Monday, July 20, 2009

The Great American UnTuna Salad


Worthington Foods used to make a wonderful frozen fake tuna called Tuno. It made believers out of a lot of vegans and fooled quite a few omnivores. The first time I tasted it at a health food store, I spit it out, because I was sure the staff person had mistakenly given me real tuna fish. He walked me back to the freezer and showed me the roll of Frozen Tuno. I was sold! I brought some home that day, made a tuna salad sandwich with it, and still couldn't believe it wasn't real tuna. But a short time later, Worthington started making Tuno in a can. I don't know how a company could steer so far away from dead-on to driving headlong off a cliff. The Tuno in a can smelled and tasted like dog food to me. I've never met anyone who thought otherwise.

Since Worthington stopped making frozen Tuno some years ago, I've missed reliving the fond childhood memories of eating tuna salad sandwiches with a glass of chocolate milk. There are other substitutes, but none seemed to come as close to the flavor and texture of real tuna as frozen Tuno. For awhile, I started making untuna salad with garbanzo beans. That was pretty good, but frozen and thawed tofu seems to work better for me. It's definitely chewier, and my husband also thinks it tastes better than the garbanzo bean mixture. So here's my simple recipe for an untuna salad. Please let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1 block firm tofu, frozen, then thawed and pressed
2 stalks celery, diced
1 Tbs pickle relish
1/2 cup Vegenaise
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp kelp powder
1/2 tsp nori flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Crumble the tofu with your fingers into a medium bowl. Mix in the celery and relish.

In a separate small bowl or large glass measuring cup, whisk together the Veganaise, soy sauce, lemon juice, kelp powder, nori flakes, and pepper. Pour this mixture into the tofu mixture and mix to combine.

Serve chilled on toast with lettuce and tomato.

7 comments:

Angel said...

I've been really craving the taste of tuna salad lately. This sounds like just the ticket! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I can't wait to try it.

jeremyisvegan said...

Sweet mother of all that is dear and good, I want that sandwich right now!

Helen said...

And people think that vegans are deprived. All of your food looks so yummy, and I'll bet it tastes as good as it looks! Can't wait to try this recipe.

Christie said...

Wow, that photo is making my mouth water!

My Little Space said...

Hi there, thanks for stopping by my blog the other day and nice to meet you. You got a very interesting blog. I'll try to go through all of them slow...ly, ha ha! Thanks for sharing. Bless you.

Bethany'sMommy said...

All that's missing is a nice tall glass of dairy-free chocolate milk. Oh yes, you already covered that in an earlier blog, didn't you? Thanks for thinking of everything! I know what I'm making for dinner tonight. Untuna salad and So Delicious chocolate coconut milk. It's too hot to cook, anyway.

disabled account said...

holy moly!!! i've always been curious about freezing and thawing tofu for a meatier texture and i've never made the typical untuna salad because i could never see chickpeas tasting like tuna, but i'm going to have to try something like this. thank you so much!!