Tuna, Bleu Cheese dressing, and maybe a little black pepper. Love it!
Balsamic vinegar, black pepper, garlic, and just enough mayo to make it spredable.
- Tuna
- Wasabi Mayonnaise (I get mine from Trader Joe’s)
- Dried cherries, chopped
- Pecans, chopped
- Finely shredded lettuce of your choice (baby spinach is good, too)
- salt and pepper to taste (soy sauce is good for the salt here)
Mmmmm!
Celery seed adds a certain something…
Did they stop growing them? 
How about some pomegranate added to a very plain tuna salad. Should give you a few sweet and crunchy bites.
I like chopped black olives, garlic powder, and pepper flakes in mine.
And of course, bacon salt goes with everything.
I love a good neeschwa salad. Phonetics are your friend if you know you’ll butcher the spelling anyway. Boiled spuds, tuna, capers, balsamic, black olives…mmm. (I usually just use some of the “juice” from the capers instead of the balsamic.) I throw some anchovies in there, myself!
Niçoise?
Merci!
De rien!
I’ve never tried it, but here’s a muse. Hows about a Tuna Reuben?
DK’s Tuna Reuben
1 Foil Pack of Tuna
Favorite 1000 Island Dressing
Rye Bread
Can of drained and rinsed Sauerkraut
Canned Pineapple Slices
Swiss Cheese
Mix and moisten the drained tuna with 1000 Island dressing, layer it on top of a buttered slice of rye, top with a pineapple ring, some sauerkraut, a bit more 1000 Island to moisten, and finally two slices of swiss, top with the other buttered piece of rye. Grill or Sautee in a pan to toast both sides and melt the cheese.
My favorite additives are chopped apple, walnuts or pecans, and chopped celery. If you’d like, you can add chopped hard-boiled egg, but that’s pushing it. Just mix the whole thing with enough mayo so it’s creamy, but not so much that it drips.
I may have to make that for lunch tomorrow.
Robin
Another Chapel Hill recipe from a deli I worked at; (LHOD/Daniel might remember it)
Tuna, drain and pour dill pickle juice, let it soak in, then mash with a fork, or
better yet, squeeze and break it up with your hands
Mayo
lemon juice
Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
if you want to mimic that, do garlic powder, thyme, black pepper, heavy dried oregano…but Cavender’s is great to have as an all purpose seasoning
diced onion
diced celery
pickle relish
salt to taste
The pickle juice was what really amped up the flavor, plus the texture by mashing it all to a scoopable pulp, good for deli use. Fun to make by the big ol’ buspan full!
Sliced water chestnuts! Yummy yum!
Also, dijon mustard. Although I’ve never done dijon AND water chestnuts.
That sounds really good–but I can’t think of any delis I went to much back in the day (late eighties/early nineties). Which one was it?
Daniel
Oh, yikes :smack:, Daniel…it was Sadlack’s, corner of Franklin and Henderson, next to what was the Gyro paradise of Hector’s. Great deli sandwiches, made in steamers, rare for the South, and staffed by a great bunch of musicians and other creative sorts… the employee roster reads as a local musician/ journalist Who’s Who. I was the Night Manager (cuz I’d show up on time) in the early eighties.
Can you get Bell’s poultry seasoning where you are, or is that a local thing? 'Cause that’s really good in a standard tuna salad with mayo, celery, a little onion, and hard-boiled egg if you like it (I shred it rather than chop).
What’s-her-name, the co-author of the Silver Palate cookbook who published another cookbook that wasn’t as successful–in that less-successful cookbook (was it New Basics, maybe?) there was a recipe for tuna salad with halved red grapes (similar idea to the green apple that many are advocating), hard-boiled egg, and a couple other ingredients that I’m forgetting, but maybe someone who has the cookbook will come along and help out…
ETA, it’s Sheila Lukins’ The New Basics Cookbook, but I don’t have it to check the recipe. Sorry!
Sadlacks, of course! I remember that. We mainly went to Hectors when we were down that way :).
Daniel
I was about to make a different, more risque, joke about the subject line. Then I thought better of it and was going to be the better man for once.
But then I thought of the most common additive to tuna salad. “Jazz” up your salad, indeed! You could always pan fry the mayo…