Tuna Salad and Olive Tapenade

These are 2 pretty simple recipes that you can modify as you please. You probably won’t have the exact ingredients that I use, so look at the proportions and mix up your own version, adjusting the nutritional information accordingly. We don’t like mayo, so I use English Double Devon Cream. You can certainly substitute mayo and adjust the nutritional information.

Both of these recipes also do a pretty good job of hiding extra fat. You could mix in a few extra grams of coconut oil or butter to boost the ratio in your meal. Nora likes to eat both of these with a spoon!

1 serving (35 g) of Tuna Salad. Whole recipe makes 6 servings. Nutritional Analysis by www.caloriecount.com

Tuna Salad
126 g Sea Star Canned Tuna (from Newport, OR)
54 g English Double Devon Cream
16 g Greek Gods Traditional Plain Greek Yogurt
15 g extra virgin olive oil

Mix all ingredients well, weigh and serve!

The Tuna Salad recipe is for a batch of 6 servings, with the nutritional information given for a 35 g serving (6 servings per batch). But in our meal calculator we list it by the gram with breakdowns per gram, so we can use any amount of tuna salad that works with the meal.

The ratio of this tuna salad is 2.1:1. The meal will need some extra fat to balance out to higher ratios, but this ratio beats a lot of other protein options like sliced turkey or cheddar cheese. It’s a nice thing to mix as a batch and have on hand for a few days worth of lunches.

Nutrition information for 1 serving (1 batch) of Olive Tapanade. Nutritional analysis from www.caloriecount.com

Olive Tapenade
5 g extra virgin olive oil
10 g Peloponnese Pitted Kalamata Olives
10 g Napoleon Chopped Green Olives
10 g raw macadamia nuts, ground well

Chop the kalamata olives into small pieces. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve!

It is easy to mix up a several servings of Olive Tapenade at a time  (if you want to make 5 servings, just take all of the amounts times 5). If you put them in 1 container, then weigh out 35 g of the mixture per serving. Or as long as you have all of the ingredients out, you could mix up several batches in different containers and they are all ready to serve.

I use Peloponnese Kalamata Olives because they are a 4.5:1 ratio, the best that we can find on the shelf. One mom at the Charlie Foundation Symposium related the story of noticing a woman studiously comparing nutritional labels at the grocery store. She started a conversion and found out that the woman was starting her child on a rigorous to diet to treat epilepsy. So there you go, if you see a glassy-eyed mom studying labels at the grocery store, start up a conversation! The Napolean Chopped Green Olives come in a can and are a 3:1 ratio. With the added olive oil and macadamia nuts, the recipe is a 7.9:1 ratio! Pair it with lower-ratio ingredients for a meal.

The Keto Cookbook inspired me to make Olive Tapanade (big surprise!) There is also a flax cracker recipe that accompanies the original recipe which is good, but it’s very time intensive to make. I realized that I could use Flackers instead and made up my own version of the Olive Tapanade. Although I pair it with Flackers, Nora usually eats her Olive Tapanade with a spoon! Scrape the bowl clean with a rubber spatula–it’s good to the last gram.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in Recipes by Christy Anderson Brekken. Bookmark the permalink.

About Christy Anderson Brekken

In no particular order... Instructor and Researcher, Department of Applied Economics, Oregon State University. Educational background: University of MN Law School, 2005. MS in Ag and Resource Economics, Oregon State University, 2011. Teaches: Agricultural Law, Environmental Law. Mother: brilliant 9 year old boy; brilliant 6 year old girl with benign myoclonic epilepsy on a modified ketogenic diet therapy. Married to: Ted Brekken, OSU Department of Electrical Engineering. Ride: Xtra-cycle Edgerunner with kid seat; 400-pound cargo capacity. Grew up: Devils Lake, ND. Lived in: Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Pohang, South Korea, Trondheim, Norway, Corvallis, OR. Interests: Cooking, knitting, eating, yoga, laughing, hiking, traveling, staying sane.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *