Asian Inspired Tuna Cakes

JanuaryBride's Note:

Found this recipe in "The Metro St. Louis Guide to Smart Parenting" as a kid-friendly healthy recipe. Very simple and very tasty! The sauce rEALLY makes the recipe! The soy and panko give a nice twist to the familiar boring tuna cakes of yesteryear. Can be used as a main dish or as an appetizer. NOTE: Due to the concensus of reviewers, I have decreased the original 1/4 cup soy sauce to 1.5 tablespoons.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6

Yield: 1.0 cake

• 1 (6 ounce) can tuna in water , drained
• 1 ½ tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 eggs , beaten
• ¼ teaspoon pepper (or more to taste)
• ½ small white onion , minced
• 1 cup panko
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 dashes Tabasco sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Directions:

1. Beat eggs and then combine with tuna, soy sauce, pepper, onion, panko and melted butter.
2. Form into patties (make small ones, so everyone gets 2 for a meal) and chill in refrigerator for 20 minues.
3. In the meanwhile, make your dipping sauce. Mix the mayo, garlic powder, lemon juice, lemon pepper and Tabasco sauce (feel free to add more as you like).
4. Place dipping sauce in a sandwich size Ziplock baggie.
5. Heat oil in large pan.
6. Cook tuna cakes for approx 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown, turning cakes only once to get good color.
7. When browned on each side, remove and place on a paper towel to drain off excess oil.
8. Take baggie with the dipping sauce and barely snip off one of the corners of the baggie. Drizzle the sauce over the top of each cake.

Reviews

[SilverOpera]

Thanks so much for your wonderful recipe! My boyfriend and I really, really enjoyed them. I made a bunch of changes to make them Weight Watchers-friendly, and I don't think they suffered at all for it. I used 12 oz of tuna instead of 6 but kept other proportions the same. I substituted Egg Beaters for the eggs, replaced the butter with 1 tsp of olive oil (I'd probably just skip it next time), used 3/4 lowfat plain yogurt and 1/4 light mayo for the sauce, and used about 1 T of sriracha instead of the hot pepper sauce to give it more kick. I also upped the garlic powder. Even with all these changes, they were delicious. In terms of serving size, I made 8 patties and served two per serving. They worked out to 7 points, which is spot on for a Weight Watchers lunch. Thank you for a great base recipe - I'm sure they'd be even better made as directed, but I was very pleased that even with modified ingredients, they had such good flavor. My boyfriend even requested to have them again. Thanks!

[morgainegeiser]

These were an interesting twist on tuna cakes. I love to make tuna cakes when I need a quick and fast supper. I like the addition of the panko and soy sauce. Mine got a tad dry, but they were still tasty. Made for ZWT6

[Chef #1170619]

This recipes was very easy to make and very flavorful. Even my 5 years old twins liked them (except for the tiny pieces of oniont my son discovered). We serevd with rice but nect time will definitelyserve on a salad. This is a nice change from every day menu in our house. Definite keeper!