Tuna is one of the most healthy types of fish; it has a pleasant-tasting flesh, is quite easy to cut, and is relatively inexpensive. Proponents of a healthy diet often try to include dishes from it in their daily diet. Tuna cutlets are popular, they are made so quickly and easily that they can be prepared not only for lunch, but also for breakfast and dinner, when the housewife has little time for cooking. You can make them from either frozen or canned fish, frying them in a frying pan or cooking them in the oven. Various vegetables are added to the minced meat, adding new flavors to the dish.
Classic recipe
Appetizing cutlets with a golden fried crust will remain juicy and soft inside.
What ingredients will you need?
To fry meaty tuna cutlets you will need:
- 500 g tuna fillet;
- onion head;
- egg;
- 1 slice of bread crust;
- ½ glass of milk;
- 1 tbsp. l. soft butter;
- 3-4 tbsp. l. flour for dredging;
- frying oil;
- optional fine salt and spices.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare fish cutlets, follow these steps:
- Tuna flesh cut into pieces without pits and skin must be twisted on the middle mesh of a meat grinder.
- The crust of bread must be soaked in milk, after which it should be squeezed out and also scrolled through a meat grinder.
- You need to put chopped onion with a knife into the minced meat.
- In a bowl with the minced meat you will need to add an egg, spices and salt, 2 tbsp. l. sifted flour, a portion of soft butter.
- The cutlet mixture must be thoroughly mixed with moistened hands.
- You need to form cutlets from the mixture, after which each one will need to be rolled in flour and fried in hot oil in a frying pan until a bright golden crust.
- Before the end of frying, you should pour a little water into the frying pan, after which it is better to simmer the dish under the lid for 3-5 minutes for the steamed cutlets to be especially soft.
What can I add?
To fully develop the taste of tuna, it is better to add a spicy sauce to the cutlets. To do this, mix finely chopped pickled cucumbers, 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, season to taste with sugar and salt. You can add chopped dill to the sauce if you wish.
Serving rules, decoration
Soft and fluffy cutlets should be presented on a bed of fresh lettuce leaves; each cutlet should be topped with a spicy sauce. As a side dish, it is better to choose boiled spicy rice, pasta or fresh vegetable salad.
Dish | Protein, g/100g | Fat, g/100g | Carbohydrates, g/100g | Calorie content, kcal/100g |
Classic | 17 | 4 | 8 | 134 |
In the oven | 24 | 5 | 12 | 189 |
For a couple | 15 | 4 | 3 | 109 |
Pistachio breaded | 40 | 32 | 9 | 282 |
What sauce should I serve the cutlets with?
An easy way to add a touch of sophistication to a fish dish is to add any of the following sauces to it:
- With pickled/salted cucumbers. The base is sour cream or mayonnaise (both components can be combined if desired). Sprigs of fresh dill would also be an excellent addition.
- Mustard, based on natural yogurt without additives.
- Custard. Made from egg yolks and butter.
- Sour cream, with the addition of fish broth, dill and wheat flour.
- Creamy “Alya Bechamel”. It is recommended to use nutmeg and oregano as seasonings.
Delight your loved ones with new healthy dishes, because this is one of the most accessible and effective ways to express your attention and care. Good luck!
From frozen
Frozen tuna balls go well with vegetables and cereals, making them ideal for a hearty lunch or dinner.
They take much less time to cook than meat dishes.
What ingredients will you need?
For simple and nutritious cutlets you need to prepare:
- 400 g skinned and boned fillet;
- 1 egg;
- ½ onion;
- 2 pieces of stale loaf;
- 100 ml milk or water;
- 20 g butter;
- 1 tsp. fine salt;
- fish seasoning to taste;
- 2 tbsp. l. flour + about 200 g for breading;
- 5-6 tbsp. l. frying refined oil.
Step-by-step cooking process
Tuna fillet for cutlets may be slightly frozen, so if it is stored in the freezer, it is better to remove it in advance and leave it on the refrigerator shelf.
