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I never get tired of an excellent Tuna Salad Recipe, and of the hundreds of versions I’ve made, this version is the best. Serve on toast, crackers, a bed of greens, or grilled as a very delicious tuna melt.
No matter how you mix it, making tuna salad at home is one of the easiest, most satisfying meals you can whip up from pantry ingredients.
Start with my recipe and enjoy it just as it is, or throw in your own favorite must-haves. It’s ready in minutes and always handy to have when hunger strikes.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Tuna: I prefer tuna packed in water with a dolphin-safe label. I usually buy cans, but you can use packets instead. Or, substitute oil-packed tuna (feel free to decrease the amount of mayonnaise if you do).
- Mayonnaise: This recipe is heavy on the mayonnaise. Start with ¼ cup if you prefer and add more to taste.
- Sweet pickle relish: Or substitute dill relish or minced dill pickles if you prefer that flavor.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a medium bowl, add tuna, mayonnaise, celery, onion, relish, lemon juice, and garlic.
- Stir to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper (I like ½ teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper). Serve immediately or cover and chill until serving.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 3 cups of tuna salad, enough for 6 sandwiches (½ cup per sandwich).
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- More mix-ins: Add a small amount of cut apples (Granny Smith would be perfect), a handful of thawed peas, or a couple of chopped hard-boiled eggs to your tuna salad.
- Tuna Melt: Add melty cheese, juicy tomatoes, and golden brown, buttery grilled bread for the perfect tuna melt.
- Lettuce wraps: Tuna salad is delicious wrapped in lettuce leaves or piled on a bed of lettuce.
- Tuna pasta salad: Make a tasty tuna pasta salad by adding cooked macaroni, rotini, or your other favorite small pasta.
- Stuffed tomatoes: Hollow out juicy tomatoes and fill with tuna salad for an old-fashioned and super-delicious lunch entrée.
- Ahi Tuna Salad: Is the Ahi tuna looking fabulous at the fish market, or have you got an extra bit of Ahi tuna from last night’s dinner? Splurge and make tuna salad with it. Cook it through, then flake it up in this recipe.
- More deli salads: If you love this Tuna Salad, you might also love my Chicken Salad, Turkey Salad, Egg Salad, Ham Salad, classic Potato Salad, and my favorite Macaroni Salad.
Recipe FAQs
Instead of mayonnaise, you can make tuna salad dressing with plain yogurt or whipped silken tofu. You can also add lemon vinaigrette (¼ cup olive oil, 2 tbsp. lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard, fresh herbs like dill, parsley, or chives and salt and pepper to taste).
Yes, oil-packed tuna tastes great in tuna salad (feel free to decrease the amount of mayonnaise if you do).
If you prefer water-packed tuna but only have access to oil-packed, you can remove the oil yourself. Add the tuna to a fine-mesh sieve, rinse vigorously with cold water, and press with a spatula to extract all of the liquid out of the fish.
More delicious salads
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The Best Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 4 (5-ounce) cans tuna packed in water drained (see note 1)
- 1 cup mayonnaise or less to taste (see note 2)
- 1/3 cup celery finely chopped (about 1 rib)
- 2 tablespoons red onion minced, about 2 small slices
- 2 tablespoon sweet pickle relish (see note 3)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic minced
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine tuna, mayonnaise, celery, onion, relish, lemon juice, and garlic.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper (I like ½ teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper). Serve immediately or cover and chill until serving.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Tuna: I prefer tuna packed in water with a dolphin-safe label. I usually buy cans, but you can use packets instead. Or, substitute oil-packed tuna (feel free to decrease the amount of mayonnaise if you do).
- Mayonnaise: This recipe is heavy on the mayonnaise. Start with ¼ cup if you prefer and add more to taste.
- Sweet pickle relish: Or substitute dill relish or minced dill pickles if you prefer that flavor.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 3 cups of tuna salad, enough for 6 sandwiches (½ cup per sandwich).
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Great base! I added some mustard and mushroom umami. Subbed green onion for celery and a shallot for the onion and garlic lol so I tweaked it a ton but thanks for giving me an idea! My husband is enjoying this for lunch this week!
By far best recipe! So tasty but I used a quarter of the mayo and it still was amazing!
Best tuna salad ever! We couldn’t believe how delicious it was. A delicious balance of everything. Thank you!
I am going to try this Tuna Salad recipe.
However, I only want to use 2 5 oz. can of tuna.
From the perspective of the tuna ingredient, I am halving the recipe.
But, if I apply the reduction factor of 1/2 to all ingredients, the celery looks like its being short-changed.
1/3 Cup becomes 1/6 Cup — how do you even measure 1/6 Cup?
Also, some of the other ingredients seem to be poor candidates for halving.
I have always wonder if it is possible to reduce a recipe by some factor by applying that factor equally to all ingredients!
I suspect the process of reducing a recipe is NOT always a linear one — what do you think?
Hi Ray, I would recommend just using half a rib of celery. Culinary math is tricky sometimes when reducing recipes, so 1/3 of a cup is 16 teaspoons, half of that would be 8 teaspoons, or 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. I hope this helps! Take care – Meggan
Ray,
This recipe calls for 4 – 5 oz cans of tuna. If you are using a single 2.5 oz can of tuna, you would have to divide each ingredient by 8! I divided by 4 because I used a single 5 oz can, here is what I came up with, you would have to divide by 1/2 again:
5 oz can tuna
<1/4 cup mayo
4 tsp celery
1/2 T red onion
1/2 T sweet relish
3/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 clove garlic
salt & pepper
The nutrition content appears to be incorrect. For 2/3 cup of the tuna salad, it’s only 1gm protein?
Hi Pamela, you’re totally right, it was wrong. It was only pulling 4 ounces of tuna total, not 20 ounces (because we had it listed as 4 (5 ounce) cans and didn’t correct it). It’s fixed now! 19g protein per serving. Thanks for finding that, and I’m really sorry. So embarrassing. Thanks. -Meggan
Just made this… it’s fantastic with some key alterations. I was saddened by absence of celery, so I added celery. I also topped the salad with some delicious roasted red peppers. Next time I’ll add some lemon juice and see how that goes 🙂 And maybe a little less sweet. Overall, super delicious recipe.
Hi Veronica! I’m so glad that you added the celery, food should never make you sad! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! -Meggan
I have been making tuna salad for 20+ years. Never have I ever. This is so similar to what I’ve always done. BUT, this is next level. Exactly why I looked on line to see if there was something even better than mine. There is! Yours!
This turned out super tasty!! Love it. I’ll be using this many times.
Haven’t tried this yet but I’m sure going to. I’m also going to try some of the other sandwich recipes. Thanks for the site.
SO GOOD! And if you like spice I highly recommend adding a tablespoon of potbelly hot peppers (it’s a giardinara mix w more like green olives) and it perfects this recipe and adds more crunch. love it on toasty seedy grain bread