Marinated Tuna With Sesame Spinach
This meal will provide you with lots of nutrients, whilst impressing whoever else you’re cooking for! This dish of marinated tuna with sesame spinach contains just over 400 calories per serving, so it’ll give you a good dose of energy. But it won’t leave you feeling tired and sluggish, with it being an easy meal to digest. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the ingredients...
Ingredients
Instructions
7 steps
In a small bowl, mix 1½ tbs of the sesame oil, 2 tbs of the soy sauce, ginger, garlic, green onion, and lime juice.
Place the tuna steaks in a glass dish and pour the sesame oil mixture over the tuna. Cover, place in the refrigerator, and marinate for 20 – 30 minutes.
Bring a grill to medium-high heat. Remove tuna from marinade and place on the hot grill. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes per side or until done. Set aside while preparing spinach.
Rinse and stem the spinach leaves.
Place the sesame seeds in a dry pan or skillet and toast for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the spinach to the pan. With the leaves still a little wet from the rinsing, the spinach will cook down quite a bit. Cover and cook for about two minutes or until wilted to desired taste. You may need to turn the spinach over to cook it evenly.
Remove spinach from heat and drizzle with remaining sesame oil and soy sauce. Toss and serve with tuna.
Notes: Background
Marinating
- Marination is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.
- The origin of the word alludes to the use of brine (aqua marina) in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavour by immersion in liquid (marinade).
- The ‘marinade’, can be either acidic (made with ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice, or wine) or enzymatic (made with ingredients such as pineapple, papaya).
- In addition to these ingredients, a marinade often contains oils, herbs, and spices to further flavour the food items.
Photos
Notes: Ingredients
Tuna – excellent source of protein
Protein in dish (1 serving = 1 tuna steak) = approx. 40g
Our bodies need protein for a number of other reasons:
- Hair and nails (both are predominantly made of protein)
- Building and repairing tissues (protein is an important building block of bones, muscles,
- cartilage, skin, and blood)
- Making enzymes (aids digestion), hormones (balanced hormones = balanced mood), and other body chemicals
Protein is also good for weight-loss:
- Helps you feel fuller for longer (by slowing digestion) – so you’re less likely to go back for seconds, or snack soon after your meal.
- By eating less, you’ll begin to lose fat, but you can also lose muscle mass (our bodies take energy from both). But by eating lots of protein, you can maintain your muscles – which is good news, because lean muscle tissue burns calories!
Toasted sesame seeds
- Great for adding protein to a meal, with 7 grams of protein per ounce (this recipe uses
approx 30g).
- Also high in copper, manganese, calcium, and magnesium – as well as lots of other nutrients. This is what you’ll get from a 1 ounce (28g) serving of sesame seeds.
- Manganese – 0.7 mg. 35% RDA.
- Copper – 0.7 mg. 35% RDA.
- Calcium – 277 mg. 28% RDA.
- Iron – 4.1 mg. 23% RDA.
- Magnesium – 99.7 mg. 25% RDA.
- Tryptophan – 93 mg.
- Zinc – 2 mg. 13% RDA.
- Fiber – 3.9 g. 16% RDA.
- Thiamin – 0.2 mg. 15% RDA.
- Vitamin B6 – 0.2 mg. 11% RDA.
- Phosphorous – 179 mg. 18% RDA.
- Protein – 4.7 g.
- Benefits:
- Sesame seeds are full of zinc, an essential mineral for producing collagen and giving skin more elasticity.
- Zinc also helps damaged tissues in the body to repair.
