Tuna Salad

I love Tuna Salad. I discovered recently that I love Tuna Salad with eggs in it, too. My recipe for Mom’s Chicken Salad has ’em so I don’t know why this was so surprising to me but I digress: let’s get down to business!

Tuna Salad Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Tuna Salad recipe:

• Tuna: I’ve only ever used canned tuna for this and can’t speak for how to translate. I prefer tuna in water, but this recipe will work with tuna stored in oil as well as long as you make sure to drain off the excess. If you use tuna packed in water, draining is optional.
• Hard-boiled eggs: This recipe originally didn’t include eggs, so feel free to omit them. I would decrease the amount of mayonnaise by a tablespoon or so if you do.
• Mayonnaise: You can’t have tuna salad with mayonnaise! Or a mayonnaise substitute of some sort! It’s Duke’s or nothing in my house, as y’all know by now.
• Sweet pickle relish: I’m always gonna opt for sweet, but if you like your salads savory, use dill pickle relish.
• Dijon mustard: It’s important to use dijon. Yellow mustard is too sharp.
• Lemon juice: It cuts through the mayo and eggs, highlights the tuna, and brightens the piquant flavor of the relish.
• Celery seed: Imma be honest with you: I started using celery seed when one day I just couldn’t be bothered to mince up some fresh celery, and I discovered that this works just as well as far as flavor. If you want the added crunch, omit the celery seed and add one large celery heart, minced.
• Cracked black pepper: To finish it up.

How to Make Tuna Salad

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this Tuna Salad recipe:

• Grab a bowl and a fork. I like to use mixing bowls with lids so I don’t need to wash extra dishes and this needs to chill for a few hours, tightly covered. Use a fork to mix so the canned tuna flakes apart.
• Decide on drainage. I usually don’t drain my tuna, but I have before. It’ll be drier, obviously without the water, but you can easily fix that if you want with some extra mayonnaise.
• Add everything else. I have a habit of combining things one item at a time, but this isn’t necessary unless you just enjoy watching the process like me. Add the other ingredients – except the eggs so we don’t break them up too much – and get to stirring. There’s no real method to it, just make sure you do a thorough job.
• Adding eggs? Chopped-up hard-boiled eggs are a new addition to my Tuna Salad recipe. I didn’t realize I liked them in it! Now, I doubt I’ll make Tuna Salad without them ever again. They are super optional tho. Stir these in more gently than you did everything else.
• Cover and chill. After everything is good to go cover it up and stick it in the fridge for at least two hours. Make sure the lid or wrap is very tight-fitting: you don’t want the other foods in your fridge smelling like tuna.

The Perfect Tuna Salad Sandwich

I will eat this Tuna Salad with crackers, in a wrap, or with sliced red bell peppers. Subs are also good. My current favorite way to eat it is this amazing sandwich:

• La Boulangerie Croissant Toast. My obsession! Order it from their website or pick it up at Whole Foods. Regular croissants are a perfect substitute if you can’t find it. Whichever you choose, I recommend toasting it a bit.
• Heirloom tomatoes. Or whatever really good tomatoes you can find in your area. Just make sure they’re nice and ripe.
• Spring mix. A mix of arugula and baby spinach works well, too.
• Mayonnaise. I use a very small amount smeared on the bread. Use whatever condiment you prefer.

Let me know what you think if you try it! Here are a couple of Pinterest graphics:

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