Just last week, my husband and I were doing some yard work. We've only been in our house for a year, so this is only the second big overhaul we have done to our yard. As we were chopping away branches of shrubs and trees, we looked over and saw a huge amount of weeds and flowers. Well, we thought they were weeds. It turns out that we have a huge amount of mint growing in our backyard. Massive. Of course, as soon as I discovered this, I started using mint left and right.
Side note: Mint & strawberry infused water is the best thing I've had to drink in a long time.
When I began menu planning for this week, I knew I wanted my recipes to contain mint; that's how this recipe came to be. The barley salad is really the feature of this dish. The good news is that you can easily substitute quinoa or rice for barley if you follow a gluten free diet! The salad had a great consistency and is perfect served with seared tuna.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mint, chopped and divided
- 4 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 2 ahi tuna steaks
- 1 cup barley, cooked
- 1/2 cup feta
- 1 cup tomato, chopped
- 1/2 cup scallions, chopped (green part only)
- 2 Tbsp. capers
- 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. EVOO
Directions
- Combine 1/4 cup mint, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small shallow dish. Add the tuna steaks, turn to coat, let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Take the cooked barley (once cooled), and mix in the feta, 1/4 cup mint, tomatoes, scallions, capers, and olives. Mix to combine.
- Heat the EVOO in a medium skillet on medium-high heat. Add the tuna steaks. Allow the tuna steaks for cook for 2-3 minutes per side to desired level of doneness.
- Spoon the barley mixture on to a plate. Serve the seared tuna on top.
- Enjoy hot.
