White Beans with Tuna & Pickled Onions | Everyday Dorie

There are no rules for a pantry-and-fridge salad, you start with what’s available. It’s an accessible, feel-good and versatile approach; I should be doing it more often. Foraging in the pantry and fridge gives me canned white beans, canned tuna, white onions and arugula. There you have it: the white beans with tuna and pickled onions is taking shape for a quick weekday lunch.

Next, I move on to the other ingredients. The goal is to elevate the salad, guided by Dorie’s recipe of white beans and smoked fish (page 102). I choose cucumbers for crunch. Red bell pepper for contrasting color. Lastly, lemon juice and zest for brightness. By and large, chopping up these salad ingredients takes up most amount of time and focus. The rest is breezy and easy.

Make the vinaigrette with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, grainy mustard, Dijon mustard and seasoned with salt and pepper. This is a variation of the everyday balsamic-mustard salad dressing I often make. It’s light and goes anywhere, like garden salads, slaws or roasted vegetables. I garnish the white beans salad with fresh dill which has been languishing in the fridge for a few days.

The added twist has to be the pickled onions. Make a brine with cider vinegar, water, sugar and sea salt. Let the sliced onions sit in the brine for about 30 minutes. It’s simply a process of coating (not soaking) the onions in acid and allow them to macerate and soften their harshness. What a remarkable alchemy of time!

Since I have cucumbers, I quick-pickle some of them as well. Store the leftover onions and cucumbers in jars. They become one of the treasured flavor-enhancing items in the fridge — right at my fingertips.