Comments on: How else can I make tuna salad?

Question: How else can I make tuna salad?

warthurton — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:23:04 -0800

As somebody who is trying to change what he eats to better choices I still love some tuna salad, but really get skeezed out by the Mayonaise now. I've been looking for some alternative binder for my tuna when I want to make a sandwich. What else can I use to make tuna salad?

By: Balonious Assault

Balonious Assault — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:25:27 -0800

Avocado! (yum)

By: thecaddy

thecaddy — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:26:19 -0800

Buy tuna in oil. Add some red wine vinegar, olives and capers. Place on bread.

By: neda

neda — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:26:52 -0800

Greek yogurt or hummus.

By: SeedStitch

SeedStitch — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:27:48 -0800

Cottage cheese! (This also helps with the disgusting slime factor in cottage cheese.)

By: saraindc

saraindc — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:28:08 -0800

well we eat tuna salad all the time made with vegetable/olive oil.

ok now I see thecaddy has mentioned oil. if you buy tuna canned in water, and drain out the water but mix in some oil, you'll probably end up consuming a bit less oil.

By: Blasdelb

Blasdelb — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:28:31 -0800

Are you skeezed out by mayonaise in general and willing to go to a store to pick up an alternative? Or looking for something already in your fridge? Really what you are looking for is an alternative fat/oil.

Capers and olive oil would work great

By: saraindc

saraindc — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:29:04 -0800

also, if you're still concerned about binding after adding oil, you can add some other spread to your sandwich. We've been adding a homemade tomato paste (more like a chutney) to the bread in our tuna sandwiches and it tastes really good.

By: shortyJBot

shortyJBot — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:30:10 -0800

Plain greek 0% fat yogurt! I mix about 4 parts greek yogurt to 1 part light mayo to make tuna and chicken salad. Lemon goes well in tuna salad as well. (I sprinkle some fresh lemon juice on the tuna and mix it in before adding the yogurt and mayo. (Cumin or yellow curry goes well with chicken salad, and dill goes really well with tuna salad.)

Greek yogurt with a little avocado mixed in sounds really good, too!

By: ijoyner

ijoyner — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:31:40 -0800

Homemade olive oil mayo?

By: tipsyBumblebee

tipsyBumblebee — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:38:29 -0800

Olive oil, small canned beans of your choice, fresh dill and lemon juice. So awesome!

By: Ruthless Bunny

Ruthless Bunny — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:41:00 -0800

Make tzatziki.

Om, nom, nom.

By: ActionPopulated

ActionPopulated — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:42:04 -0800

My favorite tuna mixture: sesame oil, bit of soy sauce, wasabi, maybe some finely cut radish or other crunchy veggie.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:42:49 -0800

Yeah, it'd be good to know why you're avoiding mayo. Trying to eat less fat? Less cholesterol? Fewer things out of jars? Just aren't into the flavor anymore? There are so many different ideas out there of what "eating well" means that just telling us you're looking for a better choice is pretty ambiguous.

By: Apoch

Apoch — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:49:28 -0800

Depending on how much you like mustard, you might be able to replace the mayo with mustard.

By: warthurton

warthurton — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:53:58 -0800

I avoid mayo because of many of the reasons that have been mentioned. I need to have less fat & less things out of a jar/foil packet/tube/sqeeze/etc. I understand that when it comes to prepared food Mayo is closer to "regular ingredients" than many others. A few years ago a place put mayo on the bread of a tuna sandwich that I purchased. It was so sickening to me that I can't really eat may without getting that same feeling. (weird I know). Plus I feel that tuna could use something a bit more complementary than Mayo. Thanks for all the ideas so far BTW. Oh and I love Dijon mustards whole seed & creamy and have replace mayo on other sandwiches where people would use mustard.

By: specialagentwebb

specialagentwebb — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:55:48 -0800

Nthing greek yogurt. ActionPopulated's sesame-soy is another one that I use; it's excellent in onigiri! You can mix mustard with olive oil and red wine vinegar for a tangy tuna salad. Low-fat italian dressing is another easy one. Or if you're feeling extra crazy, you can add crushed pineapple (drained) and hot sauce.

By: betweenthebars

betweenthebars — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:09:39 -0800

I hate mayo, so I use either plain yogurt and mustard or plain yogurt and dill with fresh cucumbers.

By: SoftRain

SoftRain — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:17:06 -0800

I just never have mayo in the house, so I generally use plain yogurt + mustard (grainy mustard is great here) + whatever other spices I'm in the mood for (often cumin).

By: crazycanuck

crazycanuck — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:21:59 -0800

Homemade mayo is a wonderful thing.it's relatively easy to make in a blender. Suggest you try it at least once.

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:21:59 -0800

I think your search term/style here is Nicoise. I like to make a Nicoise-type tuna salad instead of mayo: olive oil, lemon, capers, maybe some diced shallots, and if I'm feeling really fancy, rough-chopped hard-boiled eggs.

By: mr vino

mr vino — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:24:22 -0800

If you make a vinaigrette starting with a big gob of Dijon mustard, you can get it to have something like the consistency of mayo, but not the flavor (or un-flavor). But still high in the oil department.

