This easy Healthy Tuna Salad with Hummus recipe is a mayo-free tuna salad that is loaded with flavorful goodies like fresh dill, celery, sun-dried tomatoes and more. The perfect high-protein lunch during the warm weather months.
Lunches lately have been all about tuna salad or salmon salad.
It’s just too easy and delicious not to partake!
All I do is combine canned tuna or canned salmon with some fresh, delicious ingredients and BOOM! An on-the-spot high-protein meal is ready.
Depending on my mood or hunger level, I’ll eat tuna salad on toasted bread, with sauteed or roasted vegetables, on a bed of lettuce with other salad ingredients to make a massive green salad, or as a tuna melt. This also makes for amazing Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps.
I make tuna salad without mayonnaise not because I don’t love a good creamy tuna salad, but because mayo can add a lot of calories and fat when left unchecked.
For a low-fat tuna salad, I use a combination of hummus and stone ground mustard so that we’re still getting some creaminess and plenty of flavor.
I’ve also used mashed avocado as seen in my Cucumber Dill Avocado Tuna Salad and my Mediterranean Salmon Salad.
The key to the best tuna salad is adding some heavy hitting simple ingredients like fresh dill, onion, celery and sun-dried tomatoes. These simple additions level up the freshness and deliciousness so that you’re left with a rejuvenating, satisfying low carb meal.
Using pantry staples, you’re left with a lovely healthy lunch that will tickle your taste buds.
I have included all sorts of options for customizing this healthy tuna salad recipe to your heart’s delight!
Let’s discuss the fresh ingredients for this amazing mayo-free tuna salad recipe!
Ingredients for Healthy Tuna Salad with Hummus:
Canned Tuna: the star of the show here is canned tuna or canned salmon. Any type of tuna, including albacore tuna, skipjack tuna, or yellowfin tuna works.
Whenever possible, I recommend sourcing canned tuna or salmon from quality sources such as Wild Planet or Safe Catch, and I always go with wild-caught that is tested for low-mercury. Wild-caught fish is higher in omega 3 fatty acids than farm-raised fish.
Hummus: replacing mayonnaise in classic tuna salad, I love using hummus! While the taste and texture isn’t identical to using Mayo, I love that hummus brings a creamy texture, tangy flavor and a little infusion of garlic.
Pick your favorite store-bought hummus or homemade hummus.
Celery, Red Onion, Sun-Dried Tomatoes: this combination of fresh veggies brings vibrant crunch, a little tang and some zing to infuse the tuna salad with flavor and texture.
You can use any fresh veggies you love here! See my recipe adaptations below for some ideas.
Fresh Dill: a couple large sprigs of fresh dill being a lovely herby flavor to this healthy tuna salad recipe. If you have other fresh herbs on hand like fresh parsley, cilantro or fresh basil, feel free to add them in!
Stone Ground Mustard: I love adding stone ground mustard because it adds a rich tangy flavor and also adds to the creaminess. If you don’t like mustard, you can omit it or swap it for one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or regular dijon mustard.
Sea Salt & Black Pepper: Add sea salt and pepper to your personal taste!
Recipe Adaptations:
- Mix up the fresh vegetables selection by adding grated carrot, bell pepper, sliced cabbage, or cherry tomatoes.
- Replace the red onion with green onion if you find raw onions to be too overpowering.
- Add 1/2 cup of feta cheese for an additional spark.
- For Mediterranean tuna salad, add 1/3 cup of chopped kalamata olives or black olives, feta, and chopped artichoke hearts or capers.
- If you enjoy mayonnaise, you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons to bump up the creaminess of the salad.
- Mash or dice one ripe avocado for incredible luscious flavor.
- It may sound strange, but chopped nuts, seeds, and dried fruit are amazing in tuna salad recipes like this. Add up to 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Add up to 1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries for some sweet flavor.
- Chop up one large dill pickle or two small dill pickles into small chunks and add it in. Or, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of dill relish.
- For some added richness, add 1 to 3 teaspoons of olive oil or avocado oil.
- Halve the recipe using one can of tuna if you’re wanting only one portion.
- Swap the hummus for plain Greek yogurt to make Greek yogurt tuna salad.
- For a low-carb option, replace the hummus with 1 ripe avocado, either mashed or chopped.
Now that we’ve covered the basic ingredients for this perfect meal prep recipe, let’s make the best tuna salad!
How to Make Tuna Salad with Hummus:
Open the cans of tuna (or salmon) and drain any liquid. Transfer the fish to a large mixing bowl.
Add all of the ingredients for the tuna salad to the mixing bowl.
Mix well until everything is combined and the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout. Taste the salad for flavor and add salt, pepper, mustard, lemon juice, or hummus to your personal taste.
Enjoy the tuna salad as is or make tuna salad sandwiches, tuna melts, lettuce cups, or lettuce wraps for a healthy meal. You can also add this tuna salad to your green salads along with any fresh veggies and dressing you like.
Store leftover tuna salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
For me, this recipe makes two servings, but depending on how much you eat, it can be 3 to 4 servings.
If you’re looking to meal prep for several workweek lunches, feel free to double or triple the recipe as it saves very well and is even more flavorful the next day after preparation.
Nutrition Information:
All factors considered, this tuna salad recipe makes for a great low-carb meal that contains a reasonable amount of healthy fats.
One serving (which I consider to be half of the recipe) contains 308 calories, 10 grams of fat, 18 grams of carbohydrate, and 36 grams of protein. For me, this macronutrient breakdown is pretty stellar because it’s protein forward with a balance of carbs and fat.
For the complete breakdown of nutrition facts, see the recipe card below.
The main difference between using hummus to make an easy tuna salad instead of making the mayo recipe version is the fat content is much lower. Depending on the brand, two tablespoons of hummus contains 4.5 grams of fat, whereas 2 tablespoons of mayo contains 21 grams of fat. Hummus is also about half the amount of calories.
If fat content or calories is not your main concern, classic tuna salad recipes may be more your jam.
So there you have it! An easy lunch recipe to keep you feeling alert and energetic during the warm summer months and beyond.
I love making this recipe any time of year, but it is particularly useful when it’s hot out and you’re craving a no-cook chilled meal.
For my fellow tuna lovers, be sure to try my Tuna Noodle Casserole recipe!
If you love easy high protein recipes like this, also check out these gems!
More High-Protein Meals:
- Waldorf Chicken Salad
- Copycat Trader Joe’s Curried Chicken Salad
- Mayo-Free Avocado Egg Salad
- Pesto Chicken Salad with Avocado
- Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Change up the add-ins for different ways of keeping the tuna fire alive!
Ingredients
- 2 5-oz cans tuna or salmon, drained
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup celery, finely chopped
- ¼ cup red onion, finely chopped
- ½ cup hummus
- 1 to 2 Tbsp stone ground mustard, to taste
- 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Open the cans of tuna (or salmon) and drain any liquid. Transfer the fish to a large mixing bowl. Add all of the ingredients for the tuna salad to the mixing bowl.
- Mix well until everything is combined and the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout. Taste the salad for flavor and add salt, pepper, mustard, lemon juice, or hummus to your personal taste.
- Enjoy the tuna salad as is or make tuna salad sandwiches, tuna melts, lettuce cups, or lettuce wraps for a healthy meal. You can also add this tuna salad to your green salads along with any fresh veggies and dressing you like.
- Store leftover tuna salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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