Tuna Tostadas - Crunchy & Fresh In Under 30 Minutes!

Recipe: Tuna Tostada Recipe »

These Tuna Tostadas are a fantastic Mexican appetiser for taco night or entertaining. Crispy corn tortillas are topped with creamy guacamole and sashimi grade tuna mixed with mayonnaise, capers, red onion and chilli for a fresh, spicy bite. Inspired by restaurant-style tostadas, they're crunchy, utterly delicious and surprisingly easy to make at home.

About Tuna Tostadas

Tostadas are a delicious Mexican snack or appetiser made with a crispy toasted corn tortilla base topped with a range of fillings. Described as an open faced taco they are super versatile. Tostada translates to "Toasted" in Spanish.

Tostadas seem to be on every Mexican restaurant menu at least in Sydney and here they often top them with raw tuna, salmon or scallops. There's something magical when the silky raw fish combines with the creamy guacamole and crunchy tortilla. Honestly I've never met a tostada I don't like (and I can't say the same for most things in the world!).

Today's recipe is for a raw tuna tostada which is dressed in a flavoursome mix of capers, chilli, onion and mayonnaise. Think of this as a spicy mayo tuna tostada! This topping also doesn't have a lot of "wet" ingredients so it won't make your tostada soggy.

Anatomy of A Tostada: Three Layers

Base: The corn tortilla. In the US you can buy tostadas ready made but alas not here. You can buy these mini corn tortillas and then just deep fry them. They are 13cm/5inches in diameter.

Spread: I love guacamole on tostadas, especially ones that have fresh seafood on them. Ever since my chef friend Monica taught me her guacamole recipe I've never used another.

Topping: This is sashimi grade tuna mixed with a simple dressing made up of mayo, chilli sauce (Muraca), baby capers and red onion.

Video How To Make Tuna Tostadas

Video: Tuna Tostada Recipe

Ingredients For Tuna Tostadas

Red onion - I always use red onion as it is the best onion to eat raw.

Lime juice - Fresh lime juice is best, bottled works in a pinch.

Salt - Fine or flaked salt

Avocadoes - medium sized and ripe avocadoes

Jalapeno chilli - for a medium hit of chilli spice

Tajin seasoning - Once you try Tajin you will not look back. This lime and chilli salt adds so much flavour to Mexican dishes and cocktails. Try it on the rim of a spicy Margarita! Available at the supermarket now (there was a time when we had to bring it over from America).

Corn tortillas - These are sold as white corn gluten-free tortillas in a pack of 12.

Tuna - use sashimi grade tuna, cut into sashimi slices. You can also use a mix of tuna and kingfish.

Mayonnaise - Kewpie or your favourite mayonnaise

Capers - I always have baby capers but regular sized capers also work as we will be dicing these up.

Muraca or hot cream peppers - Like Tajin, this is a delicious chilli paste that adds so much flavour and spice. Found at stores like Harris Farm and Italian delis. Lorraine's tip: mix with mayonnaise to dip your pizza crusts in!

Fried shallots - Found in the Asian aisle of the supermarket to add crunch.

Pickled Red Onion - Available at the supermarket in the pickle aisle.

Chives and Chilli Crisp (optional) - Recipe for Chilli Crisp is here.

Tips For Making Tuna Tostadas

1 - A little warning: these tostadas are big and loaded! I'd serve 1 tostada per person as an entree.

2 - Make sure to fry the tostadas until golden. Not pale golden, we want medium golden and crisp like a corn chip. They take around 3-4 minutes to deep fry per tortilla. They can also stay crisp in an airtight container for up to 5 days, provided you've fried them enough.

3 - Serve these babies straight away because anything crunchy and laden down with goodness is going to get soft.

4 - Here is a very simple version of tuna tostadas using round corn chips along with a recipe for Mexican sweetcorn with lime.

Tuna Tostada Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 12 minutes concurrently

Serves: 4

Ingredients Needed

For Guacamole

• 30g/1oz red onion, finely diced
• 20ml/0.7oz lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 medium avocadoes (around 220g/7oz flesh)
• 1 jalapeno chilli, diced
• 1/2-1 teaspoon Tajin seasoning

For tostadas

• Oil for deep frying
• 4 x corn tortillas (around 13cm/5inch in diameter)

For tuna topping

• 200g/7oz sliced sashimi tuna (I used a mix of tuna and kingfish)
• 30g/1oz mayonnaise
• 30g/1oz diced red onion
• 20g/0.7oz baby capers, chopped
• 1-2 teaspoons Muraca or hot cream peppers
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• Fried shallots and pickled red onion to serve

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 GUACAMOLE- First make the guacamole as this will need to steep for 20 minutes. Combine the red onion with the lime juice and salt in a medium sized bowl and steep for 20 minutes. While it is steeping, cook the tortillas.

Step 2 TOSTADAS - Heat oil to 180C/350F and have a plate with a double layer of paper towels ready. Cook the corn tortillas one at a time. Fry for 3-4 minutes or until golden turning halfway.

Step 3 TUNA - Then make the tuna topping. Mix the mayonnaise with the diced red onion, capers and Muraca. Toss with the tuna and add olive oil. Then finish off the guacamole.

Step 4 FINISH GUAC- Remove the flesh from the avocado and roughly mash it with the red onion mixture and lime. Add chilli and season with Tajin to your taste.

Step 5 ASSEMBLE - When ready to serve, take one tostada and top with a quarter of the guacamole and a quarter of the tuna. Finish with fried shallots and pickled red onion and serve immediately. I added chives and chilli crisp too just because I had some!

Personal Note

I made these for Saturday lunch before going away on Sunday. I mentioned before that I am currently going through a vampire stage where I can't leave the house during the day. That meant that Mr NQN had to go to buy some sashimi that morning. He suggested a fishmonger in a suburb near us and I rang up to see if they had any. They had tuna and snapper so I sent him on his way to buy some.

Sashimi grade fish can be a bit more pricey but you end up with beautiful cuts of fish sliced into sashimi sized portions. I started to prepare the tostadas making the guacamole and cooking the tortillas. Then I took out the fish from the fridge. It felt odd - usually they place it in a nice container but this was just in a plastic bag in paper.

And when I unwrapped it, it was the roughest looking piece of tuna I had ever seen. It had a thick layer of skin and scales on the flesh plus a little dongle at the end. Nothing like the sashimi slices of tuna I needed. It was cut all wrong so that we couldn't even get sashimi slices even if we wanted to. So off Mr NQN went to buy it from our more reliable fishmonger that is a little further away. He wasn't happy about having to go to a second place but when he tried the tostadas, that pain went away!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like tostadas? And I'll be sharing other tostada recipes with you soon as we love them!