Next is required:
- You need to make sure that there are no bones left in the pulp, after which the meat needs to be chopped into pieces and transferred to a blender bowl (you can grind it with a meat grinder).
- Pour milk or water over the bread slices and leave for 2 minutes to soften.
- The bread needs to be squeezed out of the liquid, then it needs to be crushed with the fish.
- It is better to mix the minced meat into a convenient container.
- The mixture should be sprinkled with finely diced onion.
- The minced meat must be kneaded, after which a depression should be made in the center into which the egg should be released.
- The minced meat must be salted, seasoned to taste and flour added to the mixture.
- Next, you need to add soft butter to the mass, since the tuna flesh is a bit dry.
- After kneading the minced meat, you need to form cutlets with wet hands, roll the pieces in flour and place them in a hot frying pan with oil.
- The cutlets should be fried until they have a characteristic golden brown crust.
What can I add?
To diversify the taste of the cutlets, you can add fillets of fattier fish, such as chum salmon, asp and any other white fish. Chopped dill or parsley will add freshness to the composition.
Serving rules, decoration
Lush, meaty cutlets are best placed on a warm side dish or vegetables. The dish goes well with beans, broccoli, lettuce and grilled vegetables.
Cooking process:
If your tuna is freshly frozen, leave the carcass in the refrigerator overnight so that it gradually defrosts. If you have already previously defrosted the fish, rinse it thoroughly, cut off the fins and head, and gut the carcass. The tuna head can not be thrown away, but can be used together with the ridge to make fish soup. Well, remove the skin from the main part of the carcass by picking it up with a knife on the back (from the place of the cut fin).
Using your hands, remove the tuna meat from the backbone (it comes off very easily) and make sure there are no bones in it. Cut the tuna fillets into small pieces and place in the bowl of a food processor. Instead of a food processor, you can use a regular meat grinder.
Place the top of the loaf in a bowl and fill with milk. When the bread softens, squeeze it out of the milk and send it to the fish. Turn on the food processor and grind the fish and loaf.
Place the minced fish in a large bowl. Peel the onion, cut into small cubes and add them to the minced fish.
Stir the minced meat with a spoon and make a well in the center. Break an egg into this hole.
Salt the fish mixture for the cutlets, add fish seasoning and two tablespoons of flour. At the same stage, add softened butter or lard to the minced meat, because tuna meat itself is quite dry. Knead everything thoroughly and form fish cutlets with wet hands.
Place a frying pan with vegetable oil on the fire. Dip the semi-finished products in flour and place in a heated frying pan.
Fry the tuna cutlets on both sides until brown. Then reduce the heat, pour literally 100 ml of water into the pan and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer the cutlets for 5 minutes: thanks to this “procedure” they will become more tender and soft.
Tuna cutlets are ready! You can also make steamed fish cutlets from the same minced meat: simply place them on a steamer greased with vegetable oil and cook for 15 minutes.
From fresh
Tuna is called “beef of the sea” for its characteristic rich color of meat, elasticity and fibrous fillet.
Fresh tuna cutlets, recipe.
Tuna cutlets will be satisfying and nutritious with a relatively low calorie content.
What ingredients will you need?
The recipe of the dish includes the following components:
- tuna carcass about 2.5 kg;
- 400 g potato tubers;
- 3 onion heads;
- 3 garlic cloves;
- 2 eggs;
- 5-6 branches of parsley;
- 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper;
- a whisper of crushed red pepper;
- 5 tbsp. l. (optional) salt;
- olive frying oil;
- 1 cup fine breadcrumbs.
Step-by-step cooking process
To cook cutlets, follow the step-by-step algorithm:
- The tuna must be cut into fillets: first you need to clean the belly from the entrails, then you should cut off the head and tail, leaving them for the soup.
- Next, you need to cut the fish into plates, remove the backbone and bones.
- The meat should be cut into slices and passed through a meat grinder with a mesh diameter of about 10 mm.
