Red Papaya tuna pasta with salty seeds

Papaya salad with Papaya seed crunch.jpg

Recipe courtesy of Nourishing Nosh

Papaya seeds are highly nutritious and sadly often discarded. They can be easily dried and flavoured with savoury or sweet spices and/ or sauces and then sprinkled on salads, fruit, pastas or other bowl food for extra nutritious flavoursome crunch. 

Serves 2 

Salad ingredients

150g pole and line caught Tuna 

1 cubed Lebanese cucumber 

1 cubed (200g) Avocado 

1 cup plucked whole dill leaves 

2 cups salad leaves 

300g Ruby Rise papaya 

2 tablespoons Sweet and Salty Papaya Seeds 

Drizzle best quality extra virgin olive oil 

Sweet and Salty Papaya seeds 

Seeds from 1 Papaya 

1 teaspoon soy or Tamari 

1 teaspoon maple syrup 

Method - seeds

Make the day before or at least an hour prior to serving the salad.  

Preheat the oven to 50C. Slice the ripe papaya in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds.  Remove any chunky pieces of papaya but keep some of the orange tendrils, they dry nicely too. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the seeds evenly in a single layer onto the tray and transfer to the oven. 

Set the timer for 20 minutes and turn with a spatula. Reset for 10. Repeat until they are dry. Store in a clean dry jar for several weeks or continue on to the next step. 

Mix together the soy and maple and mix through the seeds.  Return to the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. Repeat as above until dry and crispy.  Now,  store in a clean dry jar for several weeks.

Method for the salad 

Prepare your salad ingredients as per the list above. Cut the avocado and cucumber into cubes. 

Pluck dill sprigs and wash salad leaves. Lastly, peel the papaya then cube with a knife or slice on a mandolin. 

Assemble the salad starting with the leaves, top with the other ingredients and top with olive oil and then the sweet and salty papaya seeds.