What is Light Tuna Salad?
Light tuna salad is made with canned white tuna and chopped onions. It uses light mayonnaise with has less fat and fewer calories. The mayo gives it moisture and is mixed with, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. It has a creamy texture and a rich, umami flavor and is served cold.
Ingredients
Light mayonnaise is a reduced fat mayo. Mayonnaise is made using oil, eggs and vinegar. In reduced fat mayonnaise, cornstarch and water replace the majority of the oil. The flavor is mild and tangy with a creamy quality, this creamy quality extends to the smooth and spreadable texture. The color of light mayo is off white, or cream. The flavor is not as rich as full fat mayonnaise, but still makes a good condiment for sandwiches and cold meat salads.
White tuna is a canned fish product from the meat of the albacore tuna fish. It can be packed in oil or water. Oil packed tuna is a white color and oilier and richer in flavor than other tunas. The oil that it is packed in adds extra moisture. The flavor is fishy and salty. Canned tuna is usually used to make tuna salad.
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Celery is a light green vegetable with tall, thin fibrous stalks and green leaves at their tips. They are extremely juicy and comprised of 90% water. They grow in clusters, sharing a base with about eight or nine ribbed stalks. The texture is crunchy, juicy and has a refreshing flavor that is light, sweet and vegetal. Celery can be eaten raw or cooked into soups and other dishes.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Parsley is an aromatic herb with slender green stalks and sturdy, small green leaves. There are two common types of parsley, curly parsley and Italian flat leaf parsley. Italian parsley has a more robust flavor than curly parsley. Though each type tastes green, spicy and vegetal, with a hint of bitterness. Parsley is used as and herb to flavor dishes and as a garnish.
Lemon juice is made from the flesh of the pulpy yellow lemon fruit. The juice is squeezed from the flesh of the lemon and is a pale yellow color. The flavor is very sour and bright. Lemon juice is used in multiple cuisines around the world to brighten and enhance the flavors of the other ingredients. Lemon juice is used to make lemonade and goes well on fish. It has many uses.
Garlic powder is made from dehydrated garlic cloves that have been ground into a super fine powder. This powder is a pale yellow/golden color and is used to flavor foods. It works well in a pinch and can be used in many of the same ways that fresh garlic is used. The flavor is milder than raw or cooked garlic and is spicy, pungent and nutty. Garlic granules are another form of dehydrated garlic, but rather than powder it is coarser and has the same function. It is often used on top of fresh pizza, as a light dusting.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
Paprika is a spice made made not from one type of pepper but from multiple varieties of sweet peppers and chili peppers. Common paprika is not spicy, but some paprika will be mildly spicy if hotter peppers are used. The pepper is dried and ground into a fine red power used to season savory dishes. The flavor is both sweet and pungent with a hint of bitterness that can emerge when it is cooked.
