was to cook the tuna a little more than suggested. Bill asks for rare tuna, cooked 20 seconds on each side, however hubby does not like his tuna that rare, so for his benefit, I seared for about 2 minutes on each side until it was done on the outside, but still blushing on the inside. Next Bill suggests leaving the tuna to sit for about an hour, however I didn't have the luxury of that much time, so mine only sat for about 5-10 minutes. To me, it made no difference.

Lastly, the lemon was supposed to be segmented for the dressing, however again, I didn't have time for this fiddly task and just added the juice of the whole lemon instead. Again, this didn't seem to make a difference and it actually gave the whole salad a lovely tang.

All in all, this recipe actually exceeded my expectations and was a great salad :) Healthy too....always a bonus!

Seared Tuna Salad with Fennel and Lemon Dressing
(Serves 4)

1 tbs olive oil
500g tuna cut into large batons, roughly 5cm
1 tbs sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
11oz green beans
1 baby romaine lettuce
2 heads of Belgian endive, broken into leaves
1 baby fennel bulb, sliced thinly
lemon dressing
1 lemon, juiced
3 tbs capers, rinsed
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Brush tuna with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick skillet over high heat, add tuna and sear for 1-2 minutes per side (depending on how raw you like it). remove from the pan and cut into 5mm slices.

2. Blanch the beans in boiling water, then refresh in cold water to cool. Arrange the lettuce, endive, fennel and beans on plates, top with tuna. Sprinkle over lemon dressing.

3. To make dressing, mix all ingredients in a bowl.