I serve tuna salad with potato chips or spread on rice cakes, since they’re gluten free. It makes good sandwiches too, especially on homemade bread. In my experience, this recipe makes enough for about 10-sandwiches, or 2-days worth of packed lunches. That’s assuming you are storing it in the fridge. If you don’t have a fridge or an ice chest, then eat it all at once, or maybe choose a different recipe that is not reliant upon mayonnaise.
To make a very pretty luncheon place a scoop of tuna salad on a plate, or spread it on a rice cake and place in the center of a plate. Surround it with mandarin oranges alternating with cut green beans. Arrange them like spokes on a wheel, with the tuna as the center. Serve with potato chips. This is a pretty and easy gluten-free luncheon. Also, kids like to arrange the oranges and green beans, so it will keep them busy for a while if you’ve got bored kids and the power is out.
If you’re having a community potluck, or serving a large group of scouts, and need a quick and easy dish to share, simply prepare a lot of tuna sandwiches and then cut them all in half, diagonally. Arrange the triangles on a serving platter. It makes an impressive display. You will be amazed at how fast they disappear.
In this recipe I’ve used canned water chestnuts instead of the celery I usually put in tuna salad. Water chestnuts have a good crunch, similar to celery, and vague enough flavor that they don’t stand out as “weird” in tuna salad. Their main purpose is to add crunch since they have so little flavor themselves.
Classic Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 4 (5-ounce) cans tuna, drained
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh onion OR 2-tablespoons dry onion
- 1/2 cup pickle relish
- 1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- 1 (8-ounce) jar mayonnaise
Directions
Open the tuna and drain off the juice. Give it to the cats (the juice, not the tuna). Scrape the tuna into a small mixing bowl. Chop 1/2 a fresh onion if you have it. If you don’t, then measure the dry onion. Add the onion to the tuna. Measure the relish and add it to the tuna. Drain the water chestnuts. Rinse them in cool water if you can. Or put them in a cereal bowl and cover with fresh water. Allow the to sit in the fresh water for several minutes. Drain again and chop them into small, crunchy bits, about the size of your chopped onion. Add the water chestnuts to the tuna. Finally scrape in the contents of an 8-ounce jar of mayo. Mix it all together. Serve immediately or chill until needed.