- Pour chopped onion, garlic puree, chopped parsley and rolled potatoes into the minced meat.
- The minced meat must be thickened with egg, after which the mass must be thoroughly kneaded.
- Using moistened hands, you need to form the minced meat into cutlets, after which each should be breaded in breadcrumbs.
Fry the workpieces in hot oil until the crust is fried, after which it is better to place the finished meatballs on a napkin to remove excess oil.
What can I add?
To make the cutlets juicy and meaty, you can twist the fillets on a grid with different holes. You can add grated carrots and dried spicy herbs to the composition. For originality, at the stage of forming the cutlets, you should place a handful of grated cheese in the middle so that it melts from heat treatment and stretches appetizingly.
Serving rules, decoration
It is better to place the golden balls on a warm plate with a side dish of boiled buckwheat or pasta. You can place a handful of microgreens or grated hard cheese on the surface of the cutlet.
In a slow cooker with cheese
Frozen tuna cutlets are distinguished by the elasticity of the meat and the taste of beef and fish. Tuna meat does not contain bones, but to soften it you need to add a little cheese and butter.
What ingredients will you need?
The recipe for the treat includes the following products:
- 500 g tuna pulp;
- 100 g stale baguette;
- 70 g salted hard cheese;
- 100 g small breadcrumbs;
- season with salt at your discretion;
- 1 onion head;
- 3 tbsp. l. high-fat sour cream;
- egg;
- 120 ml frying oil.
For the sauce:
- 150 ml cream;
- at the discretion of spices;
- 70 g grated cheese;
- a pinch of salt.
Step-by-step cooking process
Step-by-step method for preparing fish cutlets:
- The meaty tuna fillet must be cut into pieces, removing all the bones.
- Slices of fish need to be minced through a meat grinder until they have the consistency of coarse minced meat.
- The bast must also be minced through a meat grinder into the minced meat.
- The baguette should be soaked in water for 10 minutes, after which the bread should be squeezed out and ground into minced meat for the fish and onions.
- Place sour cream of any fat content in a bowl with minced meat.
- Place grated hard cheese with ground pepper and salt into the minced mixture.
- It is necessary to form cutlets from the mixture, after which each one must be rolled in an egg broken with a fork.
- Cutlets dipped in egg should be rolled in breadcrumbs.
- The workpieces need to be fried until crispy in the hot oil of the bowl until half cooked on the “Frying” mode.
- The cutlets should be filled with cream with seasonings and grated cheese.
- The dish must be kept for 20 minutes in the “Stew” program.
What can I add?
Tuna meat is slightly dry, so you can add sour cream of any fat content to the composition; you can also add butter, a little lard or margarine minced in a meat grinder.
Serving rules, decoration
Appetizing golden cutlets are best placed on boiled pasta, topped with sour cream or cheese sauce. You can decorate the treat with cheese chips, herbs and sesame seeds.
Cooking tips
Minced meat is used ready-made, freshly frozen, but you can make it yourself from frozen tuna fillet or fresh fish. This will not change the taste at all; on the contrary, the dish will turn out more juicy.
To obtain a thick consistency, add grated potatoes and white bread soaked in water to the minced meat. Water can be replaced with milk, this will add additional tenderness.
The main binding element is the egg. Since the dish must be dietary, more than 1 egg should not be added. It is quite enough for forming cutlet preparations.
Breadcrumbs are not recommended. Also, do not grease the mold with oil. And to prevent the cutlets from sticking to the bottom of the pan during baking, you can put parchment paper for baking.
Other products can be added to the recipe. Fresh herbs, cheese and mushrooms go well with fish. To properly prepare juicy and tasty frozen tuna cutlets, you should use the recipe with the photo below.
Ready-made cutlets from freshly frozen fish fillets turn out very tasty and juicy. They can be served with crushed potatoes, boiled pasta and other side dishes with the addition of various sauces. They are also good as an independent dish with canned or fresh vegetables.
