Tuna salad is the easiest lunch you can make. With the versatility of this dish, you can satisfy anyone by offering multiple ways to serve it.
Tuna salad is such an easy lunch to make. It’s also delicious and very versatile.
You can make a sandwich, wrap, serve it as a dip or with crackers as a spread. If you give your kids all these options they’re sure to try at least one.
I always reach for tuna salad when I need something quick and want to stay away from cold cuts. It only takes 10 minutes to make and if you skip the onions it’s even faster.
The onions in this recipe are quite hidden by the strong tuna flavour, they just add a freshness to the dish. However, if you have someone with an aversion or intolerance you can easily skip them and still have a delicious tuna salad.
See our substitutions section if you’d like to replace the onions with something less sharp.
Preparing Tuna Salad
IngredientsÂ
Canned tuna in water:Â Tuna is a large fish that lives in saltwater with over 15 species in existence. There are two main kinds of tuna that are most commonly found in grocery stores in North America, white tuna and light tuna. White tuna is albacore tuna. Light tuna is made from smaller tuna fish like skipjack, tongol, and sometimes yellowtail. White tuna has a higher level of Omega-3s than light tuna, and any tuna packed in water will have more than its equivalent packed in oil.
Mayonnaise: Mayo is made from eggs, oil and usually vinegar or lemon. When mixing these at high speeds you will get a white creamy texture as you find in a jar on the grocery store shelves.
Yellow onion: Onion is a very common vegetable that is used both raw and cooked in food preparation. It has a sharp flavour raw that often sweetens once cooked. There are many varieties of onions, some that are milder than others. We use the common onion or yellow onion in this recipe.
How to Make Easy Tuna Salad
As the title suggests, this tuna salad recipe is super easy. Peeling and chopping the onions will be the most labour-intensive but you can easily skip this step if you don’t have the time or energy.
If you are adding onion, peel the onion and dice about an eighth of it. This does not need to be a precise measurement so don’t sweat it.
Next, open the can of tuna and drain it. I like to dump the whole can into a strainer over the sink and press gnarly with a fork to get as much of the liquid out as I can.
Now combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and stir everything until well integrated.
Now all that’s left to do is serve!
Substitutions
Canned tuna in water: You can use flaked or solid tuna for this recipe or even tuna in oil. If you use tuna in oil, reduced the
amount of mayo to 3 tablespoons as it might be too rich otherwise. You can also skip the tuna altogether and use canned salmon or canned chicken instead.Yellow onion: Yellow onion can be a bit too sharp for some. Though in this recipe the onion mostly adds freshness some may still find it too strong. If that is the case you can use a sweeter onion like red onion or Spanish onion. You can also turn to green onions or even chives. If you are using green onions, the more whites that you use the sharper the flavour will be.
Serving Easy Tuna Salad
Tuna salad is a very versatile dish. Its simplicity doesn’t mean that we can’t elevate it for serving.
The most typical way to serve tuna salad is in a sandwich. Add some greens, maybe even a slice of tomato and you have a beautiful, delicious and healthy tuna salad sandwich. You can of course do the same as a wrap.
 
Must also give a notable mention to the tuna melt sandwich. This open-faced masterpiece is one of the most delicious ways to eat tuna salad.
Believe it or not, tuna salad also makes a great dip. Serve it with nacho chips or regular ruffled chips and you have an amazing snack. I do recommend getting chips that contain less salt since tune packs a salt punch all on its own.
Lastly, this easy tuna salad also makes an excellent and pretty appetizer. Serve it atop crackers with any additions that you like for a beautiful spread. Try adding various toppings to add more colour to your plating.
A slice of grape tomato, cucumber, radish, and olives will taste great and will provide a kaleidoscope of colours. If you want to keep it earthy and calm try different greens like pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, or a sprinkle of chives or parsley will provide a nice variety of greens to pique anyone’s interest.
Let us know in the comments if you have any questions. And if you like this recipe be sure to leave us a five-star rating below.Â
Are you looking for dinner ideas? Check out our recipes:
Easy Tuna Salad Recipe
Equipment
- Knife and cutting board
- small bowl
Ingredients
- 170 g can of white tuna in water
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp onion 1/8th of a medium to large onion
- â…› tsp salt Note 1
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
Optional Add-ins:
- ½ tbsp ground flax seeds optional
- 1 tbsp hemp seeds optional
Instructions
- Strain the tuna, without rinsing.170 g can of white tuna in water
- Dice the onion.2 tbsp onion
- In a small bowl, combine the tuna, onion, salt, pepper and mayonnaise and stir to combine.170 g can of white tuna in water, ¼ cup mayonnaise, 1/8 tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, ½ tbsp ground flax seeds, 1 tbsp hemp seeds, 2 tbsp onion
- Serve on bread as a sandwich, in a wrap or as an appetizer with crackers.
