Healthy Tuna Pasta Salad - The Healthful Ideas (2024)

Why This Recipe Works

• No mayo - The dressing is made with olive oil, dijon, and lemon juice instead of the classic creamy tuna salad dressing made with mayonnaise or sour cream. It's lighter, healthier, and it still makes the salad creamy!
• Packed with flavor - The salad is packed with lots of fresh veggies, herbs, salty olives, capers, creamy feta, sundried tomatoes, and garlic. All the flavors go amazingly together with the dijon dressing.
• Easy to make - This pasta salad has a lot of components but the prep is really simple. You can chop the veggies while the pasta is cooking and the rest doesn't take very long either! Drizzle everything with the dressing and you're ready to eat!

Ingredients

• Pasta - You can use any small pasta shape you have on hand - fusilli, macaroni, penne, farfalle, or orzo are all great. Fusilli Bucati is the shape I used in the photos.
• Canned tuna - I use canned tuna in water with no salt added. This way you can control the amount of salt in the salad much better. You can also use tuna in oil if you prefer.
• Vegetables - Cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery, and red onion is what the recipe calls for but you can make it your own. Bell peppers would also be great or maybe even roasted sweet potato or zucchini!
• Fresh herbs - I like a combination of dill, chives, and parsley but you can use any one of them. Oregano would also be great and dried herbs can be used in a pinch.
• Olives - Pitted kalamata olives are perfect for this salad but you can use any olives you have.
• Feta cheese - A block of feta is better than crumbled feta even though you're crumbling it anyway. It has fewer additives and better flavor. I recommend sheep's or goat's milk feta.
• Sundried tomatoes - I recommend sun-dried tomatoes in oil, they're much softer and much more flavorful than the dry variety. If you use the dry version, you have to soak them in hot water first to soften them.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Start by cooking the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, you can chop all your veggies. I usually just chop everything into bite-sized pieces and try to slice the celery quite thin so it's easier to eat but it still has some crunch. I recommend either chopping the onion finely or into half moons. Always slice from the top to the stem not horizontally. This way you'll get the best half-moons.

Chop the sun-dried tomatoes, slice the olives in half, and crumble the feta. Toss all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl along with the cooked pasta.

To make the dressing, whisk together extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, dijon mustard, hot sauce, sea salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Serving and Storing

The salad can be served right away or cool from the fridge. It's especially good cold from the fridge on hot summer days!

Serve as a lunch, dinner, or part of a spread at family get-togethers or potlucks.

Storing: Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.

FAQs

More Tuna and Salmon Recipes

If you have more canned tuna you need to use up, definitely try the tuna sandwiches. The creamy pasta is great with canned salmon but you can also make it with canned tuna. I'm also adding the last two as a bonus because they're some of my favorite recipes with fish on the site. Head over to the Fish and Seafood category to see all the latest fish and seafood recipes.

• Tuna Cucumber Sandwich
• Creamy Canned Salmon Pasta
• Creme Fraiche Salmon Pasta
• Smoked Salmon Pasta Salad