Cutlets from frozen and fresh meaty tuna can be cooked in a frying pan, in a slow cooker and in the oven. You can enrich the taste by adding vegetables, spices and herbs. The flesh of tuna is similar to veal, so the dish will be rich, satisfying and low in calories.
In a steamer
Steamed frozen tuna cutlets remain juicy and retain the natural taste and aroma of fish meat.
Preparation next.
What ingredients will you need?
The recipe for the treat includes the following products:
- 300 g tuna meat;
- onion head;
- 2 tbsp. l. crushed oatmeal;
- spices and fine salt at your discretion.
Step-by-step cooking process
Method of step-by-step cooking of steamed diet cutlets:
- Bright tuna fillets must be minced in a meat grinder on a medium grid.
- It is better to grate the onion or blend it finely in a blender.
- The fish base must be mixed with egg, onion, crushed bran and seasonings.
- The minced meat needs to be mixed, after which it should be allowed to brew for about an hour.
- During this time, the bran will absorb excess moisture, making the cutlets easy to stick together.
- With moistened hands, you need to form small cutlets.
- Each piece should be placed in a steamer on a greased grate.
The dish should be steamed for 15 minutes; you won’t get a golden brown crust, but the cutlets will remain soft and filling.
What can I add?
To make the meatballs bright, you can add pieces of sweet pepper, bright carrots and chopped herbs to the recipe: parsley, onion or dill.
Serving rules, decoration
The finished meatballs should be placed on boiled or baked potatoes; for freshness, it is better to offer sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese pita chips.
Description
Tuna cutlets are an original and very tasty dish. It is not prepared often, but if the housewife takes up the task, she will see it through to the end in order to get an unforgettable dish that will please the entire household. The products included are easy to find in the store. The only thing is that tuna is a rather expensive product that not everyone can afford. But, believe me, if you buy fish once and cook it at home according to our recipe, you will want to do it more than once.
In the oven
Frozen hearty tuna cutlets baked in the oven are not overloaded with oil; the taste of the cutlet can be emphasized with herbs and a spicy sauce.
What ingredients will you need?
For cooking you need:
- 600 g minced fresh frozen tuna;
- 100 g of dried white bread;
- egg;
- onion head;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 1 potato;
- 100 ml milk;
- crushed salt at your discretion;
- a pinch of crushed pepper;
- 20 g softened butter.
Step-by-step cooking process
To get delicious cutlets with a minimum amount of oil, you need to follow a step-by-step process:
- The minced meat must be defrosted gently by placing the briquette on the refrigerator shelf.
- The bread should be soaked in warm milk or water.
- The onion needs to be chopped into small cubes, and it is better to pass the garlic through a press.
- The potatoes should be grated, after which the chips should be squeezed out of excess juice.
- The components need to be mixed until the mixture is homogeneous, then to thicken the mixture, you need to release the egg into the mass.
- The minced meat should be salted and seasoned with spices.
- From the minced meat you need to form small round cutlets.
- The blanks should be placed on oiled parchment laid out on a baking sheet.
- To bake soft meatballs you will need to bake for 20 minutes at 180℃.
What can I add?
Instead of grated potatoes, you can add a little low-fat cottage cheese to the minced meat to make the meatballs more tender and dietary.
Serving rules, decoration
The addition of original sauce will help add sophistication to the fish cutlets. Add chopped dill and chopped olives to the sour cream. In the second case, you can add grainy mustard and seasonings to natural yogurt. You can also top the meatballs with Bechamel sauce, complementing the treat with boiled new potatoes, slices of cucumber or sweet pepper.
