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Chef Mo
The Lenten season is upon us, and Catholics know what that means: Meat is a no-go on Fridays. For the 40 days before Easter Sunday, beginning on Ash Wednesday (or Fat Tuesday), many Catholics choose to abstain from certain indulgences to mirror the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert leading up to his crucifixion. However, even if they don’t choose a certain item to fast from, the one rule that every Christian knows is that they should not eat meat on Ash Wednesday or any Friday during Lent.
While chicken and beef are off limits, fish is acceptable to enjoy on Lenten Fridays. Because of that, many restaurants—including fast food drive-thrus—offer fish for a limited time during Lent. Even though restaurants roll out the fish offerings and many stores up their seafood selections, I grew up eating Friday dinner at my church.
Every week, the parish would host a Friday fish fry and serve fish, fries, mac and cheese, pierogi, and pizza to make fasting from meat just a little bit easier. And, it didn’t matter if you were a member of the church or even Catholic faith—the Friday night fish fry was the place to be and a staple in my community.
Until leaving Pittsburgh, I didn’t realize that the weekly fish fry is not a common practice outside of Western Pennsylvania and the Midwest. So, I quickly learned that Fridays would mean fending for myself to make meatless dishes.
The easiest solution to a meat-free Friday is ordering a cheese pizza or making a grilled cheese or pasta. However, I recently started making a new recipe that takes all of five minutes to prepare, can be customized with what’s already in the fridge, and starts with a simple can of tuna.
The Easy Spicy Tuna Rice Bowl I Eat Every Week of Lent
My current Lenten meal that will carry me through Easter—and, honestly, well beyond—is a spicy tuna rice bowl.
The spicy tuna rice bowl feels like an easy, approachable way for me to make sushi-inspired dishes at home with pantry staples I already have. I start with a base of instant rice that cooks up in minutes, then top it with a tuna “salad.” For the tuna, I use basic canned white tuna that I mix with mayonnaise, Sriracha, a few spices, and an avocado, if I have one.
Then, I add the tuna to the rice along with whatever veggies are in my fridge and on their last life: think: cucumbers, carrots, edamame, red onion, and green onion. Sometimes I add more spicy mayo to the whole bowl, but, recently I’ve been using Heinz’s new Thai-Inspired Sweet Chili sauce for a bit of sweet heat flavor.
My new Lenten favorite is pretty similar to the bang bang salmon rice bowl I like to make for weeknight dinners, but without the need to cook any fish. Of course, if you want the salmon flavor, you can use canned salmon instead of tuna—but canned tuna is the more economical option.
The whole dish comes together in minutes and, because you can swap out the ingredients or sauces, it can taste like a new meal every time. With so many flavors of tuna, sauces, and bowl toppings to choose from, it's no wonder I'm making this dish once a week.
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