Best Cannellini Bean Salad With Tuna and Artichoke Hearts

I look outside, I listen. I see nothing but blooms and green, I hear the symphony of birds, unburdened by our human troubles. Nature, being nature. A diversion most welcome. It's bitter-sweet really, this time of year...this time, this year. The time of year itself is nothing but rebirth, freshness, renewal, but the uncertainty of our seemingly predictable life, palpable.

Maneuvering through these days is a challenge, to say the least. There is a certain undoing and relearning taking place in all of us. Little did I know that something as basic as going to the market one, two, or more times a day would be something in the distant past. A luxury, which I can no longer afford without putting myself or others at risk.

We've had to adjust and recalibrate our actions because we care about one another, about people we've never met and will never meet. Perhaps that itself shows human strength. All of that is to say that we've had to simplify and reorient in order to make space for the discomfort.

And since making my own adjustments as a cook, I've had to rethink some recipes and plan ahead more than usual. This involves keeping things healthy but using more shelf-stable items and getting creative.

So for this recipe, I've teamed up once again with my all-time favorite canned tuna company, St. Jude Tuna! And today we're making a white bean tuna salad with artichoke hearts. Their tuna was the obvious choice for this delicious salad. St. Jude has been consistent in the quality they provide, their safe catch practices. They focus exclusively on tuna and all of their catch is from the North or South Pacific.

• Grain-free
• Gluten-free
• Dairy-free
• Incredibly easy to make
• Requires mostly pantry ingredients
• Full of flavor

The beauty of this recipe is that most of the ingredients are shelf-stable and those that are not can be substituted or left out entirely, depending on availability. So for this recipe we'll be using:

• St. Jude canned tuna
• 2 cups cannellini beans
• Marinated artichoke hearts
• Capers
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Rice wine vinegar
• Fresh or dried dill
• Lemon juice
• Shallot
• Red cabbage

This is entirely up to you. If you're sensitive to legumes, I would recommend soaking dried beans overnight, cooking them for 45 minutes (or until desired softness) in fresh water and letting them cool. Otherwise, canned will work just fine.

Yes, if you don't have Cannellini beans, great northern beans work well, so do butter beans, red kidney beans or even navy beans.

Marinated artichoke hearts add a nice tangy flavor to this white bean tuna salad, but if you can't find marinated, canned will work just as well. Or even fresh if you want to go the extra length.

Fresh is always best for this salad but again, if you can't find any at your local market or ran out of fresh, using a little dried dill will add a nice flavor without overpowering.

If you don't have rice wine vinegar, you can substitute with white vinegar. Rice wine vinegar is milder and a little sweeter than white vinegar so add just slightly less than 1 tsp.

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