A Quick and Easy Way to Cook Tuna (and Sides)

Last night I made a quick and easy dinner of seared tuna with sesame seeds, sautéed string beans and a chopped salad of cucumbers, tomatoes and parsley.

Yes, it really was quick and easy and you don’t have to be Julia (or Julie) to make it. The only ingredients I used were those listed above, plus olive oil, lemon juice, unrefined sea salt and fresh ground pepper for cooking and/or seasoning.

The play-by-play of the 20 minutes it took to prep and cook:

• Wash all veggies.
• Make salad by chopping cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley. Combine in a bowl; add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Let sit while cooking tuna and string beans.
• Prep string beans by first trimming ends and then cutting in half. Set aside.
• Prep tuna by putting sesame seeds onto a plate. Press both sides of tuna steak into sesame seeds, allowing seeds to stick to tuna. Set aside.
• Begin cooking of tuna and string beans by heating two pans, both with just enough olive oil to coat pans’ bottoms. When oil is hot but not smoking, put string beans in one pan and tuna (seasoned with salt and pepper at the last second) in the other.
• Shake or stir string beans, but let tuna sit in pan. When surface of tuna touching pan starts to turn white (it will only take two or three minutes), flip tuna to second side. Continue to shake or stir string beans. Turn off heat under string beans when they start to turn bright green. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper, and mix. Turn off heat under tuna when second side has started to turn white.
• Plate tuna, string beans and salad. Enjoy!