Bagels Will Give An Average Tuna Melt A Hearty Upgrade

Tuna melts are one of the all-time greats in the pantheon of classic sandwiches. The ironic thing is that, unlike a Reuben, which is a sandwich that is really set in stone in terms of ingredients, tuna melts are endlessly adaptable. The only constant ingredient in a tuna melt is the tuna. Everything else from the dressing to the cheese to the toppings, and especially the bread, is adaptable. So this is why we recommend you make your next tuna melt with a bagel to give it a hearty upgrade.

This isn't a suggestion that should come out of left field. How many of us have asked for a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on a bagel? No one can doubt the baked good's ability to be sandwich bread, so why not try it with tuna? The great thing with bagels, too, is that you have endless variety in terms of bagel type. Obviously, cinnamon raisin might not be the best for a tuna melt, but plain, egg, poppy seed, sesame seed, everything, onion, garlic, rye, sea salt, or pumpernickel bagels all go great with tuna.

Here's the other thing: What do we put on bagels? Cream cheese. Bagels are a fantastic conduit for whatever cheese you choose to put on your tuna melt. Swiss, provolone, extra sharp cheddar, or any type of well-melting cheese is going to be your best bet for a tuna melt. Any of those would be great on a bagel as well.

Once you've chosen your bagel, you can get down to actually making the tuna. The flavor of the tuna salad is going to depend greatly on the bagel you've chosen. If you've got a heavier flavored bagel, like an onion or everything, you'll want to think about ingredients for the tuna salad that can match the bagel's strong flavor. You could do this with the addition of relish, lemon pepper seasoning, avocado, curry powder, or even Dijon mustard. Any of these will help make sure the tuna salad is not lost to the flavor of a more potent bagel.

One of the keys to a good tuna melt is to get it to, well, melt. This means whatever bread you're using needs to be toasted and your cheese melted. For a bagel tuna melt, this can be done in a regular oven or toaster oven. Bake or broil the sandwich open-face so the cheese can melt over the tuna. You can toast the other half of the bagel alongside it and assemble the sandwich once it's out of the oven.

Depending on how much you load it up, you are going to be in for one heck of a hefty sandwich. Bagels aren't exactly what you'd call thin. You could serve the tuna melt open-face, but that kind of defeats the point of a sandwich. Regardless, your bagel tuna melt is going to be incredibly tasty if you've played your cards right.