I mix it up pretty much everytime I make it, but there are two I always go back to: “Classic” (just like my childhood) and “Greek” (based on what I had in the house at the time, but now a go-to favorite). Always chunk light in water. The cheapest available.
Classic: a bit more mayo (now subbed with Greek yogurt, because tuna salad is the ONLY thing I use mayo for, and it would always go bad before I used even half the jar) than you would think is necessary, sweet relish and celery seed. Never real celery, I don’t want the extra crunch. Eaten as a sandwich, wrap or on crackers.
Greek: Greek yogurt, feta cheese, chopped olives (preferably kalamata, but whatever is around works), cilantro and a touch of Italian seasoning. Typically eaten on flatbread rather than loaf slices.
Nothing fancy: my tuna salad is strictly for sandwiches, and I don’t want to spend longer making the sandwich than eating it. So tuna, mayo, and relish, with that mixture going between two slices of toast with lettuce and tomato.
I use whatever I have on hand that I am in the mood to eat. It’s always tuna and just enough mayo to hold it together, I do not it when it’s made as tuna flavored mayo.
Then I usually add something for crunch; dill relish/chopped dill pickle, finely diced onion, finely diced celery or any combination of these.
Something for a little extra flavor; capers, chopped olives or dill pickle relish/chopped dill pickle (sometimes it’s both my crunchy thing and my extra flavor thing).
I might throw in a chopped hard boiled egg if I have one but it’s not a must.
Seasoning would be ground black pepper, maybe some dill or basil. Oregano or thyme if I’m feeling a little adventurous. Only a dash of salt because everything is already salty.
Chunk white in water, drained, with quite a bit of mayo (usually Blue Plate or Duke’s), then a splash of pickle juice. Plenty of black pepper, salt to taste, then celery seed, sage, and thyme depending on my mood. Usually I’ll throw a healthy pinch of dry mustard powder in there. I like it on a good marble or pump with lots of green leaf lettuce.
If I have pita bread around, I also like a “greek” version, with black or kalamata olives and feta cheese. I’ll keep the mayo and leave out the pickle juice, but add a little of the olive juice instead. Then cavender’s and oregano, and extra black pepper. Drizzled with olive oil. If my husband isn’t eating it, I’ll throw banana peppers in there.
I just realized that minus the herbs, my deviled egg recipe and my tuna salad recipe are identical.
The quick way for me is to just mix a can of tuna with some mayo and put it in a sandwich. If you’re talkin’ a REAL tuna salad I add celery to it and…never mind.
Why would anyone ever use tuna if they could use salmon instead?
I find that canned salmon (especially Sockeye Salmon) is tremendously more flavorful than pink salmon and tuna as well.
Although more expensive too - in my city a can of tuna sells for $0.49 to $0.75 while the same sized can of pink salmon sells for $1.00 to $1.49 and the same sized can of Sockeye Salmon sells for $4.00 to $5.00.
But I would pay the $5.00 every day because the taste of the Sockeye is just so much more delicious to me. AAMOF, I often mix one can of Sockey with one can of pink to extend the amount and the flavor of the Sockeye tends to overpower the flavor of the Pink which makes for a real good deal.
Anybody add dried Bonito flakes to their tuna salad? I like to let it soak up the mayo a bit. Old Bay seasoning is nice. Furikake can be a good addition too.
Mom used to make these all the time when I was a kid. Like tuna salad, except with salmon.
Tuna salad, for me and my wife:
solid white tuna in water
lots of finely diced celery
onions, green onions, or chives
Hellman’s light mayo
To that we add some combination of spices, it varies:
[ul][li]smoked sea salt[/li][li]pepper[/li][li]dill weed][/li][li]curry powder[/li][li]piri-piri[/ul][/li]
I have a shrimp salad recipe that calls for fresh tarragon, and is quite good, but for some reason I’ve never thought to try tarragon in tuna salad; will have to give that a shot.
