summer pasta salad with green beans and tuna

Summer pasta salad with green beans and tuna is the ideal quick and healthy lunch for a warm summer period. It is fresh, refreshing, and you can play with the ingredients up to your taste. You can for example add caper or cherry tomatoes, as in the version in the picture.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from a Belgian website, Libelle. You may also see it as a typical Belgian summer salad, although summer and Belgian is mostly not a long-lasting period in time.

Ingredients (for 2 persons):

• 1 can of tuna fish
• 150 grams of (short) pasta, like penne
• 250 grams of green beans
• half a red onion
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 50 grams of arugula salad
• pepper and salt
• balsamic vinegar, olive oil

Method:

• Cut the ends of the green beans, and halve them.
• Cut the onion into half rings.
• Bring water to the boil with some salt and olive oil.
• Boil the pasta as indicated on the package.
• Add the green beans 6 minutes before the pasta should be ready. They have to cook for 6 minutes, and then they are both ready at the same time.
• Meanwhile roast the pine nuts in a dry pan.
• Drain the pasta and the green beans, and immediately cool them with cold water.
• Mix all ingredients (pasta, green beans, onion, tuna, pine nuts, arugula) in a bowl.
• Finish with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

You can make different variations with the ingredients, up to your taste. I added cherry tomatoes in this example for garnishing. Another idea is to replace the pine nuts with caper to have a different taste.

Now sit down in the evening sun and enjoy with a glass of wine.