Healthy tuna salad
Healthy tuna salad with Greek yogurt, a spoonful of mayonnaise, celery, red onion, pickles and dill. 18 g of protein and 130 kcal a serving, with a no-mayo version.
- 130
- kcal
- 18g
- protein
- 5g
- fat
- 3g
- carbs
- Prep
- 10 min
- Serves
- 3
Photograph by Deane Bayas on Pexels
Ingredients
- 2 cans (5 oz each) chunk light or skipjack tuna in water, well drained
- 1/3 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 rib celery, finely diced
- 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
- 1 tbsp finely chopped dill pickle
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill or parsley
- Salt and black pepper
Method
-
1
Drain the tuna well
Tip the tuna into a strainer and press it with the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much water as you can.
-
2
Make the dressing
Mix the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice in a bowl.
-
3
Mix
Add the tuna, celery, onion, pickle and dill and flake the tuna with a fork as you fold everything together. Leave some pieces large.
-
4
Season and serve
Season with pepper and taste before adding salt: canned tuna is already salted. Serve on whole-grain bread, in lettuce cups or with crackers.
Which tuna to buy
Canned tuna comes in two main kinds. Chunk light is usually skipjack: it is darker, softer and stronger in flavor, and it is cheaper. Solid white is albacore: it is paler and firmer, with a milder taste. Both make good tuna salad. Albacore has roughly two to three times as much mercury as light tuna, though. The FDA lists canned light tuna as a "best choice", fine to eat 2 to 3 times a week, and albacore as a "good choice", once a week. That advice is aimed at children and at women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or may become pregnant, but it is a sensible guide for anyone who eats tuna salad often.
Tuna packed in water is lower in calories. Tuna packed in olive oil tastes richer and is less dry; drained, it adds about 40 to 60 kcal a serving. If you use it, you can leave out the mayonnaise.
Drain it properly
Most watery tuna salad comes from tuna that was not drained well. Pressing it in a strainer gets out much more water than tipping the can over the sink with the lid on. The dressing stays creamy and the salad holds together in a sandwich.
Healthy tuna salad, and how it compares
A typical deli tuna salad uses about 1/2 cup of mayonnaise for two cans of tuna. That puts each serving at about 330 kcal, with most of the calories from the mayonnaise. Using Greek yogurt with only a tablespoon of mayonnaise for flavor brings it down to about 130 kcal, and adds a few grams of protein. The pickle, mustard and lemon give it enough flavor that you do not miss the extra mayonnaise.
Variations
- No mayo: use all Greek yogurt, or replace the mayonnaise with 1 tbsp olive oil, or with half a mashed avocado.
- With egg: fold in 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs. That adds about 4 g of protein a serving.
- Mediterranean: replace the yogurt and mayonnaise with 2 tbsp olive oil and more lemon, and add capers, olives, chopped red pepper and parsley.
- Shrimp instead: poached shrimp in nearly the same dressing is our shrimp salad, at 25 g of protein a serving.
- Tuna melt: spread it on whole-grain bread, top with a slice of cheddar, and put it under the broiler until the cheese bubbles.
- Macaroni tuna salad: toss with 2 cups of cooked and cooled elbow macaroni and double the dressing.
Keeping it
Tuna salad keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge in a sealed container. For packed lunches, keep it separate from the bread until you eat it, so the bread does not get soggy.
What it is worth nutritionally
A serving, a third of the recipe, has about 130 kcal, with 18 g of protein, 5 g of fat and 3 g of carbohydrate. That is one of the highest ratios of protein to calories of any lunch. Bread is not included: two slices of whole wheat bread add about 160 kcal. Tuna is a good source of vitamin B12, selenium and niacin, and it supplies some omega-3 fat, though light tuna has much less than a fillet of baked salmon. It is low-carb and gluten-free. For something similar with eggs, see our egg salad.
