Recipe For Tuna Cakes

Tuna cakes are quick to prepare and taste hot or cold, as an accompaniment to salad or as a main course to rice.

Tuna meatballs are a quick recipe that requires few ingredients and which you can usually “conjure up” from stocks if you have few fresh ingredients in the house.

Also learn interesting facts about the tuna from which you make the fresh tuna cakes !

Tuna meatballs: please buy sustainable fish!

If you want to make tuna meatballs, then of course you need tuna. Please do not go to the nearest discount store and buy the next best can you can find, but buy with understanding and background knowledge!

First make sure that the tuna in the can is “bonito” from the Pacific. Tuna is heavily overfished and some species are threatened with extinction due to overfishing. Only the species “bonito” in the Pacific is not overfished, so you should choose this one.

Furthermore, make sure that the tuna for your tuna meatballs is from sustainable catches, because if it is not, nets are used in which other animals such as turtles, dolphins or other animals can get caught.

Unfortunately there is far too often a fraudulent label and even if you think you are buying “Bonito” from the Pacific, there are often other types in the can.

Which seal should be on the can?

If you want to buy tuna for your tuna meatballs that has been caught where the stocks are not overfished, you can choose from several seals.

However, these seals are not state-controlled, so there is no guarantee that the canned fish actually meets the criteria. Possible seals are:

• MSC: fishing here is sustainable and environmentally friendly, but bottom trawls are allowed.
• FOS: somewhat stricter criteria than MSC, unfortunately not entirely transparent and not always consistent.
• SAFE: dolphin-free catches here, but also in overfished stocks and with dubious methods
• NATURLAND: strictest guideline of the organic association for wild catch and breeding

As you can see, a seal does not always mean that you are getting what you think, however you should never buy tuna without one of these seals, in order to have a certain minimum standard.

At best, you buy your tuna in the health food store. While it is not “organically grown”, it is more likely to be sustainably caught.

Recipe note

Please only use the tuna “in its own juice” for our tuna meatballs , because the one in oil is a fat bomb and has nothing to do with “healthy”.

First open the can halfway and carefully pour off the “juice”, as it is often very salty and also dilutes the recipe for tuna meatballs.

If there is some tuna left after you have prepared your tuna meatballs, please transfer it to another container and do not leave it in the can.

The open metal edges can oxidize with atmospheric oxygen and the salt from the product and change the taste. A tightly closed small storage jar is ideal.

Recipe for tuna meatballs

For two people who eat tuna meatballs as a main course with salad or some rice, you will need the following ingredients:

• 2 cans of tuna (please “in its own juice”)
• 1 large onion
• 2 old rolls (or breadcrumbs)
• 3 eggs
• Pepper, frying oil, a splash of lemon juice

Soak the buns in a little water and crush them to a pulp. Mix the porridge with the three eggs and stir well so that the ingredients combine well.

Cut the onion into cubes and mix the onion cubes into the egg mixture. Roughly chop the tuna pieces with a fork, then mix them into the egg mixture with a mixer.

Season with a little lemon juice and pepper and heat the frying oil in a pan. Form small tuna meatballs out of the mass. You decide whether to make them flat or round. Fry the tuna meatballs in hot oil until crispy.

If you want the tuna meatballs to have a particularly crispy crust, roll them in some breadcrumbs before frying. To do this, you ideally form small balls or mini meatballs in the form of croquettes.

Serve hot and crispy! It goes well with a crispy green salad or rice with a fruity salsa made from tomatoes and peppers.