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January Reset Salad

By Andria Dilling, Staff writer | January 8, 2021

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Tuna, Spinach, and Quinoa Salad can be a delicious part of your January reset.

Who is ready for a reset? From 2020, from cookies, from cocktails? (See our story on Dry January here.

If you’re one of those who is ready to start feeling good again, you are going to love this new favorite lunchtime salad. I know a lot of people snub their noses at canned tuna. Before you do, consider this: Neither I nor the people in my house are huge canned tuna fans. But…last week, we had this shaker of Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Seasoning on our kitchen counter. Everyone seems to love it, but I had no idea what to actually do with it. On a whim, I stirred it into tuna salad, maybe because we had had those cans of tuna in the pantry since the start of the pandemic, or maybe just because that sounded like the healthy thing to do. It was a revelation.

This salad has just enough spice to be interesting, and not so much that you wish you hadn’t eaten it and start digging around for a mint. The Everything but the Bagel Seasoning truly transforms the tuna into something you might wind up craving. And the texture of the quinoa and crunchy pepitas makes this salad not only yummy, but fun to eat in between Zoom calls.

No afternoon nap needed.

Tuna, Spinach, and Quinoa Salad

1 teaspoon minced shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 ounce can of tuna, packed in water, drained
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
½ tablespoon grainy mustard
1 teaspoon Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Seasoning (or another “everything bagel” seasoning)
Handful of baby spinach leaves
¼ cup cooked quinoa
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon roasted pepitas

In a small bowl, mix together the shallot and lemon juice. Let this sit on the counter while you make the rest of the salad.

In another small bowl, using a fork, carefully mix together the tuna, mayonnaise, mustard, and Everything but the Bagel Seasoning.

Pile the spinach on a plate. Scatter the quinoa over. Whisk the olive oil into the shallot-lemon mixture, and pour the dressing over the salad. Top with the tuna, and sprinkle the pepitas over everything.