Food Lust People Love: Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide

Tender and flavorful, these garlic lemon tuna steaks are well-seasoned and lightly cooked to perfection, vacuum-sealed, with a precision cooker. Just slice to serve!

Food Lust People Love: Tender and flavorful, these garlic lemon tuna steaks are well-seasoned and lightly cooked to perfection, vacuum-sealed, with a precision cooker. Just slice to serve!

This summer our lovely little island decided to award a few limited fishing licenses for bluefin tuna to local fishermen in our Channel Island waters. It was such a big deal that every time one was caught, it made the news! Write-ups in the local paper with amazing photos. Those are some massive fish!

We’d never tasted bluefin before so you know our next shopping trip to town included a stop at the fish market. I hopped out and left my husband waiting in the car – no need to park – only to pull up short when faced with closed shutters on the fish stalls. I completely forgot that the market closes early on a Thursday!

All hope was not lost though because one of their doors was still open. I knocked and called out and the wonderful fishmonger responded, coming out of his back office. Bless him, he cut me two of the nicest, freshest, reddest tuna steaks I’d ever seen! (He also gifted me with two roe sacs so I could attempt making bottarga.)

I seasoned and simply seared the bluefin steaks because we wanted to really taste the tuna. To see if it was any different from our usual yellowfin. I am here to report that it was very nice but if you had blindfolded me, I don’t think I’d have known the difference. But you know what? Now at least we can say we’ve eaten and enjoyed bluefin tuna!

Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide

As you can see from my list below, I used yellowfin for this particular recipe. Use whatever lovely, very fresh tuna you can buy.

Ingredients

2 (6 oz or 170g) yellowfin tuna steaks

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Zest 1/2 lemon

1 clove garlic, lightly crushed

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

Optional to serve: Cut the ½ lemon you zested into wedges for squeezing

Method

Dry the tuna steaks with paper towels, then season them generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Chill in the refrigerator uncovered for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, zest your lemon with a microplane and crush the garlic.

Set up the precision cooker. In a vessel deep enough to keep the tuna submerged, preheat the water to 110°F or 43.3°C.

Put the lemon zest, garlic, bay leaves and olive oil in a Ziploc bag that is big enough for the tuna steaks not to touch each other. (I used a quart size bag.) Make sure everything is nicely distributed.

Add the chilled tuna steaks to the bag and gently rub them around so they are coated with the olive oil, lemon zest, bay leaves and garlic.

Close the bag until it is just open on side of the zipper and carefully submerge it in a vessel of cool water to displace the air, zipping it completely closed when all the air is out.

When your pot of water is at the correct temperature, put the tuna bag in it and secure it to one side. I use clothes pegs for this. Set the cook timer on your precision cooker to 30 minutes. (As you can see, this photo was taken three minutes in.)

When the precision timer turns off, remove the bag from the water.

Leave the tuna steaks in the bag for another five minutes, then remove and chill before slicing. Reserve the contents of the bag for plating up.

I like to use a rolling pin to really mash the garlic inside the bag and, once the tuna is chilled and sliced, I spoon the mashed garlic, lemon zest and olive oil all down the slices.

Or, if you prefer, you can serve it sashimi-style with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 20th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter T. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the T recipes below: