Tea Room Recipe: Cashew Tuna Casserole

Last year I cooked a recipe each week from one of my tea room cookbooks, but I didn't cook nearly all of the yummy sounding dishes I wanted to try. So, this week I made a casserole that had been on my to-try list, this Cashew Tuna Casserole from the Rose Cottage Tea Room cookbook shown here. (Ironically, going back to this old cookbook also answered a question about some muffins I recently rediscovered in the freezer. They were incredibly moist and delicious cranberry muffins, and I'd been meaning to see how long ago it was that I made them. Turns out they were from June of 2013 and were still quite moist and tasty!)

This week I wanted to try a new casserole, and this one called for some of my favorite nuts, cashews. (Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.)

This was easy to whip up, and I made it a little healthier by using whole wheat pasta and substituting low-fat sour cream. I absolutely loved it and will definitely be making this dish again. Here's the recipe as I made it.

Cashew Tuna Casserole

1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
7 ounces (a little more than half a 12-ounce can) of tuna, drained and flaked
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup cashew halves, divided use
2 tablespoons parsley
1 (2-ounce) jar chopped pimientos, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
2 cups of cooked noodles (I used Barilla Whole Grain Elbows)
2 tablespoons buttered bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine soup, milk, and sour cream and stir. Add tuna, onion, garlic powder, 1/2 cup of the cashews, parsley, pimientos, salt, pepper and noodles. Combine well and pour into an 8 x 8-inch square glass baking dish prepared with cooking spray. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and top with buttered bread crumbs and remaining 1/4 cup cashews. Bake for 5 minutes more. Yields 6-8 servings.