Do you have leftover rice in the fridge or freezer, but are tired of yet another stir fry? Try this delicious, no waste creamy tuna bake, made with staples you might already have in the cupboards and freezer. A no food waste recipe is always a winner for me.

Tuna bake plated on a black plate, topped with cut green onions and a spoonful of tuna bake on a white spoon — Tuna bake plated and ready to eat

In the original recipe from my childhood, my mum used Bearnaise sauce. However since I do not like those flavours as much, I have tweaked the recipe for my tastes using a simple Béchamel sauce with added Dijon mustard.

Béchamel and Dijon mustard sauce ingredients laid out, a glass of oat milk, a small pink cup of salt, a glass bowl of flour, two cloves of garlic, a small cup of butter cut up in smaller pieces, and a ceramic spoon of Dijon mustard. — Béchamel and Dijon mustard sauce ingredients.

If you have the rice and white sauce already made, this dish comes together really quick. Even if you need to cook the rice and make the sauce, the recipe still does not take too long. By the time the creamy tuna bake cook in the oven, you have plenty of time to clean up the kitchen and set the table.

Creamy Tuna Bake in a square oven safe glass ware pan, topped with shredded cheese ready to go in to the oven — Creamy Tuna Bake ready to go into the oven

Assembly

Whenever I do this type of layered recipes, I find it easier to dish out all the components in bowls and on plates, for easy layering and then it is like an assembly line in my tiny kitchen to get everything in to the pan.

White Béchamel sauce with Dijon mustard in the bottom of a oven glass ware square pan. — First layer of the Creamy Tuna Bake, a layer of Béchamel sauce

Creamy Tuna Bake, layered with Béchamel sauce, white rice and flaky tuna pieces. — Creamy Tuna Bake, rice and tuna flakes layer

Layering a Creamy Tuna Bake with Béchamel sauce, white rice, tuna in chunks and corn — Layering a Creamy Tuna Bake

Substitutes

This recipe works well with tuna in brine or water as well. It is my preference to use tuna in sunflower oil.

I am using a simple Béchamel sauce between the layers of tuna and rice, and add some flavours with the Dijon mustard, but if you prefer a more subtle flavour in the sauce, omit the Dijon mustard.

Creamy tuna bake straight from the oven, topped with chopped green onions, in a square glass form.

Print Recipe

No Waste Creamy Tuna Bake

No waste cooking with this creamy tuna bake

Prep Time30

Cook Time20

Total Time50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Basics

Keyword: creamy, rice, tuna, white sauce

Servings: 6 portions

Equipment

1 Oven safe glass ware 21 x 21 cm (8 x 8")

Ingredients

200 ml uncooked Basmati rice
2 x 150 gram canned tuna in sunflower oil
200 gram cheese grated
200 gram canned corn

White sauce

50 g butter
2 tbsp flour
300 ml milk + up to 200 ml more depending on how creamy you want your tuna bake to be
2 tsp dried oregano
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsk salt

Instructions

Set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 F).
Cook the rice according to instructions, set aside and let cool to room temperature. This dish is perfect to use up your left over rice, either straight from the fridge or if it is frozen leave it on the counter for a few hours to come to room temperature.
Open the cans of tuna and discard the sunflower oil, put the tuna in a bowl and use a fork to break down in to smaller pieces.
Shred the cheese.
Open and drain the can of corn.
Prepare the white sauce
Melt butter in a saucepan, add the flour and let cook together while stirring.
Peel and mince the garlic and add into the saucepan with the milk.
Add the Dijon mustard and whisk everything together.
Bring everything to boil to let the sauce thicken and then let simmer for 10 minutes, while stirring frequently to avoid burning at the bottom.
If the sauce feels too thick, whisk in more milk. It should be the consistency of a loose gravy.
Set aside and let cool a bit.
Take out a 21cm x 21cm (8 x 8 inch) oven safe glass ware.
Start layer the tuna bake with a thin layer of sauce on the bottom, to avoid the rest of the ingredients to stick to the bottom of the glass ware.
Add rice in a thin layer and half of the tuna.
Spread out half of the corn.
Cover everything with half of the white sauce.
For the second round of layers, start with tuna, then add corn, rice and lastly the last of the sauce.
Spread the shredded cheese on top of everything.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (390F).
If the tuna bake browns too early, cover it with aluminum foil for the last 5 minutes.
You want your tuna bake to be piping hot all the way through, with a gooey, melted cheese cover.

Notes

Leftover rice works perfect with this recipe, even better if you have frozen leftover rice that tends to be dry once thawed, the creamy sauce will work perfect to balance this out.

Mix white rice and brown rice for more fibers.

If you are using a different measured pan, adjust the height of the layers.

Variations

If you don’t like fish, try my bechamel sauce on pizza, to make pizza bianca. Or use your left over rice to make no waste stir fry rice.