Oven-baked cheesy open-faced Tuna Breads are my new favourite recipe. They can be prepared in just a matter of minutes; the oven does most of the work and soon you have a warm meal to enjoy. If you like to individualize all your meals or are preparing those cheesy open-faced tuna breads for a crowd, you can customize them to everyone’s liking. As they are hearty and slightly salty in taste, I enjoy serving something with a refreshing taste profile on the side. Like the time I shot the pictures for this recipe, with some Kimchi. This fermented cabbage is actually traditionally eaten as a side dish with almost every Korean meal, which justifies it even more as a side for toasty Tuna breads. You can also prepare a tomato salad with a vinegar dressing or serve some pickled goods such as cucumbers/pickles.

When compared to tuna melt recipes you can find on the internet, this recipe is definitely more health conscious, if this is something you are looking for 😉

Ingredients, per portion

• 2 slices of bread (can already be a bit stale, from the days before)
• 70 g of canned tuna
• 50 g cheese any kind of your choice, like Emmental
• tiny pinch of salt and pepper
• crispy fried onions, fresh spring onions, fresh garlic, ..
• Kimchi, tomatoes, pickles to serve on the side

Preparation for quick cheesy open-faced tuna breads

The preparation steps for this healthy open-faced oven-baked tuna bread are quite simple. 

First, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius on upper/lower heat.

Now you want to make sure the bread is slightly toasted or getting hard. Too fresh bread might get soggy later, so I placed my two-day-old sliced bread from a bakery in the toaster oven for two minutes. You want the bread slices toasted, just right before they start to get brown. 

Now place the toasted bread slices on a baking sheet lined baking tray. Open the canned tuna tin and remove all excess liquid. It’s best to use tuna in its own juice, but you can also choose one which has been conserved in (olive) oil. The one in its own juice will make the toast less fatty though, so you might want to prefer this one. If some tuna pieces are too big, smush them smaller by using a fork while still in the can, and distribute everything evenly on the toasted bread slices. I have used a 130 g net-weight tin for 3 and a half slices of bread, which I would consider the absolute minimum (about 35 g per slice) for those quick oven-baked cheesy open-faced Tuna Breads. Add a tiny pinch of salt and some pepper on top and place the tuna-only breads in the oven for 8 minutes.

You might also be interested in Recipes with Cheese, Recipes with Tuna or all Recipes.

In the meantime, either cut up your cheese slices or prepare the grated cheese for later. After the first stint in the oven is finished for the tuna breads, remove them from the oven to add the cheese. I have torn down two slices of Emmental cheese and distributed them about equally on my 3.5 breads. Some “holes” in between the cheese slices have been closed with bits of shaved parmesan cheese. A mix of cheeses gives the toasted cheesy bread another nice touch. Place the baking tray in the oven, for another 10 minutes. You want the cheese to evenly melt, bubble slightly, just at about when it starts to brown. If you feel like the 10 minutes won’t be sufficient, start the upper grilling-mode of your oven at about 5 minutes for the final 5 minutes, this should be sufficient. 

Remove the oven-baked cheesy open-faced Tuna Breads from the heat and either serve them immediately, or top them with fresh sliced spring onion or crispy fried onions. Don’t forget to serve something “fresh” on the side such as tomatoes, pickles, pickled beetroot or Kimchi. Enjoy the slices of bread while they are still hot/warm!
Including the quick preparation time you should be able to enjoy those warm, crunchy and cheesy open faced breads within about 20 minutes.

Note:
Cheesy open-faced Tuna Breads can be prepared in just a matter of minutes, as the oven does most of the work and soon you have a warm meal to enjoy. Serve kimchi, tomato salad or pickles as a side!