Easy tuna salad
Easy tuna salad ideal for sandwiches and wraps.
How wonderful is it when you have a container of tuna salad in the refrigerator, ready to be used in sandwiches, wraps or even dolloped on top of a green salad for a carb-free lunch? We love starting the week with this recipe in the fridge – it makes packing up lunches for school and work so easy!
Our easy tuna salad recipe is full of flavour, uses ingredients you probably already have at home, and requires little chopping. You can easily put this together in a few short moments and then spend the rest of your time meal-planning for the week’s breakfast with recipes like our egg zucchini muffins and our easy breakfast tortilla wraps.
Helpful hints
Choose the tuna for your easy tuna salad wisely.
There are so many varieties and brands of canned tuna available that it is important to do a little research before settling on your purchase. We use flaked light tuna, packed in water for our tuna salad. This is a lighter and milder option than tuna packed in oil, and we prefer that. We also look for brands which focus on sustainability, which have low mercury levels in their tuna and with ethical harvesting methods. You can read more about the various tuna options you may see in your grocery store in this article.
Drain your tuna well.
The easiest way to drain your tuna is to pour it into a fine sieve and press down on it with the back of a spoon to squeeze as much of the water out as possible. It’s really important to do this, otherwise you end up with a wet tuna salad and soggy bread. That’s kind of gross.
Play around with the ingredient quantities listed in our easy tuna salad recipe.
Start with our quantities, and have a taste. Want more lemon zing? Add more lemon zest. Want your tuna salad creamier? Add more mayonnaise. Not salty enough for you? Too bad. Salt is bad for you and this amount is just fine.
Looking for more easy, packable lunch ideas? We’ve got these:
Halloumi, lettuce and tomato sandwich
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Easy tuna salad
Ingredients
- 2 cans chunk light tuna, in water 170 grams net / 120 grams drained
- 1 green onion, chopped (white and green parts)
- 3 tbsp (45 mL) mayonnaise
- ½ tbsp relish
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice
- 1 tsp grated lemon rind
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
To assemble a sandwich
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil, approximately
- sliced tomato
- lettuce
- 2 pieces sliced bread*
Instructions
- Drain your tuna very well. Combine all ingredients for the tuna salad together in a bowl and mix until well combined.2 cans chunk light tuna, in water, 1 green onion, chopped (white and green parts), 3 tbsp (45 mL) mayonnaise, ½ tbsp relish, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice, 1 tsp grated lemon rind, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper
- Taste the tuna salad and adjust seasoning to your taste.
To assemble sandwich
- Toast your sliced bread. Drizzle olive oil on one side of each slice.1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil, approximately, 2 pieces sliced bread*
- Top one slice of toast with about ¼ cup tuna salad filling. Add sliced tomatoes and lettuce.sliced tomato, lettuce
- Enjoy!
Notes
- You can also use tortillas or pita bread to make wraps or pita pocket sandwiches.
- Nutrition facts are only for the tuna salad (does not include bread and accompaniments)
Sweet or dill relish? Thank you!
Hi Ann Marie! We usually use sweet relish, however either type would work just great. Enjoy! xoxo Helen & Billie
Simple, but always delicious!
Thanks Dorothy! It’s truly a staple 🙂 xoxo Helen & Billie
Tuna is one of my favourite toppings for toast although I do occasionally make a sandwich from it.
I tend to use the tuna (tinned mackerel is even better) packed in tomato sauce, which does half the work for you, mash it with a couple of tinned anchovies (I am only cooking for one) and a good dose of sriracha sauce. When it is all blended with the back of a fork, fire in a few capers. I know I could chop them or add them to the initial mashing but I like them whole. I love the saltiness of the anchovies, a bit of fire from the sriracha and the sharpness of the capers.
I do love your recipes and I agree, make up a bowl of it and it is instant lunch / snack in bout two minutes. As another idea, this would work well in a basic tomato sauce for pasta or, with a tin of tomatoes, over brown rice for another quick lunch.
Yassou, υπέροχη συνταγή as always, keep it up, your cooking is great. Efcharisto poli!
Hi Fergy!! Thanks so much for your comment. We don’t think we’ve seen canned tuna packed in tomato sauce actually – or perhaps we haven’t looked for it 😉 Your recipe sound amazing. We may give it a try one day. Thanks for being here with us! xoxo Helen & Billie
My pleasure. Any sort of canned fish (sardines, mackarel) works equally well. Even if you can only get your tinned fish in brine just drain them and throw a bit of ketchup or watered down tomato puree in, that will work. Just make it up, it is only a five minute snack recipe after all!