Tuna Melt
On May 28, 2014 by Meghalee Das
Tuna Melt is a healthy and easy sandwich, which primarily consists of canned or pre-cooked tuna, fresh herbs, seasoning and cheese on top. It is a kind of “melt” sandwich, which means an open face or closed face sandwich with a particular filling and melted cheese inside. I have made Tuna Melt many times with different kinds of fillings but there are some ingredients that I always use. For example, instead of mayonnaise, which is preferred by a lot of people, I use sliced or mashed avocados. I love the combination of fresh herbs, red onions, lemon juice, tomatoes, cheese and greens in this recipe.
This time I am very excited to use cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs from my garden like coriander, cilantro, lime basil, sweet basil and chocolate mint for the tuna filling!
Feel free to experiment with different ingredients like jalapenos, pickles, lettuce and try different kinds of cheese and bread. The filling can be made a day in advance and eaten as a salad or used in a sandwich.
Ingredients:
White bread: 4 slices
Butter: 2 tbsp
Olive oil: 2 tbsp
Cheese slices: 4
For filling:
Canned tuna in olive oil: 3/4th to 1 cup
Avocados: 2 small, mashed
Lemon juice: 2 tbsp
Cherry tomatoes: 6-8
Chopped tomatillos: 1 (optional)
Chopped herbs (basil, mint, parsley, cilantro etc)
Chilli flakes: 1/2 tsp
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1) In a bowl, mix all the ingredients under “filling.”
2) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle a baking tray with olive oil.
3) Spread butter on the bread slices. On the buttered side, add a few tbsps of the filling.
4) Place a cheese slice on top of each sandwich and arrange all of them on the baking tray.
5) Bake them for 10 minutes till the cheese has melted.
6) Serve immediately like this as as an open face sandwich. The olive oil will help the bottom part of the slice get beautifully toasted too.
So you can also join two slices and make a close face tuna melt sandwich.
These are two more versions of Tuna Melt I have made in the past:
1) Here I arranged baby spinach, sliced tomatoes and avocados on a slice of buttered brown bread. On another slice, I placed the tuna filling and cheddar cheese and baked it. Lastly, I closed the sandwich by placing another slice of toasted bread to make a two-layered close face Tuna Melt.
2) In another recipe, I placed mixed greens like arugula, baby spinach, baby kale and Swiss chard along with sliced red onions, tomatoes and avocados on a slice of buttered rye bread. I also placed a slice of cheese over it. On another slice I placed the tuna filling. I baked both these slices for 5 minutes to lightly melt the cheese. Finish it with a third slice to close the sandwich. You can cut it diagonally and serve hot.
Here is the basic printable recipe:
- White bread: 4 slices
- Butter: 2 tbsp
- Olive oil: 2 tbsp
- Cheese slices: 4
- Canned tuna: ¾th cup
- Avocados: 2 small, mashed
- Lemon juice: 2 tbsp
- Cherry tomatoes: 6-8
- Chopped tomatillos: 1
- Chopped herbs (basil, mint, coriander, cilantro)
- Chilli flakes: ½ tsp
- Salt and pepper to taste
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients under "filling."
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle a baking tray with olive oil.
- Spread butter on the bread slices. On the buttered side, add a few tbsps of the filling.
- Place a cheese slice on top of each sandwich and arrange all of them on the baking tray. Bake them for 10 minutes till the cheese has melted.
- Serve immediately as an open face sandwich or join two slices to make a close face tuna melt sandwich.
