Potato Tuna Melts with Tomato
Traditionally, a tuna melt is a piece of bread topped with a mayo-y tuna salad, which is then topped with a slice of cheddar cheese. There are variations of course – you can add celery and onions to your tuna salad, you can sneak in a slice of tomato (like I did in this recipe), and you can switch up your cheeses or your types of breads.
I ate so many tuna melts in college and post-college, living on my own in Hoboken. It’s such an easy, tasty meal to make in a pinch (for lunch, dinner or even as a snack.) My roommate used to make saltine cracker tuna melts – they were like little tuna melts on mini crackers. So cute!
Anyway, this gluten-free version of a tuna melt is fun to make, more tasty in my opinion (I love a good starchy potato), and is a more nutritious, clean version of a tuna melt! I call these ‘potato slabs’ – you simply slice a potato lengthwise into slabs and top them like an open faced sandwich! You could definitely close up this tuna melt with another potato slab, but it will get a bit messy, so it’s messed left as is.
You can use a sweet potato, a Japanese sweet potato, even a purple sweet potato! Potatoes are best here, because they hold up better, firm up, even crisp up (make sure to leave the skin on the potato if you want more of this effect.) And you can turn these into appetizer style portions (or kid friendly!) by slicing the potatoes crosswise instead of lengthwise, making little rounds.
I always make my tuna salad like this – avocado, celery, onions, and Dijon mustard. It’s the best, if you haven’t tried it yet, go for it! And if you want to make a vegetarian version of this, go with a chickpea mash instead of tuna! Make it yours, but make it!
Potato Tuna Melts with Tomato
Ingredients
- 1 large Idaho potato rinsed, scrubbed and patted dry, sliced into ¼” thick pieces lengthwise (4 slabs)
- salt and pepper
- garlic powder to season
- 1 5oz can tuna in water, drained
- 1 very ripe avocado peeled, pitted
- 1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon finely diced red onion
- 2 tablespoons finely diced celery
- 1 beefsteak tomato
- 4-8 slices of cheddar cheese
- minced chives to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the potato slabs down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Brush both sides with olive oil and season both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Roast for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Meanwhile, prepare the tuna salad. Place the tuna, avocado, and Dijon mustard in a medium mixing bowl and mash together and mix until combined. Season with pepper and add the onions and celery and mix well.
- Slice the tomato in 1/8” thick slices crosswise. You need eight total slices.
- When potatoes are done cooking, top each with the tuna salad, dividing evenly. Top the tuna salad with two tomato slices. Then, top with either one cheese slice in the center of the sandwich or use two overlapping cheese slices (depending on how cheesy you want it! I like less cheese, but a traditional tuna melt is nice and cheesey.) Place back into the oven and let cook until cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Once done, remove from oven and immediately garnish with chives and more pepper. Serve warm.
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