I do two, as well, only I think of them as “fancy” and “nonfancy”. Nonfancy is what we had when I was a kid: water packed tuna, mayo and sweet pickle relish. Especially good as a tuna melt with a slice of American cheese food like product.
Fancy tuna salad varies, but generally has really finely minced scallions or onions (I prefer red, but yellow is okay in a pinch) and mayo, with additions depending on what I have on hand. Dried cranberries are a favorite of mine. Pecans are great. Diced red or yellow bell peppers may make an appearance. Hard boiled egg often joins the party, if I remember to make the salad well before I need it and the eggs have time to cool. Celery salt hangs out with hard boiled eggs, so if the eggs are there, the celery salt will be, too. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice is often welcome. Fancy tuna salad is particularly good served in a seeded red bell pepper half.
:smack: I never, ever thought of this. Leftover fish is the one leftover that always goes to waste in our house because it’s so easy to overcook it when reheating it. Thank you!
Water-packed chunk tuna (well drained), chopped sweet midget pickles, lowfat Greek yogurt. If I’ve got some fresh dill, I chop some of that into it, too.
Tuna. Mayo. Dab of relish, and I’m talking about a dab; no giant spoonful, just enough to get the slightest bit of flavor into it. Apply to bread or Club crackers.
Solid white in water, Hellman’s, lemon juice, celery, onion, salt, pepper, dill (optional). Squeeze almost all the water out first. Refrigerate to let flavors combine.
Pickles, relish, & Miracle Whip are verbotten, but egg is OK once in a while.
I stopped using mayo altogether about a year ago. Now, it’s:
[ul]
[li]Solid white tuna[/li][li]olive oil[/li][li]balsalmic vinegar[/li][li]red onion[/li][li]crushed red pepper[/li][li]salt/pepper/paprika[/li][/ul]
Almost always converted into a tuna melt panini, with sharp cheddar and dill pickles on ciabatta bread.
No turning back on the mayo thing for me at this point, so I don’t really enjoy other people’s tuna any more. Which is fine, since those heathens probably tried to infect it with that loathesome devilpepper known as “celery” anyways.
Carraway seeds are a nice addition. I try and switch it up. I’m the only one in my house who will eat canned tuna so I only make one can’s worth at a time.
Chunk light packed in water. Finely chopped white onion, probably more onion than most people would like. Hellmans Mayonnaise. A little red wine vinegar and oregano. Fresh ground black pepper.
Yummy!
One or two cans of Trader Joe’s albacore packed in olive oil, drained. Mayo, cracked pepper, chopped up hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery, chopped onion, and sometimes capers, if i have them.
Just a jar of Italian mixed beans and tinned tuna fillets. Some fresh chopped red onion, parsley and chili. Sometimes a squeeze of lemon juice. And toasted ciabatta to pile it on.
I’m getting tired of hard-boiled eggs showing up in everything that involves mayo/Miracle Whip and has a name that ends in “salad” all of a sudden. They’re OK in potato salad, more or less. Tuna salad? Chicken salad? Not hardly.
Usually my tuna salad is really basic: tuna, mayo or Miracle Whip, celery, onion. I’ll have to try capers.
Ninety nine times out of a hundred, my tuna salad goes in a grilled sandwich with swiss, and soup on the side. I don’t want it to be too busy.
Everyone’s recipes sound pretty good to me (except Miracle Whippers, sorry). Best idea I can add is to try Polar brand tuna packed in water. You can drain it and see real fish in the can! No, really, it looks like there is real fish in there and there is!
That’s not good… if I hadn’t grown up eating it, the thought of taking cold fish and mixing it with mayo, etc. would completely freak me out. I’m very touchy about fish.
So I think of tuna as…tuna. It’s not fish. It’s…tuna.
