The Best Tuna Salad Recipe - Little Sunny Kitchen (2024)

Looking for the best recipe for tuna salad? It’s right here, and it’s super simple to make!

This simple but amazing tuna salad recipe is perfect for sandwiches, salads, or eating with crackers for lunch.

You probably already know how to make a basic tuna sandwich. Mix some canned tuna with mayonnaise, slap it on some bread, and enjoy, right?

Wrong! Just a few extra ingredients can turn a basic tuna sandwich into a fresh, flavorful lunch experience that you’ll look forward to!

Onion, celery, dill pickles, fresh herbs, and lemon juice elevate canned (or pouch) tuna fish to be the best that it can be: The perfect homemade tuna salad.

You should also try my easy ham salad recipe or creamy turkey salad made with leftovers. Homemade chicken salad and egg salad are two other sandwich spread classics!

Want to make the most amazing tuna salad sandwich? Serve it on homemade no-knead artisan bread with some lettuce. Yum!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

1. No Cooking Required –Many of my favorite recipes go straight from the fridge to my plate, which is perfect for lunchtime, or a cool meal on a hot summer night.
2. Balanced Flavor –Canned fish and mayonnaise can be a pretty bland combination, and it just begs for fresh acidic notes. Fresh lemon juice and dill pickles add the perfect amount of acidity to this delicious tuna salad.
3. Economical – Tuna can be a very inexpensive protein source, and it can last in the cupboard for a long time, so feel free to stock up when you see it on sale!

Tuna Salad Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make the best tuna salad recipe:

• Tuna: Use canned flake tuna fish packed in water (not oil) for tuna salad. Be sure to drain as much of the water out of the tuna as possible before mixing it in with the other ingredients.
• Mayonnaise: For the very best tuna salad, use full-fat mayonnaise. If you need to, low-fat mayo can be used as well. Greek yogurt also makes a good healthier mayo alternative.
• Dijon Mustard: A little bit of dijon adds richness to the mayo.
• Celery and Onion: These bring flavor, but they also bring much-needed crunch to your tuna salad. Be sure to dice both very finely so that you get some in every bite.
• Dill Relish: You can also finely chop dill pickles if you don’t have relish. Capers are another pickled item that can be very tasty in tuna salad. Anything that has that briny, vinegary flavor.
• Fresh Parsley: I love the flecks of dark green that chopped parsley adds.
• Lemon Juice: Please use juice that you’ve freshly squeezed from a lemon! bottled lemon juice just doesn’t taste as good.
• Salt and Pepper: Finish your perfect tuna salad with simple seasonings.

Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

How To Make Tuna Salad

1. Prep Your Ingredients: Drain the tuna and chop the celery, onion, and parsley. Then add the tuna and veggies to a bowl along with mayo, Dijon mustard, relish or diced dill pickles, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

1. Stir: Use a spoon or spatula to combine all of the tuna salad ingredients together. That’s it!

Recipe Tips

• Use tuna packed in water. Tuna packed in oil isn’t the right type for making salad.
• Dill relish is my favorite part of this recipe. If you don’t have dill relish in the fridge, do as I did and chop up a few dill pickles instead. I added extra diced pickles to the top of my salad too. Yum! And if you like pickles as much as I do, make sure to try my Dill Pickle Pasta Salad next.
• Try this recipe with canned salmon for an extra special treat.
• For a lighter version, use greek yogurt in place of the mayonnaise.
• Scale the recipe: If you’re just making enough tuna salad for one or two people, you can easily cut this recipe in half to use just one can of tuna. You can also double or triple it too!

Storing Tips

If you aren’t going to enjoy your homemade tuna salad right away, be sure to promptly refrigerate it in an airtight container.

Tuna salad will stay fresh for 3-4 days in the fridge.

How to Eat Tuna Salad

Aside from a simple tuna sandwich, or tuna on toast, there are plenty of ways to enjoy this recipe!

Instead of making a sandwich with bread, stuff tuna salad into a halved avocado, bell pepper, or seeded cucumber.

Try a scoop of tuna salad on top of a delicious shrimp cobb salad, or whatever greens and veggies you have in the fridge.

Mix tuna salad with cooked pasta and a bit of extra mayo and you’ll have a super simple tuna pasta salad.

Learn how to make a classic tuna melt sandwich, just like your favorite diner makes!

Pack a container of tuna salad in your lunch along with fresh veggies and crackers to dip into it with.

Recipe FAQs

It’s really easy to make the best tuna salad ever! All it takes is a few extra flavorful ingredients to bring this simple staple from bland to beautiful. Pin the recipe for later!