Calorie content of foods possible in the dish
- Condensed milk 7.5% fat – 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat – 47 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat – 54 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat – 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat – 64 kcal/100g
- Whole cow's milk – 68 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper – 255 kcal/100g
- Peasant unsalted butter – 661 kcal/100g
- Peasant salted butter – 652 kcal/100g
- Amateur unsalted butter – 709 kcal/100g
- Butter 82% – 734 kcal/100g
- Ghee – 869 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil – 873 kcal/100g
- Tuna in vegetable oil – 190 kcal/100g
- Tuna in its own juice – 96 kcal/100g
- Fresh tuna – 101 kcal/100g
- Salt – 0 kcal/100g
- Onions – 41 kcal/100g
- Wheat flour – 325 kcal/100g
- Chicken egg – 80 kcal/100g
- White bread – 266 kcal/100g
Calorie content of foods: Tuna, Chicken eggs, Onions, White bread, Milk, Butter, Wheat flour, Salt, Ground black pepper, Vegetable oil
Hastily
This canned tuna recipe is perfect for unexpected guests. Delicious cutlets will be ready in 10 minutes.
What ingredients will you need?
To quickly prepare fish cutlets, you will need a small grocery kit:
- 160 g can of canned tuna;
- 50 g processed cheese;
- egg;
- 2 tbsp. l. flour without a slide;
- a pinch of chopped rosemary;
- 1 tsp. finely ground salt;
- crushed pepper to taste;
- 5-6 tbsp. l. frying oil.
Step-by-step cooking process
To fry aromatic cutlets, you need to follow a step-by-step algorithm:
- The sauce should be strained, after which the tuna pulp should be mashed with a fork.
- In a bowl with the fish you will need to place spices with salt, flour, egg and melted cheese.
- The ingredients for the meatballs must be quickly mixed until smooth.
- You will need to form small cutlets from the minced meat, after which the pieces should be fried until golden brown in hot oil for 2 minutes.
- What can I add?
- To reduce the cost of the dish, you can add mackerel or saury, pitted and free of excess sauce, to the recipe.
Serving rules, decoration
When serving, place the meatballs on a warm plate, next to them you should distribute a side dish with fresh salad or vinaigrette. Frying wild mushrooms with sour cream or cream goes perfectly with the meatballs.
Recipe for making canned tuna cutlets
- Combine the egg, triangle of processed cheese, salt, pepper, rosemary.
- Add a can of tuna in oil.
- Mix everything well.
- Take a couple of sprigs of green onions and chop finely.
- Add onion and a little flour to the tuna.
- Mix everything well.
- Fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.
- Fry on both sides until golden brown.
Bon appetit!
In pistachios
Frozen tuna cutlets combine the beneficial properties of meat and fish. The meat contains omega 3 fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins A, E, D and B. To make the taste of the treat original, you can use pistachios when cooking.
What ingredients will you need?
The ingredients include:
- 600 g fish fillet;
- 1 onion;
- 5-6 branches of parsley without stems;
- egg;
- a pinch of dried thyme;
- 2 tbsp. l. breadcrumbs;
- 2 tbsp. l. pistachio;
- crushed salt at your discretion;
- 6 tbsp. l. odorless frying oil;
- a pinch of crushed white pepper.
Step-by-step cooking process
The method of preparing fish cutlets consists of the following steps:
- Grind the onion with the tuna pulp, cut into pieces, in a blender bowl.
- Place chopped parsley with dried thyme, pepper and salt in the minced meat.
- The mass needs to be mixed until smooth.
- Pistachios should be chopped and mixed with breadcrumbs.
- The formed small balls need to be rolled in breading.
- The preparations must be fried in hot oil, after which the finished dish must be placed on a napkin to remove excess oil.
Serving rules, decoration
It is best to combine delicious golden cutlets with light vegetable salads with the addition of peas, juicy corn and soy sauce with olive oil.
Benefits and harms
Tuna cutlets are very tender in taste, beautiful, and aromatic. They cook in a few minutes, which is much faster than minced meat cutlets. Fish cutlets are in perfect harmony with any side dishes and vegetable salads. For breakfast, you can form a cutlet into a sandwich for tea, for lunch you can serve it with pasta, and for dinner you can complement the soft taste of the cutlets with fresh vegetables.
