Tuna Fish Salad

 Okay, everyone knows how to make tuna fish salad.  Mix some mayonnaise with some canned tuna, bam, done.  Maybe some pickles added in.

However, there are a lot more things you can do to it, to add flavor, texture, and nutrition.  I have honed my recipe over many years, taking bits and pieces from various recipes I liked, until I ended up with what I will share here with you - and I really love the result.  It is, in my opinion, the best tuna fish salad, and I have had a number of other people agree with me.

This recipe will be somewhat less precise than most.  A lot of how much of this or that to add comes down to personal preference.  So play around with it until you find the magic ratios for your tastes!

It is also for a very large batch. We like it a lot, and eat it almost nonstop besides dinner for about a week, at which point it starts to taste not quite as good, so it's the right size for us.  It is also conveniently proportioned for pre-prepared ingredients, but you can make smaller batches, of course - you just have to do more chopping.

Tuna Fish Salad

Ingredients:

• 8 5oz cans of tuna (I strictly use StarKist Chunk Light Tuna in water - everything else tastes off to me)
• Mayonnaise of choice (my preference is Hellman's)
• Spicy Brown Mustard 
• 1-1½ c. dill pickle relish (not sweet relish!) or finely diced dill pickles
• 1½ c. (or one 10 oz package) finely diced mirepoix (onions, celery, and carrot)
• Capers (approx. 1-2 oz.)
• 4 oz. jar pimentos, drained, or, ½ c. diced red bell pepper (approx. one med-lg pepper)
  
• 1⁄4 c sliced kalamata olives
• salt and pepper to taste 
• (optional) 6 oz, jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
  

Directions:

1. Open tuna cans and drain very well.  Either use can tops to squeeze out the liquid, or place in a strainer and squeeze out liquid.  You want it to be as dry as you can get it; the drier it is, the more flavor you can add from other semi-liquids.
2. Place in large mixing bowl, and use a fork to break the pieces up into fine shreds.
3. Add about a half cup of mustard, about 1-1½ c. mayonnaise, salt, and pepper, and mix in thoroughly.  Keep in mind while salting, that many of the other ingredients are already salty.  I often don't need any additional salt at all (you may wish to hold off on it until the end for this reason.)  Don't worry at this point if it still seems dry.
4. Add remaining ingredients, mixing into the tuna between each one.
5. Add more mayonnaise and mustard if still too dry.  Adjust salt and pepper if needed.
6. Enjoy!

Our favorite ways to eat it are as sandwiches, or filling for onigiri. 

Print this post