Tuna Salad~how do you make yours?

Not a fan of mayo, so mine is a lighter version.   Tuna, grated boiled egg, grated sweet pickles (or relish), bit of celery seed, salt & pepper.  Stir together and then pour in a bit of pickle juice to hold it all together.  My favorite way to eat it is stuffed inside a pita bread cut in half.    As for type of tuna, I use Albacore.  

I'm really straightforward when I have tuna (which isn't often). I buy the really good tuna (Rubensteins). All I do is mix it with >just< enough tuna to hold it together. That's it...so I'm not a big fan of adding things to it, and for me, if it has pickles in it, I won't eat it. Both my son and husband would add more mayo to it after I made my sandwich as it was too dry for them. I grew up in a household where mayo was rarely used. I now buy the smallest, tiniest jar of mayo. I only use it for tuna, so often the jar goes bad before I scooped out one or two tablespoons of it.

I hate that things are not packaged in smaller amounts. I just bought Worchester saus for chili last weekend. I needed 2T. The rest of the bottle will sit in the fridge unused until I finally toss it ..... I guess this vent really should be saved for a different thread on a different day!

Anyhow, I got started on Rubenstein's because when I was a child in the late 60's and early 70's my grandparents would send us a case (or maybe it was two) of Rubenstein's. We'd ration it out throughout the year, but we'd inevitably run out in the fall and have to suffer through with Bumble Bee until the next time the grandparents sent us some. 

I add eggs to tuna sometimes if I remember to hard boil them before I make it. I like it and it does add bull, it stretches the protein if I’m not the only one having it.

Mayo, pickle relish and a heaping spoonful (or two) of the muffuletta olive salad from Costco.

It's taken me a good 15 years or so to realise that when y'all say 'tuna salad' you're not talking about a salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc) with chunks or strips of tuna added in!

The best 'tuna salad' I ever had was in Hawaii back in 1989. It was probably the first time I'd had it, and maybe I've elevated it in my own mind, but I have been searching ever since for the perfect mix!

LOL. Our friend at the lake cabin used to always put mustard in his tuna salad, and we were all like,   WHO does that?!? He said his mom always made it that way so that’s the way it should be done. 🤮 I totally agree with you, mustard in tuna salad is a big fat NO. Those flavors just don’t go together at all. 🤣

Tuna
Dill pickles
Mayo
Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Toasted Dave’s Killer wheat bread

Costco chunk white tuna in water
Light Mayo
Chopped red onion
Chopped dill pickles
Chopped celery
Fresh lemon juice
Salt/pepper

Usually I just eat it with a fork, but, sometimes on toasted wheat bread or squishy untoasted white. My mom did it open faced on English muffins with broiled cheese on top-the old fashioned tuna melt. I love it all ways! So weird, because I don’t eat seafood or fish, but, love canned tuna.

I could eat tuna salad every day. Love it.

Tuna
Diced celery
Minced scallions
Sliced olives
Diced parsley
2 cap fulls of apple cider vinegar per tin of tuna
Dill weed dry or fresh
Lots of ground pepper
Just enough mayo

I used to use all Mayo but then my friend said she used apple cider vinegar to reduce maya and it’s beyond delicious.

There are a few tuna salads I love to buy. One uses peas which turns out amazing. Another uses fresh tuna and pickles (my family loves pickles in tuna, I don’t use them often to reduce sodium levels). A third one I like to buy uses smoked fresh tuna and it’s divine.


I top my green salad with tuna. My family likes it anyway: on bagels or bread or as a tuna melt, in a wrap.

Mine is pretty simple, minced onion, celery diced pretty small, mayo, S & P.

My No-Mayo-and-Very-High-Ratio-of-Veggies-to-Tuna Version

Base: Tuna, onion, veggies (possibilities: celery, green pepper, red pepper, water chestnuts, jicama)

Dressing: olive oil and lime juice

Seasonings: paprika, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes. And garlic. And fresh ginger. And lots of cilantro.

Accompaniments: toast/pita/crackers, baked potato (gillyp !), half a green or red pepper. 

Here is the original recipe  I jumped off of. If you Google “cilantro tuna salad” or cilantro lime tuna salad,” you’ll get more. Yikes, I forgot the red pepper flakes (very important for this house) and the garlic and the fresh ginger (don’t always use). I’ll edit my post.

As noted, I add a ton more veggies so I play around with both the dressing and the seasonings. 

It’s definitely not a traditional-tasting tuna “salad.”

Thank you. I already have a traditional, a favorite, and now an option with sweet apples which completely changes the taste for me. Too many carbs so that one will have to be an occasional treat. And I can eat my favorite 4-5 days a week, for weeks on end. But every now and again I’m just done with it for a little bit it so I’ve decided to have pretty varied options to try and avoid that. Yours might just fit the bill, except the red pepper flakes. We are wusses in this house so never add those to the recipe. I appreciate all the info!

eta: The link brings me back to this page. Help!

Sorry. Weirdness with linking to the internet through the Paprika app. 

Make sure to click on the link in my post and not the link in what you’ve quoted from me. I also added that you can Google “cilantro tuna salad” or “cilantro lime tuna salad” and find more versions. I’m sure mine got lifted from a more popular recipe site.