Tuna Salad – when you think of Tuna Salad – what do you think of ? Do you think YUM can’t wait to get me some tuna salad? Or – I need to get some fresh sourdough or french bread and make up a tuna melt ? Or how about – I’mma going to eat all this super delicious tuna salad on romaine leaves – like little tuna boats and save my carbs for later ?

Or do you think of a sad sammich your mom used to send you to school with long ago? Worse yet – do you think I don’t like Tuna Salad Sandwiches ?

I’m here to tell you – with a little effort you can make the best darn healthy, low calorie, high protein delicious tuna salad you have had in a long while. And, besides all that – it’s super cost effective. What more could a girl ask for?

What all do I need to make Tuna Salad Delicious?

You don’t need a lot – but it will help if you have some key components in your fridge.

Mayo:

Understandably you need some mayo. My MIL had been here and she was using Miracle Whip – so I tossed the last of that into my tuna. (Have you READ the ingredients on miracle whip lately? I literally stood in the mayo isle the other day reading those ingredients. Palm Oil / Soybean Oil / High Fructose Corn Syrup etc. etc. Oi Vey! Definitely room for a healthy alternative in there some where ! Even the avocado mayo had soybean oil in it….but I digress…use what you have…)

I have been trying out Dukes – so that’s what I was using. Mayo is a key component – but really don’t like to use too much. Hubster doesn’t like overly mayo’d tuna – so we tend to go fairly light.

Vegetables:

#VegItUp — Veggies add crunch and bulk both. The calories are virtually non existent – I mean show me someone who got fat eating vegetables… ‘nuf said.

I do like to use a lot of celery. Celery is mandatory for me.

Onions of some sort are needed. First recommendation is green onions. Second recommendation is red onion. (Did you know that most times you are serving RAW onions you should typically use RED onions?! I didn’t know that for a long while – so there you are. Stick that tidbit of knowledge in the back of your mind.). Third – use very finely chopped and not too much white onion. I have often / frequently used white onion – so don’t sweat it if that’s all you have.

I wanted a red pepper to go into this salad, but unfortunately didn’t have one. I would have diced that fairly small. In addition to adding a nice crunch, it would have added a nice color and a bit of sweetness to the salad. Recommended – but certainly not required…

Consider a clove of garlic minced well – unless you have some of the TJ’s Mustard Garlic Aioli like I do!

Condiments :

Lemon is absolutely necessary. You are making fish. Fish + Lemons == Delicious. Please use a fresh lemon and not that stuff out of a plastic lemon or the green bottle of “real lemon”. Get yourself a handheld lemon/lime juice squeezer !

Mustard. Either a ‘good’ Dijon — such as Edmund Fallot or to more readily spice things up – use TJ’s Aioli garlic mustard sauce. Saves you a step from mincing garlic and adds Mustard / acid so it’s a double duty condiment.

Pickles chopped finely or Pickle Relish. Shhhhhh don’t tell the hubster. (He doesn’t like Pickles.) But I’ve been putting them in – I really like the vinegar / acid add and the tiny little pucker factor that is ever so slight across the bowl. Husband is a super taster – kinda surprised he didn’t say ‘ewww you put pickles in here’ ???? But he didn’t. Let it be our secret. 😀

Spices and Herbs:

This is where I go into the depths of my spice cabinets and open jars and smell and see what I’m in the mood for. The one I picked today has : Shallots, chives, scallions, pepper, dill, basil, tarragon, chervil, and bay leaf.

If you have fresh herbs – definitely mince those bad boys up and add them. Remember – 1 tsp dried == 1 Tbl fresh. You can go heavier on the fresh herbs than you can the dried.

I’d love it if I had fresh chives. fresh parsley (*not too much !) or fresh tarragon. yum. One of these days I really do have to plant some chives….

Salt and Pepper. Don’t forget them – it is needed. Sometimes people forget – but you won’t… 🙂

Other Ideas:

Of course I was reading all about tuna before making this post. Best Tuna Salad, Healthy Tuna Salad, Most Delicious Tuna Salad etc etc. Most all had mayo + tuna + celery + onion. But then that’s when things diverged ever so slightly. One I read was from Martha Stewart and she said add a crisp sweet apple – like a honeycrisp. Give your tuna additional crunch and sweetness. I didn’t try today – but I’m going to try next time. And hopefully I’ll have some fresh herbs too !

Once I made a scrumpdilicious chicken salad and added dried cranberries and walnuts. Husband went bonkers for that. He suggested I add Cranberries to the tuna. I didn’t. Again – maybe next time ? Seems very much in the same vein as the apples… so there’s something more to think about!

Didja know there’s 42 Grams of Protein in 1 can of Tuna ?

And, only 190 calories ? That seems like a grand slam of healthy eating. Not only are you getting all the protein you need for a great meal – you are also consuming some of the necessary omega-3 fatty acids. I always make 2 cans and mix up in a big bowl and share with the hubster. We don’t typically eat the whole bowl in one sitting (!) so we generally snack on it over the next couple of days. So – it’s super convenient to have it in the fridge and available at a moments notice. So definitely make two cans at once ! If you eat 1/2 of a can – it’s still 21 g protein which is what you are supposed to shoot for (minimally) each meal.

The flip side of this coin is that you are not supposed to eat tuna more than 2X a week – since there is concern over Mercury found in the tuna. If you want to dive into more details on Mercury – I found a good article here from consumer reports.

Serving:

Of course you can eat the most delicious tuna salad ever on bread, on crackers, between a pita, or using romaine leaves as tuna boats. You could heat a pan and make a warm tuna melt. Or you could just grab a fork and dig in!

I hope you got some ideas and enjoy a new twist on delicious tuna salad!