Tuna, White Bean and Red Onion Salad

Ten minutes, two tins and 38g of protein. Soak the onion in the lemon juice while you open everything else; it takes the harsh edge off.

Lunch

Serves 2

Tuna and white bean salad with red onion, cherry tomatoes, rocket and capers in a bowl

Ingredients

2 tins of tuna in spring water (145g each), drained
1 tin of cannellini or other white beans (400g), drained and rinsed
Half a red onion, very thinly sliced
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
Half a cucumber, diced
2 handfuls of rocket
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
A small handful of parsley, chopped
For the dressing: 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, salt and pepper

Method

Put the sliced onion in a large bowl with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt and toss. Leave it for five minutes. The acid softens raw onion's bite and turns it faintly pink, a quick pickle that makes the whole salad taste finished.
Whisk the olive oil and mustard into the lemon juice around the onions.
Add the beans and toss them in the dressing first. Beans take on flavour; lettuce just gets coated.
Add the tomatoes, cucumber, capers and parsley, then fold the tuna through in large flakes so it does not turn to paste.
Scatter over the rocket and serve. Without the rocket, it keeps for a day in the fridge, which makes it a good lunchbox.

Why it works

This is the cheapest high-protein lunch on the site, and it comes almost entirely from the cupboard. Two tins of tuna and one of beans make two portions with 38g of protein each, more than most shop-bought sandwiches manage in three.

Tinned tuna in spring water is nearly pure protein, and it is one of the richest food sources of selenium, which the testes need for normal sperm formation. What it is not, whatever the tin suggests, is oily fish. The NHS does not count tuna, fresh or tinned, as oily fish, so it does not cover the one portion of oily fish a week the guidance recommends. For that, see the sardine and white bean smash or salmon.

There is one limit worth knowing. Tuna carries more mercury than smaller fish, so the NHS advises anyone pregnant or trying to get pregnant to have no more than four medium tins a week. For everyone else, tinned tuna two or three times a week is fine: which fish are high in mercury.

The beans are what turn a protein snack into a meal. They add fibre and slow-release carbohydrate, which keeps the lunch from ending in an afternoon slump. Protein and fibre together produce a low, steady glucose response, which is why this carries the blood-sugar tag.

More on building meals around protein for men: how to increase testosterone naturally.

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