Tuna is a high protein product, so this fish is often included in dietary and sports nutrition. Vitamins and other beneficial elements contained in tuna give men strength and maintain muscle mass. For women, the benefit of the product is its high nutritional value and low calorie content.
Phosphorus develops memory and attention, calcium is responsible for the health of bones and teeth, vitamin E ensures the beauty of skin and hair.
Contraindications to eating tuna are individual intolerance and allergies to seafood. The product is not recommended for pregnant women (unless in small quantities). Patients suffering from kidney failure should also be careful with this fish.
From canned food
Light and nutritious fish cutlets are easiest to prepare from canned food. Using semi-finished products speeds up the cooking process.
What ingredients will you need?
The recipe for the fish dish includes:
- 250 g tuna canned in its own juice;
- 100 g red salad onion;
- 100 g juicy carrots;
- ½ lemon fruit;
- 2 eggs;
- 80 g sifted flour;
- 10 g fresh dill;
- seasonings and fine salt at your discretion;
- 80 g breadcrumbs;
- 200 ml refined frying oil.
Step-by-step cooking process
The cutlet frying method consists of the following steps:
- Peeled and washed carrots need to be grated on a grater with medium mesh.
- The onion should be chopped as finely as possible.
- Place the chopped vegetables in hot oil and fry until transparent and then golden.
- Dill needs to be chopped.
- The liquid must be drained from the tuna, after which the slices of flesh must be placed in containers and mashed with a fork.
- Squeeze lemon juice and chopped dill into the fish, after which the minced meat must be mixed.
- The fish must be mixed with fried vegetables, then an egg must be released into the minced meat.
- Pour flour and breadcrumbs into different plates.
- Drive an egg into the third container, add a little water, pepper and salt, stirring with a fork.
- You need to heat the oil in a frying pan.
- Cutlets should be formed from minced fish, then each one should be rolled in flour, then in eggs, and then in breadcrumbs.
- The cutlets need to be fried in hot oil until golden.
Serving rules, decoration
The fried cutlets can be placed in a container with thick walls, after which they should be filled with a mixture of tomato paste and sour cream. After 5 minutes of stewing, the dish should be served with a side dish of boiled potatoes, rice or pasta.
Nutritional and energy value:
Ready meals | |||
kcal 972.8 kcal | proteins 147.5 g | fat 6.7 g | carbohydrates 80.3 g |
Portions | |||
kcal 97.3 kcal | proteins 14.8 g | fat 0.7 g | carbohydrates 8 g |
100 g dish | |||
kcal 99.3 kcal | proteins 15.1 g | fat 0.7 g | carbohydrates 8.2 g |
Useful tips and tricks
Frozen tuna cutlets are a simple treat that even a novice cook can make.
For optimal results, it is better to use the advice of experienced chefs:
- You should not prepare meatballs from frozen fillets; it is better to let the tuna thaw on the refrigerator shelf.
- When gutting, it is important not to disturb the gall bladder, as the bile will spoil the fillet. It is better to leave the head, fins and tail for preparing fish soup.
- It is better to grind the meat using a meat grinder so that the minced meat turns out juicy and does not resemble paste.
- Soaked bread, butter and cottage cheese will give the minced meat tenderness.
- Cutlets hold their shape well if they are breaded before frying.
- It is better to fry the dish in a large amount of oil so that the preparations do not stick to the bottom.
- For thickness, you can add grated potatoes, eggs, oatmeal or semolina to the minced meat.
- When baking, it is better to place parchment or a silicone mat on a baking sheet.
Cutlets made from frozen and canned tuna are a good alternative to meat balls, since the taste and texture of the fish resembles beef, while the dish turns out to be low-calorie, satisfying and healthy.
About the dish
Tuna meat is very beneficial for the human body, as it contains a large amount of omega-3 fats, which makes this fish an ideal product for preparing dietary dishes.
Dietary fish cutlets should be steamed or oven-baked. The recipe below will cook them in the oven. This method allows you to get an appetizing crust without frying, which will make them as healthy as possible and low in calories, since oil is not used for baking.