This Venezuelan rice and tuna salad is a complete, fresh, colorful dish that comes together in under 15 minutes and only needs an hour in the fridge before it’s ready to eat. With red bell pepper, sweet corn, tomato, red onion, and cilantro, it looks like a rainbow in the bowl, perfect as a light lunch. It’s naturally gluten-free.
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My Favorite Beach Salad
Growing up in Caracas, weekend beach trips were just part of life, whether it was a quick run to the Litoral Central or, if we were lucky, the postcard-perfect cays of Morrocoy National Park.
Morrocoy was the beach of my college years, and nothing beat a hearty Spanish potato omelet or a tuna salad over pasta or rice like this one to fight off the hunger between dips in the water.
These were salads where you threw in whatever was left in the fridge. By the time real hunger hit, sand still on your skin and salt on your lips, they tasted like pure gold, kept cold in a cooler packed with ice. Pair that with an ice-cold beer, and you had the perfect afternoon.
Beach memories aside, this is a salad I make often for lunch, as a complete meal on its own. I love that it always has bits of crunchy red bell pepper and onion, and I’m a sucker for the contrast with the sweetness of the corn.
Ā”Buen provecho!
Enri
Ingredients
To make this salad, you’ll need:
- Day-old cooked basmati rice
- Canned tuna, in water or olive oil
- Canned corn
- Red onion
- Red bell pepper
- JalapeƱo
- Tomato
- Cilantro
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Exact quantities are in the recipe card at the end of the post.
How to Make Rice and Tuna Salad
- Gather all your ingredients.Ā Combine the rice, drained tuna, corn, red onion, bell pepper, tomato, jalapeƱo, and cilantro in a large bowl, and toss well.
- Make the vinaigrette.Ā In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper until emulsified.
- Dress, cover, and chill.Ā Pour the vinaigrette over the salad, mix well, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Day-old rice is the secret here: cold and dry, it soaks up the vinaigrette without turning mushy. Don’t skip the chilling step, it’s what brings the flavors together.
Preguntas frecuentes
Did You Know?
Basmati rice gets its name from Sanskrit: “bas” means fragrance and “mati” means full of. So its name literally translates to “full of fragrance,” and it lives up to it. It’s been grown for over 250 years in the plains of northern India and Pakistan, at the foot of the Himalayas, and it’s one of the few rice varieties with internationally protected geographic origin status.
Source: FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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Venezuelan Rice and Tuna Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 2 cups day-old cooked basmati rice 370 g
- 3 cans tuna in olive oil, drained 425 g
- 2 cups canned corn kernels 310 g
- 1 cup red onion, finely chopped 120 g
- 3/4 cup red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finelly chopped 90 g
- 1 cup tomato, diced 150 g
- 2 tablespoons jalapeƱo, finelly chopped 20 g
- 1 cup cilantro, steems included, finelly chopped 40 g
For the vinaigrette:
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 80 ml
- 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar 60 ml
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Drain the tuna and corn well. In a large bowl, combine the rice, tuna, corn, red onion, bell pepper, tomato, jalapeƱo, and cilantro. Toss well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper until emulsified.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and mix until fully combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
- Serve cold, straight from the fridge.
Nutrition
Notes
- Nutritional values are approximate and were calculated automatically with WordPress Recipe Maker. They may vary depending on the specific ingredients and brands used.
- This recipe is naturally gluten-free. Check the labels on your canned tuna and vinegar to be sure.
- Keeps up to 3 days in the fridge in an airtight container. Freezing is not recommended.
- This salad gets better with time. If you can, make it the night before for a ready-to-go lunch that tastes even better the next day.
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