Avos and Tuna.. together in a sandwich? Count me in! This easy tuna salad recipe is one of those things that you keep in your back pocket. It’s great to use in a tuna melt, perfect to serve with rice cakes or multigrain crackers, on homemade protein bagels, dip with corn chips, scoop onto low carb tortilla wraps, it’s absolutely perfect between two slices of no-knead bread, and the list goes on and on! Random thought, but anyone else bothered by it when people call it a tuna fish salad? Nope, just me? It just sounds so redundant! I digress. If you’ve got a few pantry staple ingredients, you can make this tuna salad sandwich in around 5 minutes. I always have canned tuna in my pantry for rainy days. Whether I’m looking to turn it into a tunacado on homemade focaccia bread with a scoop of basil pesto and serving it up panini style or adding it to homemade tuna pasta salad, tuna is one of those classics that you keep around. Whether you’re headed to the beach in the summertime and need something for lunch to pop into the icebox, or you’re looking for a flavorful desk lunch, a homemade tuna salad sandwich will never serve you wrong! To make my tuna salad, I start with chopped celery, red onions, and dill pickles or sweet pickle relish. Add it fresh herbs (dill is what I’m thinking), and a dollop of mayo along with a few seasonings. It’s so quick and easy and all you really have to decide is whether or not you want to serve this with potato chips on the side!
Ingredients for homemade tuna salad sandwiches:
Canned Tuna: Both oil-packed tuna and water-packed tuna will work for this recipe. I like using albacore tuna. Feel free to use what you like and have at home. Make sure to drain the tuna well. I found that using low quality mayonnaise and not draining the tuna in a sieve left me with a bit of a messy tuna salad – it was just sad! Tuna salad shouldn’t be liquid-y!Mayonnaise: I suggest using a good, high-quality mayonnaise. Low quality mayonnaise tends to become watery in this recipe. This is my favorite mayonnaise of all time.Celery: I like to finely mince the celery so that you get a little crunch in every bite!Red Onions: Adds bite and really works well with the dill pickles and other savory ingredients.Dill Pickles + Pickle Juice: the pickle juice is my secret ingredient! I was a fresh lemon juice girlie for a while there until one day when I used my leftover pepperoncini juice and my tuna salad sandwich game changed forever. I’ll be honest; if I have pepperoncini’s in the fridge, I’ll still use that instead of pickle juice. The hot and peppery liquid works so well in an egg salad or tuna salad sandwich. But pickle juice works just fine too!Seasonings: You’ll need garlic powder, kosher salt, and some black pepper. Feel free to add in red pepper flakes for a little heat or swap the black pepper for lemon pepper seasonings if you’d like! This is totally your call. You can also add in fresh herbs like chives, parsley, or dill. Bread or Low-carb option: You can use homemade white or cheddar jalapeño bread, serve this with high fiber tortillas, or on multigrain crackers, lettuce wraps, or anything else that you like to serve your tuna salad on. Heck, you can even hollow out a red bell pepper or a few sweet peppers and serve the best tuna salad in that!Other add-ins: Sometimes I’ll also add a squeeze of jalapeno mustard or dijon mustard to the mix. Other times I’ll use chopped pickled jalapeños. Some times I’ll add slices of avocado to my sandwich. You can use baby spinach, lettuce, a spring mix, kale or whatever else you like!
How to make a classic tuna salad, but better.
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Mediterranean Shrimp Orzo SaladMediterranean Tuna Orzo SaladSeared Cod Fish TacosPerfect Pan-Fried Fish in Basil Lemon Butter SauceCrispy Rice Spicy Salmon
Additional Add-ins: Feel free to play around with this! Sometimes I’ll add a squeeze of jalapeño mustard/dijon or even a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. You can use lemon pepper seasoning/ pizza seasonings etc. Traders pickle seasoning is what I’m planning on trying next!Pickles: Sometimes I’ll swap the dill pickles for bread and butter, or even use hot and sweet pickled jalapeños! You can play around with the mix-ins a bunch for this recipe!
