This week’s recipe will be my tuna salad recipe. Protein-packed, filling, and delicious, tuna salad is easy to make and portable for lunch or a quick dinner.

You can choose to eat it straight, put it on a salad, or make a sandwich with it using your bread of choice.

Tuna Salad

Bulk stores such as Costco or Sam’s Club are the best source for inexpensive canned tuna. You can choose to buy water-packed or oil-packed; the latter tends to be more expensive but tastier. Look for humanely caught tuna as well. Feel free to play with the ratios of ingredients as well. If you’re concerned about mercury content in tuna, see the notes at the bottom or substitute a different canned fish such as salmon.

Ingredients

  • 2 regular cans of tuna, drained
  • 3-5 hard-boiled eggs
  • 1-2 large pickles or 3-5 small pickles
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1/4 c. mayonnaise (See note.)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Equipment

  • bowl, spoon

Instructions

  1. Peel and chop the hard-boiled eggs.
  2. Chop the pickles and celery into small pieces.
  3. Add tuna, eggs, pickles, celery, salt, pepper, and mayo to the bowl. If you’re watching your fat consumption, add the mayo 1 tbsp at a time, then mix all ingredients thoroughly. Continue to add the mayo 1 tbsp. at a time until the tuna salad has the “wetness” you desire.
  4. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. I like to use a wooden spoon to mix and two forks to break up the tuna pieces.
  5. Refrigerate the tuna salad 1-2 hours to let the flavors meld, then enjoy. The tuna salad will keep for a week or so in the refrigerator, but it never lasts that long in my house.

Notes

  • I’m aware that mayo is a controversial condiment in these circles. I did not provide a recipe for making your own mayo, because I have not yet found one nor have I created one that I find satisfactory. If anyone has a good recipe, find me in the Herculean Strength telegram channel and let me know. I’ll update the article once I test it. You can choose to use store-bought mayo based in olive oil, avocado oil, or any other friendly oil. You can also choose to forego the mayo at all and simply use olive oil if you like. The taste won’t be quite the same, but it will still be delicious.
  • Similarly, tuna can be controversial due to mercury content and sourcing. I always advocate for ethical sourcing of any meat or fish you buy. Regarding the amount of tuna that is safe to consume, here  is an article that has a table from the USDA regarding tuna (chunk-light v. albacore) and their recommendations for safe consumption. Here’s another article with some recommended brands of tuna as well. Safecatch also comes up as a highly recommended brand with strict testing done on the fish. You can always choose to use canned salmon or another fish if you prefer to stay away from tuna altogether.