Tomato and Tuna Pilaf

Recipe and image kindly supplied by Canned Food UK (www.cannedfood.co.uk)

Delicious, quick and easy; what’s not to love? A store cupboard dream using mainly canned, frozen and dried ingredients.

You can easily replace the green beans with frozen peas, and for an even healthier dish replace the tuna with canned oily fish such as salmon, sardines or mackerel. Use sustainable canned fish where possible.

Skills Check

Follow a recipe; follow food safety & hygiene rules; tidy away; use a sieve; use measuring spoons and cups; use a jug to measure liquids; use weighing scales; cut using bridge/claw knife technique safely; snip herbs with scissors; use the hob (with adult supervision); garnish to decorate.

Equipment

Can opener, weighing scales, knife, chopping board, scissors, small bowl, 2 saucepans (one with a lid), wooden spoon, kettle, measuring jug, measuring spoons, sieve, large spoon.

Allergens Please note the allergens listed are indicative only. Allergens vary depending on brand; check the labels on the products you use

Celery | Milk | Fish

May contain: Gluten

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 small cans of tuna in spring water, drained and broken into large pieces
• 400 g can chopped tomatoes
• 150 g green beans, fresh or frozen, halved
• 1 small red pepper, roughly chopped
• 25 g butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
• 300 g Basmati rice
• 400 ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp coriander or parsley, for garnish (optional)

Method

1. Heat the butter and oil in a pan.
2. Add the chopped onion and fry until it is softening, then add the pepper and chilli (if using) and continue frying for 2 minutes.
3. Add the rice and mix well to coat it with the butter and oil.
4. Then add the tomatoes and vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about 15 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.
5. Heat a pan of boiling water, plunge the beans into the water, then boil for a minute and drain.
6. Gently stir the beans and tuna into the cooked rice mixture, replace the lid and leave to cook through for five minutes.
7. Delicious served garnished with parsley or coriander, snipped with scissors in a small bowl.

So thinking about Tomato & Tuna Pilaf ...

Tuna is a great source of protein, vitamin D, B vitamins and a range of minerals. Fresh tuna is an oily fish containing beneficial omega-3 fatty acids however canned tuna does not count as an oily fish as it has far less omega-3s.

Rice provides starchy carbohydrate, which gives us energy, and is a good source of fibre and B vitamins.

Vegetables are so good for us! Low in fat, sugar and calories and high in a range of vitamins and minerals.

Nutritional Information

per 429g serving
% of an adult's reference intake
Typical values per 100g: Energy 364kJ / 86kcal

Notes

A traffic light system is used on nutrition labels to make it easier to see which foods and drinks are lower in calories, fat, sugar and salt. Try and choose more ‘greens’ and ‘ambers’ and fewer ‘reds’, and stick to smaller portions of ‘reds’.

Just because a recipe or a food has a red traffic light doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. Understanding why a food or recipe might have a red light can be helpful. For example oily fish is high in total fat and so any recipe containing oily fish is likely to be ‘red’ for fat. But it is recommended that we eat oily fish at least once a week because the type of fat it contains is beneficial for our health.

% Reference Intakes are also shown. Reference Intakes are guidelines about the approximate amount of particular nutrients and energy required for a healthy diet (based on an average-sized woman doing an average amount of physical activity). Most children will require less than these Reference Intakes. The contribution of one serving of a food or drink to the Reference Intake for each nutrient is expressed as a percentage.