Chicken salads and tuna salads need a little bit more love when it comes to lunchtime and easy meals. Tuna salad is a great option for an easy lunch and so versatile: add it to a wrap, serve it as a sandwich, have it on a bed of greens, or make it into a tuna melt! To mix up the flavor profile of your traditional recipe, this tuna salad recipe uses lemon juice, lemon zest, and capers for a recipe that’s bright and fresh and perfect for an easy lunch. I even love having this recipe for an easy dinner, using sourdough English muffins to make tuna melts with a big arugula salad on the side.
This recipe uses relatively few ingredients, and all of them are things you can keep on hand for anytime that you want to make this recipe. Canned tuna (I like the Kirkland brand from Costco), capers, lemon, shallots, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard are your main ingredients! Salt, pepper, and garlic powder also help to round out the recipe. To keep the lemon flavor nice and bright, we use lemon zest and lemon juice. It’s the perfect compliment to briny capers, and the mayonnaise and Dijon give your tuna the perfect creaminess. Mash all the ingredients together well with a fork in a bowl so you don’t get any big dry tuna chunks.
When I serve this recipe on a bed of greens, I like to use a mixed spring green blend, grape tomatoes, and cucumber fora simple and delicious salad. I also top my salad with extra capers and sometimes another squeeze of fresh lemon juice. In a wrap, I like to use arugula and big slices of tomato. On an English muffin as a tuna melt, all you really need is a slice of your favorite cheese! Sharp cheddar, Swiss, or provolone are all cheeses that work well, and a slice of tomato is also a yummy addition to a tuna melt. Make this lemon caper tuna salad for a perfect easy lunch anytime!
- 4 cans tuna, drained
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- ½ cup mayonnaise (I like an olive-oil based version)
- 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp. salt + more to taste
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 3 tbsp. capers
- Place the drained tuna in a bowl. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in the bowl as well and mash with a fork. Mash well to ensure there are no dry tuna chunks.
- Add the capers and mix to combine.
- Serve your tuna salad on a bed of greens, in a wrap, on a sandwich, or in a tuna melt!
- Enjoy!
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made this and it was phenomenal! however, after reading the intro I realized you use shallots as an ingredient but not listed in recipe. how much do you add? thanks!