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Breakfast Tuna Melt with Eggs and Potatoes

There is a Spanish side dish in Northern Spain (and other regions) called
ensaladilla de gambas that includes a mixture of potatoes, carrots and maybe a few
other vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, shrimp, and mayonnaise, that is very tasty. The
tuna fish sandwich-inspired mixture below includes canned tuna, in addition to
cooked potato and a sunny-side-up egg.
Throw in some chives, freshly-squeezed lime juice, and sliced red onion, and you
have yourself a tuna fish mixture that will blow your mind. I hadn’t eaten a tuna
melt in years, but I went ahead and made this yesterday, and it was really
wonderful.
I prefer using the added sunny-side-up egg approach over boiling an egg, because
it’s faster, and I like how the runny yolk mixes in with the other ingredients.
Thin-sliced tomatoes are optional, but I would encourage you to include them!

Ingredients

  • 1 small Yukon Gold potato
  • 2 Tbsp red onion (finely sliced (less than ¼ of a small red onion))
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 small can tuna fish (drained)
  • 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp bread and butter pickles (small dice)
  • 1 tsp American yellow mustard
  • ¼ tsp dried oregano
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • A small pinch of cayenne powder
  • 20 fresh chives (finely sliced)
  • Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper (to taste)
  • ½ tsp olive oil
  • 1 whole egg
  • 4 slices of sandwich bread (or 2 fresh bagels cut in half)
  • 2 slices American cheese
  • 2 slices Pepper Jack cheese
  • 1 Roma tomato (cut into fine slices)
  • A tiny pinch of salt for the tomatoes

Instructions 

  • Preheat your oven to 400˚F.
  • Before you make the prepared tuna mixture, boil the potato whole in salted water until completely tender.
  • *This should take about 40 minutes.
  • Cut the potato into small pieces, and set aside in a large mixing bowl.
  • Combine the sliced red onion with the lime zest and lime juice, and allow this mixture to sit for a few minutes while you gather the remaining ingredients.
  • Drain the tuna fish, and add the tuna to the potatoes.
  • Add the red onions and lime zest and lime juice from earlier to the tuna and potato mixture.
  • Add the mayonnaise, diced bread and butter pickles, American yellow mustard,
  • dried oregano, garlic powder, and cayenne powder, and mix to combine.
  • Add in the sliced chives, and continue mixing until fully incorporated.
  • Taste, and season with kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
  • *I like to use a lot of freshly-ground black pepper, roughly 20 or 30 grinds, which would be considered excessive by many.
  • Cook the egg sunny-side-up in a splash of olive oil in a small nonstick sauté pan, and remove from the heat when the egg white is completely set and cooked, and the egg yolk is still soft and runny.
  • Stir in the sunny-side-up egg to fully incorporate it with the tuna and potato mixture, and set the mixing bowl aside for whenever you are ready to assemble your sandwiches.
  • For the bread or bagels you are using, add the cheese on top, and toast in the oven at 400˚F for about six minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and the bread is nicely toasted.
  • Sprinkle a few grains of salt on your finely-sliced tomatoes.
  • Remove the toasted bread or bagels with the melted cheese from the oven, and top with the prepared tuna mixture, along with a few of the finely-sliced, salted Roma tomatoes.
  • Enjoy immediately, with extra napkins.

Notes

You can double or triple the recipe make a few extra breakfast patties, which you can then freeze on parchment paper, covered with plastic wrap.
Sometimes I’ll add cooked potatoes in with the cooked soy protein, especially for a breakfast-oriented patty.