What’s Your Favorite Tuna Salad Recipe? We Found a Few You’ll Love.

Tuna Salad Recipes

Tuna salad is a staple of summer picnics, parties, and barbecues. Every family seems to have their own tuna salad recipe, but if you’re looking for something new or different, we’ve scoured the web for a few options that might liven up your old favorite.

Most tuna salad recipes start with some basic staples:

– chunk white tuna

– mayonnaise

salt and pepper

– a vegetable (chopped celery might be the most common vegetable added, although finely chopped pickles are also common)

But recipes vary widely in the types of spices that might be added as well as additional vegetables that can be used. And healthier versions of tuna salad find ways to substitute for the calorie-rich mayonnaise

Zesty Tuna Salad

This recipe comes from a reader over at AllRecipes.com, a reader posted “Barbie’s Tuna Salad,” a recipe based on a salad prepared by a friend’s catering service. Like all tuna salads, the recipe starts with tuna (we recommend Albacore chunky white tuna – and be sure the brand you buy is dolphin safe!) and includes a healthy amount of mayonnaise (6 tablespoons for every 7-ounce can of tuna). But what makes this recipe interesting is that in addition to adding a sweet pickle relish it uses Parmesan cheese and curry powder, among other spices.

Easy but Gourmet Tuna Salad

Among the other easy tuna salad recipes at RecipeLion.com, the Classic Miracle Whip Tuna Salad calls for 12 ounces of solid water-packed tuna, and a half-cup of Miracle Whip, a ½ cup of celery diced. Add diced red onion, finely minced red bell pepper, drained capers and lemon juice in the recipe’s recommended amounts and Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, and you’ve got a flavorful tuna salad that can be thrown together quickly.

Low-Calorie Tuna Salad

Many people balk at eating tuna salad because of the fat and calories contained in the mayonnaise. If you’re looking for a healthy tuna salad recipe, Good Housekeeping offers a recipe that gives this classic a healthy makeover. The recipe calls for the usual tuna and vegetables (in this case celery, a half cup of shredded carrot and a chopped red pepper). But instead of regular mayonnaise, the recipe uses a quarter cup of light mayonnaise and 3 tablespoons of nonfat yogurt. To add to the healthy bent, pepper is called for but the salt is left out. The total time required for preparing this recipe is just 15 minutes.

Vegetarian Tuna Salad

Vegan or vegetarian but wish you could take part in the tuna salad fun? Whole Foods offers a Vegan Mock Tuna Salad recipe that includes ingredients such as sunflower seeds, raw almonds, maple syrup or agave nectar and kelp granules, along with many classic tuna salad ingredients, for a delicious vegan option.

And if you don’t mind the mayonnaise but still want to skip the fish, Penniless Parenting has posed a Vegetarian Mock Tuna Salad Recipe that includes the mayonnaise but has a chickpea base. Two cups of cooked chickpeas combined with 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and other ingredients in this recipe to create “a spread that tastes pretty similar to tuna salad….Even if you’re not a legume lover, there’s a good chance you’ll like this, as it doesn’t taste very ‘beany’ and really does taste like tuna salad, surprisingly!”

Don’t forget food safety!

With so many options to choose from, you just have to go for your own tastes and preferences. Just remember to only serve fresh tuna salad; at FoodSafety.gov the recommendation is to keep tuna salad in a refrigerator at temperatures of 40 degrees F or below for only 3 to 5 days (tuna salad does not freeze well). The Price Chopper Supermarket Chain notes that: “All foods are perishable and can cause illness when mishandled. Proper handling is essential to ensure the food is safe. The 2-Hour Rule: Harmful bacteria can grow rapidly in the “DANGER ZONE” (between 40 and 140 degrees F). So remember the 2-hour rule. Discard any perishable foods left at room temperature longer than 2 hours. If you are eating outdoors at a picnic or cookout where temperatures are over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, discard after 1 hour.”