By: fermezporte

fermezporte — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:00:24 -0800

Seconding avocado! I also like to add a squeeze of lime, and you can add tomatoes and onions and go for the full guacamole experience.

By: wwax

wwax — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:05:00 -0800

If you get tuna in olive oil it doesn't really need any extra binder. You can get ones that are already flavoured in the oil My mum used to mash smoked fish into a little bit butter to make sort of a fishy pasty spread that would work with tuna I am sure, though not really cut back your fat, but if its a taste or texture thing it's another option.

By: kudra23

kudra23 — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:05:25 -0800

Today for lunch I had tuna with steamed purple broccoli and pre home made pesto stirred through. Quick, cheap and delicious.

For the pesto just chuck a big handful of parsley (i prefer flat leaf ) or basil into a blender along with a slightly less amount of walnuts (or pine nuts which is tastier but more expensive) a garlic clove (or not if you don't like garlic) similar amount of grated Parmesan (or any other hard cheese) a good glug of olive oil and some salt, sea salt if you have it.

Whiz till its a paste then add a splash of lemon juice to give it a wee zing. You now have a beautiful pesto for your salad, for your pasta, for your soup, your bruscetta, tasty with plain steamed veg.. so versatile.

If you don't have a blender can be done with mortar and pestel but will take longer by hand.

By: vytae

vytae — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:32:38 -0800

It doesn't really help on the less-processed front, but reduced fat ranch dressing makes for a delicious tuna salad binder, with a lot fewer calories and less fat. Plus it works really well with extra veggies in your tuna salad. I like to mince up carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and/or whatever other crunchy veggies are in the fridge to mix in. Just make them really small, so they don't overwhelm your sandwich.

By: floweredfish

floweredfish — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:41:23 -0800

It sounds vile, but it's actually delicious: Mix tuna with COTTAGE CHEESE, pepper and a pinch of dill.

Mixing with mustard and celery is also really good.

By: Neekee

Neekee — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:52:01 -0800

Sour cream?

By: L'Estrange Fruit

L'Estrange Fruit — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:53:27 -0800

I loves me some seafood sauce as a binder for everything.

By: Comrade_robot

Comrade_robot — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:20:01 -0800

If you're worried about things in jars, have you considered making your own mayonnaise ?.

By: knile

knile — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:33:34 -0800

This thread has a few other suggestions on how to "hack" tuna salad.

By: jabes

jabes — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:19:45 -0800

Mayo also skeezes me out so I've been a lifelong eater of tuna straight from the can. It generally stays in plays as long as you smush down the edges of your bread/toast a bit, or eat it in a pita.

By: Kololo

Kololo — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:41:38 -0800

The best tuna sandwich in the world is grainy bread, tuna with olive oil (either packed in oil or packed in water and tossed with oil,) dijon mustard or grainy mustard, a slice of swiss cheese, and veggies (alfalfa sprouts, cucumber slices, tomato slices, etc). Super flavourful, doesn't rely on the mayo or oil to be star of the show, and has lots of different flavours in each bite.

I also found it not-so-hard to have this with just plain drained water-packed tuna.

By: randomnity

randomnity — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:42:21 -0800

I like sour cream a lot - not sure if it's any healthier, though.

By: Eyebrows McGee

Eyebrows McGee — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:16:23 -0800

I make it with sour cream and mustard and a dash of cayenne. This is the recipe I started from. I wing it from there.

By: ostro

ostro — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:26:30 -0800

Lemon juice! Buy the oil-packed kind (water-packed plus oil doesn't taste the same at all) and add lemon juice, lemon zest, chopped red onion, chopped kalamata olives, and walnut bits. So good. The lemon really cuts the . . . . tuna-ness . . . of the tuna and makes it refreshing.

By: A Terrible Llama

A Terrible Llama — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:53:17 -0800

Olive oil, lemon, tarragon and garlic. If you like olives and capers, you'd throw them in too, and then you'd be getting close to a salad niçoise, especially if you added anchovies.

Caramelized onions are wonderful on top of tuna salad, and I bet they'd be great as a substitute for mayonnaise, not that you'd mix them in, but lay them on top of ordinary tuna canned in oil on a sandwich.

By: Room 641-A

Room 641-A — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:01:19 -0800

This really works best in a food processor (even a manual one) but you could do it all by hand:

Put tuna in the food processor and pulse one or twice. (You really need to use solid tuna, not chunk, which is already a mush.) Throw hard add-ins like celery and onion into the bowl and pulse a few more times. It's not an exact science, you just want to err on the side of under-processing because the next step will add a lot of moisture and you don't want mush. (Unless you want mush, of course.) Finally, de-seed a tomato and discard the liquid inside. Chop into a large dice, add it to the rest of the tuna, give it a few more pulses and you will have tuna that is as moist as if it had been made with mayo. Fold in any other ingredients, season, and serve.

I discovered this by accident and it's really delicious. The key here is processing the tuna and tomato together; when I make it now I only pulse the tuna and tomato; I then fold in sliced scallions, a little lemon zest, maybe some capers, and my new favorite tuna salad ingredient, seeded and diced cucumber*. But once you get the tuna and tomato you can treat it like

*Seriously, if you like a little crunch in your tuna this is a million times better celery. Try it!