The Best Tuna Salad Recipe

 

A common complaint I hear from clients is: ‘I have no idea what to eat for lunch.’ My response? ‘Me either.’ (Joking…sort of.)

For some reason lunch feels like the least exciting meal of the day. It’s hard to plan ahead, the options feel limited, and it falls in the middle of the day, when stress levels are running high.

I’ve spent time rounding up easy, balanced lunch recipes for clients (feel free to email me for the free handout if you’d like it!) and I’ll be adding this one to the list. This recipe comes from my husband, Matt, who is far better in the kitchen than I am.

It’s a mayo-free tuna salad that’s chock full of anti-inflammatory ingredients like fresh herbs and onion, as well as sneaky sources of fiber thanks to Matt’s genius addition of finely shredded carrot and lots of well-diced celery for crunch. It’s also incredibly satiating due to its high protein content.

I love eating this tuna salad on a thick slab of toasted sourdough with a hefty side of dressed greens. You could also enjoy it with some seedy crackers for a balanced snack.

A few notes: I recommend using skipjack tuna or light tuna if you can — these varieties of tuna are smaller and therefore lower in the heavy metal mercury compared to albacore. I personally prefer jarred tunas to canned tunas. They are pricier but the flavor and texture are significantly better, in my opinion. Wild Planet has a great skipjack tuna that’s jarred in olive oil. I’ve also made this recipe with 1 jar of skipjack tuna and 1 can of Scout Canning’s smoked tuna, which gave the salad a deep almost maple-y flavor. I absolutely loved it, but it’s not for everyone. Finally, you could also swap canned or jarred tuna for a canned salmon here if you’d like.

THe Best tuna salad recipe

ingredients

  • 1 large carrot, finely shredded with a grater or microplane

  • 3 stalks celery, finely diced

  • 2 jars or cans skipjack tuna packed in olive oil, drained

  • 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped

  • 1/4 red or sweet onion, finely diced (choose whichever you prefer)

  • 2 tbsp dijon mustard

  • Juice of 1.5 lemons (we like it very lemony, start with 1 lemon if you’re not huge on citrus)

  • salt + pepper to taste

directions

  1. Prep the above ingredients, then combine them all in a large bowl.

  2. Taste the salad and add more dill, mustard, lemon juice, and/or salt + pepper depending on your preferences.

 
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