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    Home » Budget Recipes

    The Great Tuna Salad Debate

    Published: Apr 29, 2011 · Modified: Apr 17, 2021 by Jessica Fisher

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    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    When I was growing up, tuna salad sandwiches were some of my favorites. My mom mixed up a delicious concoction to serve on wheat, rye or pita breads, usually topped with alfalfa sprouts.

    Yes, I was mocked ridiculously in the lunch room, but I didn’t care. I loved it.

    However, I’ve found that some do wrong by tuna salad. So, so wrong.

    My husband was scarred for life by his aunt blending tuna salad into a paste. It took awhile for me to convince him that it was good and that mayonnaise was not the enemy.

    I realize that in some parts of the country it is common to add sweet pickles or hard cooked eggs, but you won’t find those in my tuna salad. No, no. I make it like my mama used to make — with celery seed and dill weed — and altogether savory. No sweet.

    Solid white tuna is essential. While chunk light tuna is generally the least expensive of the canned varieties, it doesn’t have the right texture. And, honestly, I’ve found that even solid white has become less solid over the years. It used to be an entire piece of tuna in a can, but not any longer.

    In order to stretch our dollar a little bit, I cheat and use two cans solid white and one can chunk. It’s a happy medium.

    Serve the tuna mixture on a bed of lettuce or in lettuce wraps for a low-carb/whole 30 option.

    Print Recipe Add to Collection Go to Collections
    5 from 3 votes

    Tuna Salad with Celery Seed and Dill Weed

    Mix up a tasty tuna salad with celery seed and dill weed as well as chopped celery, lemon juice, and mayonnaise.
    Prep Time15 mins
    Total Time15 mins
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: American
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 112kcal
    Author: Jessica Fisher
    Cost: $7

    Ingredients

    • 2 5-ounce cans albacore tuna drained
    • ½ lemon juiced
    • ¼ teaspoon celery seed optional
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon dried dill
    • ½ teaspoon dry parsley flakes
    • ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
    • pinch ground cayenne pepper
    • 2 to 3 tablespoon mayonnaise
    • 2 green onion chopped
    • ½ rib celery chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
    • 8 slices sandwich bread or rolls or lettuce leaves
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions

    • In a medium sized mixing bowl, place the tuna. Do not break up too finely, just enough to have small chunks. You want to mix this as little and as lightly as possible.
    • Squeeze the lemon juice over the fish.
    • Add the celery seed, salt, dill weed, parsley, pepper and cayenne. Add mayonnaise, tossing lightly, until enough mayo has been incorporated to bind the ingredients. Fold in the onion and celery.
    • Serve as a sandwich filling or in lettuce wraps.

    Notes

    Promptly store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for up to 2 days.
    Nutritional values are approximate and based on ⅙ the recipe.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 112kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 470mg | Potassium: 212mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 35IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg
    Tried this Recipe? Tag Me Today!Mention @goodcheapeatsblog or tag #goodcheapeats!

    How do YOU make tuna salad?

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. shelley

      August 11, 2019 at 12:23 am

      when i make tuna salad now i use all the above ingredients, only use half and half mayo and thousand island dressing. also, green onions chopped very fine and dill seed. with chopped sweet pickles or dill pickles. either work. also, celery finely chopped or celery seed, whichever i have at the moment. i think the thousand island brings out the flavor.

      Reply
    2. Deb

      March 19, 2018 at 9:53 am

      My husband would go to his best friends house and his mom made tuna salad with 1/2 mayo and 1/2 mirace whip and celery salt. He also likes celery chopped too. We differ on the pickle part. I like dill and he likes sweet so we spead pickle relish on when we make our sandwich.

      Reply
      • Jessica Fisher

        March 19, 2018 at 2:45 pm

        What a great compromise!

        Reply
    3. Jami

      February 03, 2017 at 7:14 am

      This looks great. How many servings is this?

      Reply
      • Jessica Fisher

        February 04, 2017 at 11:21 am

        It’s going to vary depending on how much tuna salad you like in your sandwiches. I can usually get 6 to 8 sandwiches out of this.

        Reply
    4. Stephany Stanley

      May 30, 2015 at 8:32 am

      Ok. I’m late to the party as usual, but here goes…
      4 cans tuna drained
      Chopped kosher dill pickle about 4 halves
      4 or 5 chopped boiled eggs
      1 stalk of celery diced fine, carrot if I don’t have celery
      1/4 or less finely diced onion
      1 handful chopped pecans
      Cavenders greek seasoning to taste
      3 or 4 tbsp mayo
      3 out of 4 kids love it & my husband is peaky & he loves it too.

      Reply
      • Jessica Fisher

        May 31, 2015 at 8:13 am

        Never too late! Sounds really interesting!

        Reply
    5. Jesse

      January 13, 2013 at 9:59 pm

      I can help! 😀 Get your solid white albacore at costco! It is very solid 😀 and comes in a larger can. Because I have a family of three I get the cans that are slightly larger than the grocery, but they also have larger cans that I’m betting would feed your family just fine. 🙂 and I’m a slightly sweet tuna sal girl. My husband is all savory however. So I compromise I add half sweet relish and half dill relish and we get on fine.

