There is something quite comforting about a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich and since going vegan I have been trying to find a good alternative to tuna. So far, my best has been my homemade chickpea and sweetcorn recipe which does a good job of replacing my tuna meals. I have to say though that there does not appear to be many vegan alternatives to fish out there, and the versions that are available are nothing too spectacular. Hence my surprise to see this Luma tin of tuno on offer at a local Holland and Barratt.
Now…stick with me here because I have to admit that this tuno is not at all appealing to look at. It looks like catfood. I opened the tin and thought I had made a terrible mistake and accidentally picked up a can of specialist cat food. I even googled the company just to be sure it was in fact safe for humans to eat. I gave it a little taste and did not get sick, so I assumed it was ok. I did decide to mix this with some sweetcorn and a little extra mayo, just to see if that helped mask the catfood appearance.
It did not. If anything it just wound up looking like a very posh catfood. I did taste it again and it really just tasted like mayo and sweetcorn. Luckily it seems the tuno itself has no odour…it did not smell like fish at all. In fact it didn’t smell of anything. It also didn’t taste of anything aside from a slight hint of mayo. Even when I added sweetcorn and extra mayo, it still only tasted like sweetcorn and mayo.
The texture is more similar to tofu I would say. It does seem to be tofu based – it is made out of soya afterall – so I imagine it is the type of food that tastes like whatever you add to it. On it’s own, you wouldn’t even know you had eaten anything. I have to say the texture does seem to just melt in your mouth so that may be helpful if you are wanting to add this product to another dish, as it does seem to blend seamlessly into other ingredients.
I wanted to keep my first use of it quite basic so I could get a real feel for the product as it was. While it tasted fine – obviously once added to other things – it is not at all appealling to look at. If you are someone who eats with your eyes, you have been warned. Even when I put my mixture into a sandwich, I still kept thinking that it was a catfood sandwich.
Luckily it seems to be quite an affordable product. I bought this on sale for 99p and it was marked down from £1.50. I have managed to get just over 3 servings from this one tin which is 3 lunches for me, so it does last quite a while in my opinion. The biggest turn off for me though is the appearance, especially when I compare it to how this recipe looks when I use chickpeas in place of tuna. I am sure it would work fine if you needed a quick fix for a recipe, and for £1.50 it is affordable. That being said, a big tin of chickpeas is only 50p so that is something to consider.
Taylor Talks Vegan 