White bean tuna salad

You can't always judge a recipe by how it looks, particularly if the food stylists have turned it into something else. I totally understand the need for staging, despite the fact that I obviously don't engage in much of it. Props and garnishes are part of making a cookbook or magazine recipe look more enticing. Rough hewn tables and artfully strewn crumbs are part of the deal.

But I really dislike it when they've significantly altered something about the recipe to the point where they don't represent the same proportions of ingredients. I thought this recipe was primarily beans, looking at the picture, but either they added twice the amount of beans or used half the amount of arugula in this one for styling purposes. That doesn't mean it's not a decent recipe, but it's kind of bait and switch.

White bean tuna salad

Adapted from a recipe.com recipe published in the September 2013 issue of Better Homes & Gardens

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

2 5-ounce cans tuna packed in water, drained

2 cups arugula, torn into bite-size pieces if needed

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

¼ cup parsley, chopped

¼ cup red wine vinegar

Juice of ½ lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Method

Combine beans, tuna, arugula, onion and parsley in a large serving bowl.

Combine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper and mix well. Toss with salad in bowl. I would say this makes 3 main dish servings, or 4 fairly skimpy ones, because it's as much greens as beans.

Rating: This recipe tastes very fresh, despite the fact that you open three cans to make it. Dave said it was a good antidote to a case of the Februaries. It's a fast fix, whatever it is, or whatever it looks like.