Quick, Cheap And Healthy Tuna Cakes
Needing a healthy dinner that you can feed 6 people with for less than $8? Then try this super easy tuna cakes recipe! This recipe doesn’t involve any expensive or fancy ingredients and can be made simply with everyday ingredients you probably have sitting in your fridge or pantry right now. Tuna Cakes, also known as Tuna Patties are quick, cheap to make, and are low in calories.
“Perfect For A Quick Dinner Or An Easy Meal Prep”
These tuna cakes are flavorsome, moist, and don’t have that fishy taste that typically puts off most people, especially kids. The main flavors are garlic, ginger and scallions which are inspired by traditional Korean fish cakes. You can whip these up in just 5 minutes, perfect for a quick dinner or an easy meal prep.
How To Make Easy Tuna Cakes – Let’s Get Cooking!
The same thing with all our recipes, we normally cook extra so we have enough to get us another dinner, or enough for a couple of lunches. This means we don’t need to cook every day, giving us more time for family, activities, or just kicking back for a Netflix session. I’m sure you would all be happy not to wash dishes every day.
Cooking wise, you can do these in a frypan, oven, grill, or for best results, an air fryer. Air fryers allow you to have the crispy deep fryer result, without the excess oil, fat and guilt. I know it is another bulky appliance in your kitchen, but it will be a saviour for you in making meals that your family will love. And trust me, air fryer tuna cakes are next level!
Kitchen Utensils
- Air Fryer or Fry Pan
- Chopping Board
- Large Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 x 15 oz (425g) Tuna cans in springwater
- ½ Cup Plain greek yoghurt or natural yoghurt
- 5 Garlic cloves finely chopped or grated
- 1 Tbsp minced ginger
- 1 Cup scallions chopped
- 2 Cups breadcrumbs
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Tsp salt
- 1 Tsp pepper
- ½ Cup corn (optional)
Method
Step 1
Drain the water out of the tuna cans. The more moisture you can get out, the more your tuna cakes will stay together when cooked. Once drained, put the tuna in a large bowl and break up with a fork.
Step 2
Add all the other ingredients to the bowl, but only put in half of the breadcrumbs. Mix well so it is an even and smooth consistency.
Step 3
Using your hands or large spoons, form balls with the tuna mixture. The mixture is quite moist from the yoghurt, so don’t make the balls too big. I recommend slightly bigger than a golf ball, which when flattened will make a standard burger patty size that is beautiful and crispy.
Step 4
WIth the remaining breadcrumbs (1 cup), spread it out on a plate or board (I use the same chopping board I used for the garlic, ginger, scallions to save on extra washing up). Roll the tuna mixture balls lightly in the breadcrumbs and flatten with your hand. The goal here is just to take any extra moisture out of the exterior so it gets nice and crispy in the air fryer.
Step 5
Frying time! Your air fryer or cooking method (frypan/grill/etc) will determine how long to cook these for, but you want to keep the tuna cakes in long enough so they are golden brown and crispy.
Recipe Tips
Suggested Side Dishes
- The Korean Tuna Cakes flavor makes this a hero dish that can be paired with nearly anything. For a quick and easy option, we serve with plain rice and veg with a little extra yoghurt on the side.
- Healthy options – beautiful alongside cauliflower rice or just a simple garden salad. If you are short on time, the tuna mixture minus the breadcrumb and egg, is a beautiful and creamy tuna salad mix to have with your garden salad – great for a quick healthy meal on the go!
- Burgers – Brioche buns, lettuce, tomato, cheese, served up with the tuna cakes and some extra yoghurt… delicious! Or to embrace the Korean tuna cakes flavor, add a bit of kimchi to really give it some extra punch!
What to do now?
- Try this recipe! It’s super affordable, amazingly easy and is a sure fire way to impress your family and dinner guests
- Check out the Suggested Side Dish Recipes or our other Family Favorites, and pair it up with the one that will suit your family the best
- Leave us a comment on your experience with this recipe
- Last but definitely not least, subscribe for new recipes so we can share what we are winning with, in our kitchen.
Easy, family friendly, delicious – ENJOY!
