Here’s a quick mid-week recipe that you can whip up in a couple minutes flat. This Healthy Mediterranean Tuna Salad is full of flavor. I add fresh lemon juice for tartness, fresh basil for an herby flavor, and celery for crunch. Olive oil replaces heavy, and often processed, mayonnaise. Season the mixture generously with salt and pepper, and you’ve got a fresh tuna salad with a twist. You won’t miss the mayo!
Growing up I would take a brown bag lunch to school, and I always looked forward to my mom’s tuna sandwich on white bread with mayo. Now that I have my own kitchen, I often make tuna salad to add a protein boost to my lunch. Over the years I came up with a lighter, more Mediterranean-style preparation to change things up. I still love Mom’s mayonnaise tuna salad, but this version is equally crave-worthy in its own way.
This tuna salad works great with a Mediterranean diet, or for those who are going low carb. I like to serve it on top of a kale salad, or as an open-faced sandwich on whole grain or pumpernickel toast. Spread a piece of bread with a thin layer of hummus, then top with lettuce, tomato, and tuna salad. Oh the possibilities!
Ditch the mayo for a lighter, fresher take on tuna. Super filling, heart healthy and so tasty! Your body and your taste buds will both say “thank you.”
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Food Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
Healthy Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 5 ounces olive oil packed tuna, drained (if you're watching your fat intake, use water-packed tuna)
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
- 1/2 stalk celery, minced
- 1 finely chopped scallion - green part only (optional)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or more to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pour the tuna in a small mixing bowl. Use a fork to break the tuna chunks into very small pieces.
- Add the basil, celery, scallions and lemon juice to the bowl. Use the fork to stir all the ingredients together till well mixed.
- Add extra virgin olive oil to moisten the tuna to your liking. I usually use between 1 and 2 tbsp. Season with salt and pepper to taste; sea salt and freshly ground pepper is best. Serve.
Nutrition
I make it this way as well as my Italian family made it my entire.
But why throw away the oil from the can then add oil?
You may be throwing away away lots of flavor and food vitamins etc.
Hi Mike! You can certainly use the oil from the can, if you prefer. In my experience (with certain brands of tuna) the oil in the can– or jar– may retain a very fishy flavor. Replacing it with fresh olive oil gives a better and less fishy end result, in my experience.
My mom made a tuna salad with lemon juice, and it was my favorite. I think she used parsley instead of basil, but basil is better. Thank you for the recipe, it’s so fresh and delicious!
I used 1/4 of an avocado instead of olive oil and diced red radish instead of scallions. So crunchy and good!
Excellent recipe and delicious! Quick, easy and healthy. Thanks for publishing.
This was delicious!
So simple and I agree the possibilities are endless.
I ate half and thought. Maybe. I’ll add a few olives. It was great, but next time I will not add salt because the olives have plenty. Thanks for a great recipe.
This sounds great! If I’m making them for lunches, how long do you think it will last in the fridge?
I generally don’t keep fish salads longer than 2 days, or it can start to turn overly “fishy.”
Just made this and it was delicious. I paired it with a kale salad massaged with olive oil, ACV and lemon topped with nutritional yeast. Fabulous! Thank you!!!
Do you think this recipe would also work with canned salmon?
Yes! For salmon I might replace basil with fresh dill, but basil would probably be good too. 🙂
Thanks for this great recipe. My mother and grandma always made delicious mayo/egg based salad, but I can no longer eat it for health reasons. I’m fighting recurrent anemia and am always searching for iron rich recipes that don’t include ingredients that interfere with iron absorption (like eggs and mayo). It still seems odd to me that eggs, which are rich in iron, also interfere with absorption. I tried the recipe as written and it was wonderful. The second time I added bell peppers and it was equally good. Thanks again for a light, tasty and healthy recipe that I will make, and enjoy, frequently.
So glad you enjoyed it Vicki! I didn’t know eggs interfere with iron absorption, that’s so interesting.
Wow! Another winner! I’ve been extremely happy with any of your recipes I’ve tried.
This is a great recipe as is. However, I was out of lemons one day and substituted lime juice instead. This lead me to use cilantro instead of basil and chopped jalapeno..
I’ve been eating tuna this way for years. I make a bottle of homemade Italian dressing and keep it on hand for tuna salad. So much better than using mayo. I’ve never used fresh basil before but it was really good! Thank you.
I also use this recipe to stuff tomatoes and it was very well received at a ladies luncheon.
I made tuna salad with chopped fresh garlic,celery,mustard , onion powder,and an boiled egg. I didn’t have enough mayonnaise. What can I use in place of the mayonnaise I don’t have.The tuna was in soybean oil.
I love this tuna salad recipe. The olive oil and lemon makes it taste so good.I eat it on top of sea salt and pepper crackers. Flavor of everything in tuna salad blend in so well. Delicious.
FYI, Soybean Oil as well as Canola Oil, unless they are certified ORGANIC, are heavily sprayed with Roundup/Glyphosate, which we now know is a carcinogen.
I only use Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil that has a HARVEST DATE stamped on each label.
The harvest date in each package is one of the easiest ways to differentiate olive oil that has been adulterated with other oils to increase the profit and olive oil that is actually pure olive oil.
Most olive oil on the market today is NOT pure olive oil as it has been adulterated with other oils.
Amazing recipe it’s great thing to eat for dancers love it soo much gives you loads of energy!!
Thanks for the recipe. Can you use the phrase “(I use ____.)” after “to taste” in your recipes. This phrase will give a good baseline for those of us who need a little more clarification on amounts. The photos and recipes you post are quite nice.
Hi Glenn, to clarify – I always recommend in the instructions below the recipe what I use personally, but in the ingredients themselves I use “to taste” because people have individual tastes and preferences when it comes to those particular ingredients. Also in this recipe, as an example, some tuna in olive oil will already have quite a bit of oil… it varies based on brand. So it’s really a try-and-taste thing. Hope that makes sense!
Made this tonight, and I am happy to say this is how I will be serving it from now on! I did add lemon zest and more than 2 Tbl of juice. I served it on romaine with tomatoes. Thank you!