Tuna & Vegetable salsa on a bed of risone

by Dr Antigone Kouris-Blazos

This dish is entirely my own creation - so I can't say that it belongs to any particular cuisine - but it does have Mediterranean flavours.

This dish is easy to make, tastes delicious and is a great way to get children to eat fish and vegetables all in the one dish. It takes about 60 minutes to prepare and cook.
If you cook the quantity recommended in the recipe, you can freeze half of it if you are not feeding 8 people.

Ingredients (serves 8)

2 cans (425g each) of tuna in springwater e.g Sirena tuna
1 packet of risone pasta (you may need to get this from a Turkish/Greek/Italian deli - it looks like rice but is made of flour, otherwise use spiral pasta or rice)

Home-made vegetable salsa (you can freeze half and use another day)
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- flat leafed parsley, chopped (about 3/4 cup chopped)
- 2 cans (400g each) chopped tomatoes (e.g La Gina)
- 1 small sweet potato or carrot, finely chopped
- 1 small red capsicum, shredded
- 2 celery stalks and leaves thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup)
- 2 small zucchinis, finely sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded cabbage (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano*
- 1 level teaspoon cinammon (this adds a great taste to the dish and softens the 'fishy' taste)
- 1 massel vegetable stock cube
- iodised salt (according to taste)
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- add a little water (about 1/2 cup) if too thick (don't be tempted to add too much water because the salsa will end up too watery)

Variation: instead of cinammon try adding 1 teaspoon curry powder and 1/2 cup reduced fat coconut milk (instead of the water) to give the dish a more Asian flavour.

Method
1. In a saucepan, fry garlic and onion in olive oil and add tinned tomatoes, shredded/chopped vegetables, parsley, and stock cube and simmer for about 40 minutes till vegetables are soft. Add cinammon and oregano. If the sauce is too chunky, use a hand blender for a couple of minutes to make sauce thinner. Freeze half if you have less numbers to feed.
2. Drain water from the canned tuna and mix tuna through the vegetable salsa.
3. Bring to the boil a large pot of water and empty packet of risone into the water. Add some salt to water and a tablespoon of oil to stop the risone sticking together.
Boil until risone is cooked - about 15 minutes. Drain risone in a colander for about 10
minutes till it is rid of most of the water. If you wish to add some flavour to the risone,
try mixing through 1 tablespoon of canola margarine, some salt , parmesan cheese and cinammon.
4. Place risone on dinner plate and cover with tuna salsa; alternatively, tuna salsa can be mixed through the risone - this is popular with children.
5. Any leftover tuna salsa can be placed in a container and stored in the freezer for a future meal.

*Try getting some dried oregano which is still on the stalk from a Turkish or Greek deli - it has a nicer and more intense taste than oregano leaves sold in packets/bottles in supermarkets