Seared Ahi Tuna Salad with Goat Cheese Balsamic Vinaigrette

This salad is our #1 go-to meal when I need a quick-fix meal. Our jobs often have us working late (trainer lyyyfe), which means I most certainly do not feel like making a big, involved meal when I get home around 9pm on a Monday. It’s so simple, yet the flavors are huge: the perfect mix of salty, sweet, creamy and spicy. I actually stole this recipe idea from a meal I had at Firebirds (thanks, yo!), which uses shrimp. Because of that, I too often use shrimp in this recipe, but I just happened to want seared tuna the other night and voila! It worked like a charm! Sub any protein you can imagine, but so far I’ve really liked it with the seafood flavors. Okay, okay, enough building it up for ya, let me break it down: Starts with the greens, to make you feel especially health-nutty (or maybe just nutty?). Then it gets a nice coat of the most perfectly blended homemade dressing. Goat cheese and balsamic explosion right on those taste buds. Salty, creamy, acidic. Which just so happens to marry perfectly with some sliced strawberries. Sweet to cut the sour and all of that, ya know? And then seared ahi tuna for that tender, lean yet hearty protein. Have I sold it yet? You better just go and make it to find out for yourself what an easy yet powerful meal this is!

Seared Ahi Tuna Salad with Goat Cheese Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 1 Wild Ahi (Yellowfin) Tuna Steak
• 2 large handfuls of greens (I use a powerblend)
• 6-8 sliced strawberries
• Goat Cheese Balsamic Vinaigrette:
• 3 tbsp avocado or olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp of soft goat cheese
• a pinch each of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and dried yellow mustard powder

1. Heat a grill pan on medium high heat.
2. Place the tuna on the pan once hot, and cook the tuna steak about 2-3 minutes on each side. The middle will still be raw.
3. Remove the tuna from the heat, and allow to cool. Once cool enough to touch, cut into slices.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the vinaigrette ingredients with a fork until thoroughly mixed.
5. Add the greens to the dressing mixture, and toss the greens with tongs until all of the greens are coated with the dressing.
6. You can either toss the strawberries with the greens, or plate the greens and add the strawberries on top separately.
7. Place the tuna slices on top of the dressed greens, and serve.

This recipe makes two entree-sized salads.