This French Cucumber and Tuna Tart features a buttery crust filled with a creamy tuna filling made from tuna, garlic herb cheese, red onion, and fresh chives. Finished with thin slices of cucumber, bright lemon, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, this tart is light, refreshing, and elegantly satisfying.
Variations on this recipe have been around on my feeds lately and it sounded light and tasty so I wanted to make my own version. I started with a flaky, light crust and filled with with creamy Boursin tuna flavored with red onion, chives and lemon and topped with thinly sliced cucumber, lemon juice and sesame seeds. The tart makes a great lunch or light dinner with a side salad. I used the garlic herb Boursin but you can use any flavor you like or you can use cream cheese instead if you prefer.
This tart is best eaten soon after it is made so the tart crust stays nice and crispy. I prefer to make my pie and tart dough a day ahead if possible to give it full time to hydrate and chill in the fridge overnight. If you don’t have time, make sure you put your dough in the fridge for a least an hour after making before working with it.
Check out my other seafood recipes here, I have lots 🙂
French Cucumber and Tuna Tart
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 1/3 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 7 tbsp unsalted butter cut into cubes and very cold
- 4 tbsp ice water
For the tart:
- 2 cans tuna drained well
- 1 package herb and garlic boursin room temp
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 large red onion minced
- 1/4 cup chives sliced
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- salt and pepper to taste
- thinly sliced cucumber
- fresh lemon juice for the top
- sesame seeds
Instructions
For the crust:
- Whisk together the flour and salt. Using your hands and working quickly, break up the butter cubes into the flour mixture until you have some mixed in and some in pea sized clumps. Drizzle the water over and and mix with a bench scraper by folding the mixture over onto itself and pressing down with your palm.
- You want to keep the butter cold during all of this, so handle the dough as little as possible. If the dough seems really dry and isn't coming together, drizzle over a bit more water. Once the dough sticks together, fold it onto itself a few times, then shape into a round and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in fridge at least 1 hour up to overnight.
- When ready to use, flour a counter top and roll the dough into a circle about 1/8 inch thick and a bit larger than your tart pan. I used a 9 inch tart pan. Roll dough around the rolling pin and transfer to the tart pan making sure to get dough fully into the bottom edges. Roll over the top with the rolling pin to cut off the excess. Prick the bottom with a fork and place in fridge for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 and place tart into freezer for 15 minutes, then fill with parchment and pie weights or beans.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to slightly brown, then remove the parchment and bake until the bottom is fully set.
- Remove and fully cool.
To make the tart:
- Combine the drained tuna with the other ingredients except the cucumber, lemon juice and sesame seeds and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Fill the cooled tart crust and then top with thinly sliced cucumber. Drizzle over fresh lemon juice and top with sesame seeds. Cut into wedges and serve.