Somehow I seem to be the last person on the planet to hear about the awesomeness of Honeycrisp apples. Honestly, I couldn’t understand the raving craziness that accompanied their month long season at all. Surely an apple is mostly just an apple? Umm, nope. These are crisp and sweet and all around amazing. Plus, they don’t go brown quickly like so many other apples seem to do. So, once I’d gorged myself on them plain, I eventually realized there was so much more I could do with them. With the sunlight rapidly dwindling over in my corner of the map, I decided to showcase these babies in a salad. Since I can’t stand celery and that seems to be the one thing always added to tuna salads, I decided to swap in a Honeycrisp instead. Along with some spinach and fine slivers of onion, I had the makings of a salad. I laid out a bed of sliced tomatoes and then went to work on a paleo avocado lime salad dressing which would give a mayo-like creaminess without the processed ick-factor. Turned out perfectly, especially with a handful of unsalted cashews on top!
The dressing was a snap to come together; I just threw all the ingredients into my mini food processor:
And gave it a good whizz until nicely blended!
Then I spooned into a clean Ziploc bag…
And used that to drizzle over the salad.
Tuna, apple and cashew salad with avocado-lime dressing
A delicious tuna salad with Honeycrisp apples in a creamy avocado lime dressing. Topped with unsalted raw cashews for extra crunch.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
For the Tuna Salad:
- 4 handfuls spinach or preferred leaves
- 3 Roma tomatoes, sliced widthways
- 1/4 white onion, finely sliced in half moons,
- 5 oz tuna, drained
- 1 apple, cored and diced
- Handful of unsalted cashews
For the Avocado Lime Dressing:
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 lime, juiced
- 3 tbs salsa
- Fresh cilantro to taste
Instructions
- First make dressing by adding all dressing ingredients to a mini food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. If you would like your dressing less tangy, use only half a lime. If the dressing is too thick (depending on the size of the avocado), add a splash of water to thin. Set aside.
- Lay out a bed of tomato slices on 2 plates and add all other salad ingredients except the cashews into a bowl to toss.
- Plate the salad on top of the tomato slices. Put the dressing into a small plastic food bag and squeeze it into a corner before cutting off the tip. Use this bag to drizzle dressing over your salad.
- Sprinkle with the cashews and serve.
