Mexican Guaca'tuna' (Avocado Tuna Salad)

Tuna salad is a great spread that can be used to make a variety of great snacks and meals. You can use it to top salads up, make sandwiches with it, use it as a dip for crackers, or even have it just by itself! The downside though, for tuna salad is the mayo! Mayo is super high in fat and thus calories, and most mayos in the market are made of low quality oil, providing a lot of empty calories from fat without much micronutrients.

Today we are introducing you a healthy version of tuna salad, the avocado tuna salad! I came up with this recipe during my Central American trip where there were literally too many avocados around! Avocado has a creamy texture which makes it a perfect substitute of mayo! Comparing to 680kcal from the same amount of mayo, there is only 160kcal in 100g of avocado! Also, avocados are rich in a lot of micronutrients such as potassium (they have more potassium than bananas which are commonly known as the potassium bomb!). Avocados gives us a lot of heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and can bring down our cholesterol as well as triglycerides levels! Also, although it doesn't feel fibrous, 1 small avocado actually gives us more than one third the daily recommended amount of fiber! And at last, its bright green and yellowish colour gives us a funky kick to our diets!

gluten free, low carbs, low GI, high protein, high fiber, paleo

serves 2

1 small ripe avocado (approximately 150 - 200g with the skin and pit)

1 small can of tuna in water (approximately 75g drained)

1 small red onion (approximately 100g)

1 lemon

few cloves of garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1. mince the garlic and dice the onion

2. heat up a non-stick pan/wok at high heat, toss the garlic and onion into the pan/wok until browned
(step 2. is optional, this step makes the onion gives out a bit of sweetness, and makes both the garlic and onion less spicy)

3. let the garlic and onion cool down while scooping the 'meat' out of the avocado

4. mash the avocado in a mixing bowl, add in the drained tuna, garlic, onion, salt and pepper, squeeze the juice out of the lemon and add it into the mix

5. mix well and use this healthy avocado tuna salad to substitute normal tuna salad in your favourite recipes!

Tips:

*Make sure the avocado is ripe enough or it would be a rather hard task to mash it, a ripe avocado should be in a very dark colour and should feel soft when you squeeze it. Avocados straight from the stores are rarely ripe, so get the avocados in advance. You can speed up the ripening process of an avocado by placing it in a brown paper bag with bananas, apples, or tomatoes since they also produce a similar type of plant hormone that is responsible for the ripening process and the bag traps the hormone

Nutritional Breakdown:

Calories: 300kcal

Protein: 22g

Fat: 16g

Net Carbohydrates: 12g

*net carbs does not include fiber as fiber cannot be digested by human bodies and thus provides no calories for us

Fiber: 10g

I like enjoying this avocado tuna salad with portobello mushrooms to make a healthy snack, simply spread the avocado tuna salad onto a portobello mushroom and bake it at 250°C (480°F) for 20 minutes and enjoy!

Each portobello mushroom gives you 2g of extra protein in only less than 20kcal!