I’m excited to bring a new savory recipe to you! While tuna salad might seem boring or unoriginal, I am proud to finally bring you the BEST tuna salad and tuna melt recipe (at least, in my personal opinion!). I’ve been on a quest the past few months to re-create my favorite tuna salad, which I used to get at least once/week at the café at work. However, with working from home much more in 2020…I wanted to make tuna salad at home that tasted like the one from work that I liked so much! This tuna salad is fresh yet creamy, and bursting with different textures to make it so tasty and satisfying. Trust me, this tuna salad is anything but boring but definitely nothing crazy or complicated either.

Ingredients and Substitution Ideas

Tuna

I mean…you kind of need tuna to make tuna salad. ? Any kind of tuna should work! Or you could substitute canned salmon, although I personally haven’t tried this yet! If you’re looking for a vegan/vegetarian similar recipe, I’d highly recommend this chickpea avocado salad.

Red Onion

I’m not sure if this is a traditional ingredient in tuna salad, but I love the texture and flavor onion has! I pretty much always prefer the color and flavor of red onion (especially raw/in salads) to white onion!

Celery

Celery adds delicious crunch to this tuna salad. Honestly, the tuna salad is boring and has a flat texture without the addition of celery!

Dijon mustard

A little bit goes a long way! You could use regular mustard, but I prefer Dijon for best flavor. The combination of Dijon mustard, relish, and full-fat Greek yogurt form the dressing of this tuna salad and it is YUMMY!

Relish

While I personally am NOT a fan of pickles, the relish adds a much-needed tang and flavor to the tuna salad! I honestly didn’t realize at first how vital this ingredient was. You could possibly substitute finely diced pickles in place of relish, but I definitely do not recommend omitting this ingredient.

Greek yogurt

I highly recommend using full-fat/whole milk Greek yogurt for the best taste and texture. You could also substitute mayonnaise in place of the Greek yogurt. I honestly prefer the taste of Greek yogurt versus mayo, as long as it’s full-fat! I do not recommend using regular yogurt, as that would likely be much too runny (Greek yogurt has a more similar thick consistency to mayonnaise). And while you technically could use fat-free or low-fat Greek yogurt, again, I highly recommend buying full-fat for the best experience! You can always buy a smaller/single-serving plain full-fat Greek yogurt so you don’t have a lot of extra if you want.

Hard-boiled Eggs

I have had tuna salad without hard-boiled eggs, and I have to say, I much prefer tuna salad with eggs! That being said, you can omit the eggs if you want. Even if you don’t love hard-boiled eggs on their own, I highly suggest giving them a try in this recipe. They are creamy and add protein and good variety of texture along with the tuna!

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder

These are the standard, super simple seasonings I used! I honestly don’t measure these spices when I make this tuna salad, but I do like using freshly ground sea salt and black pepper. Feel free to of course, adjust to your personal preference!

Serving Suggestions

There are so many delicious ways to enjoy this tuna salad! You can enjoy this tuna salad on crackers, as a sandwich, over lettuce as a salad, or, my favorite new discovery…as a tuna melt! I love toasting bread or an English muffin, topping with a THICK layer of tuna salad, topping with cheese (and optional sliced tomato), and then broiling for a few minutes in the oven (or I also have used my air fryer) until the cheese is melted! I don’t know how I went all of my life until last year without eating a tuna melt, but now I can’t get enough of them!

I love making a big batch of this on Sunday to have on hand for quick and easy lunches for the first couple days of the week. Honestly, while tuna salad seems more of a lunch item to me, I also have made tuna melts for dinner! I like serving homemade roasted beet chips, or air fryer fries on the side!