      Reply
      • Jesse

        January 13, 2013 at 10:03 pm

        @Jesse, Oh and since I’m allergic to egg whites I use mushrooms cut in the same way my mom started doing it that way for me when I was little and sad because I was different lol.

        Reply
    6. Dee

      December 05, 2012 at 11:49 am

      Right now we are making simple tuna fish with mayo and dill. It’s great with cheese for tuna melts or to add to a salad.

      I do like to add relish or just diced pickles with mayo to tuna.

      Carrots, celery, sprouts are fun and tasty to add. Tuna salad is something you can change up so it is never dull

      Reply
    7. Lorrie

      December 05, 2012 at 11:16 am

      I will certainly try this. Back in Washington, with 6 people in the family, I could buy the cheap tuna on sale for 4 for $1, so I would buy that. I’m lucky if I can find the cheap stuff on sale for 75 cents a can in southern CA. I rarely buy it, but since buying a pressure canner, I’ve been thinking of canning my own tuna. I’m looking for better quality if I have to pay so much anyway. Crazy that I live in a town that was the major source of harvesting and canning tuna. It’s all gone now. 🙁

      Reply
      • Jessica

        December 05, 2012 at 11:22 am

        Sounds like you live in San Diego! Do you keep up with CVS? They often have sales on canned tuna.

        Reply
    8. Esther Robb

      June 24, 2012 at 7:59 pm

      I often add curry powder and peas to my tuna salad…it just seems so lacking in color and interest without those little green gems in there.

      Reply
    9. SheilaB

      May 11, 2012 at 5:21 pm

      I agree, no sweet. But when I was little my mom put in very finly chopped celery instead of seed. The dill sounds delish! My only probelm now is that my husband wants it with sweet relish. And so does my son. And when we do have it we steer totally clear of albacore because it has a much higher mercury content (larger tuna fish).

      Reply
      • Jessica

        May 13, 2012 at 3:52 pm

        @SheilaB, I thought it was all tuna in general that you had to eat in moderation.

        Reply
    10. Kathy

      September 30, 2011 at 1:17 pm

      I want to add a caution about albacore tuna: the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pregnant and nursing mothers, as well as children, limit the consumption of albacore because it contains much more mercury than the chunk light or “pink” tuna . We LOVE the albacore, but I no longer buy it because of the academy’s warning.

      Reply
      • Jessica

        September 30, 2011 at 1:18 pm

        @Kathy, good point. We limit it and eat it very rarely. But, it good to keep in the loop. Thanks!

        Reply
      • Stacy

        May 11, 2012 at 6:58 pm

        @Kathy, I was going to mention this, but didn’t want to be a spoil sport. Since it’s already mentioned though…I’ve switched entirely to chunk light just so I don’t have to be concerned about the mercury. It’s not as good, but it’s OK. I also used canned salmon. Canned chicken is also quite nice, or just shreded chicken to make chicken salad, which is what I prefer over tuna (I do like tuna though). I never thought of adding all those herbs. I’ll try it sometime.

        Reply
        • Stacy

          May 11, 2012 at 6:59 pm

          “shredded,” that is…

        • Kathy

          May 12, 2012 at 9:35 am

          @Stacy, Stacy: I was a newspaper medical writer for many years; I so don’t worry about being a spoilsport 🙂
          I like albacore tuna better also, but it’s not worth the health risks , especially when I can make a pretty good chunk light tuna salad and we are salmon crazy anyway!

        • Jessica

          May 13, 2012 at 3:52 pm

          @Stacy, I don’t think I ever heard that chunk light had less mercury. That’s a new one for me.

        • Stacy

          May 13, 2012 at 4:16 pm

          @Jessica, There are lots of articles on it, but here’s one: http://www.ewg.org/news/limits-urged-eating-tuna . The warnings are mainly for pregnant and nursing women, children, and women who may become pregnant. That said, mercury isn’t good for anyone, so I figure less is better. Certain seafoods are very high. Albacore is high because they’re bigger fish and have had more time to absorb mercury. Chunk light is made from smaller fish who haven’t.

        • Jessica

          May 13, 2012 at 7:46 pm

          Oh, I knew there was a limit on tuna; I just didn’t realize they were differenciating between albacore and other tunas. I think they started issuing the warnings four kids ago. 😉

      • Jesse

        January 13, 2013 at 10:33 pm

        @Kathy, It makes me so sad, The chunk tuna looks and tastes (to me) like it had a run in with a propeller. I will eat albacore but wont feed it to my daughter. chicken salad for her little tummy!

        Reply
        • Kathy

          January 31, 2013 at 8:29 am

          @Jesse, Jesse, I feel your pain. I LOVE the albacore, but just never buy it. I would eat it out, though.

    11. AllieZirkle

      May 12, 2011 at 4:42 pm

      I’m all about celery salt & curry powder in mine. Yum.

      Reply
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