Tuna Papaya Salad with Sweet and Salty Papaya Seeds

Tuna Papaya Salad with Sweet and Salty Papaya seeds

Recipe created by Lou Edney for Ruby Rise Papaya
Serves 2

Papaya seeds are highly nutritious and sadly often discarded. They can be easily dried and fla-voured with savoury or sweet spices and/ or sauces and then sprinkled on salads, fruit, pastas or other bowl food for extra nutritious flavoursome crunch.

Ingredients
Salad
150g pole and line caught Tuna
1 cubed Lebanese cucumber
1 cubed (200g) Avocado
1 cup plucked whole dill leaves
2 cups salad leaves
300g Ruby Rise papaya
2 tablespoons Sweet and Salty Papaya Seeds
Drizzle best quality extra virgin olive oil

Sweet and Salty Papaya seeds
Seeds from 1 Papaya
1 teaspoon soy or Tamari
1 teaspoon maple syrup

Optional
1 cup cooked Risoni pasta (60g dry)
or ⅔ cup wild rice (50g dry)

Method
For the Sweet and Salty Seeds
- make the day before or at least an hour prior to serving the salad
Preheat the oven to 50oC.
Slice the ripe papaya in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Remove any chunky pieces of papaya but keep some of the orange tendrils, they dry nicely too.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the seeds evenly in a single layer onto the tray and transfer to the oven.
Set the timer for 20 minutes and turn with a spatula. Reset for 10. Repeat until they are dry. Store in a clean dry jar for several weeks or continue on to the next step.
Mix together the soy and maple and mix through the seeds. Return to the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. Repeat as above until dry and crispy. Now, store in a clean dry jar for several weeks

For the salad
Prepare your salad ingredients as per the list above.
Cut the avocado and cucumber into cubes.
Pluck dill sprigs and wash salad leaves
Lastly, peel the papaya then cube with a knife or slice on a mandolin.
Assemble the salad starting with the leaves, top with the other ingredients and top with olive oil and then the sweet and salty papaya seeds.

Ruby Rise Red Papaya is Australia's newest papaya brand, and is 100% Aussie owned and grown. It's a lush and delicious tropical fruit that's bursting with natural supergoodness – the perfect way to brighten up your table this Spring/Summer.