Recipe: Tuna Salad with Celery and Dill

A perfect high-protein meal in under 10 minutes.

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This recipe hits the weekday lunch trifecta: easy, tastes great and high protein. I like to partner it with some crackers for some carbs (see above). You won’t like this recipe if you don’t like celery or dill — for me, they are essential to making this tuna salad…you could do it without the dill (if your grocery store is out of it, like mine sometimes is), but the celery is absolutely a non-negotiable. It brings the much needed crunch and bright, vegetal flavor that’s hard to replace. Big celery fan here.

THE RECIPE:

Ingredients:

1/2 medium red onion, diced

1 whole lemon (for zest and juice)

1 can tuna, drained

2 stalks celery (plus leaves if they’re attached)

2 tablespoons of mayo

good handful of dill, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

1. Diced the onion and place into a medium bowl.

2. Zest the entire lemon with a rasp-style zester, making sure to only remove the peel and not the pith (the white layer underneath — it’s really bitter). One swipe over the peel should do the trick. While holding it over the bowl, go over the entire lemon. It should give you about a half of a tablespoon of zest. Don’t measure it. The zest of one average lemon is perfect. It will add a lot of lemon flavor without making the tuna salad soupy.

3. After zesting, cut the lemon in the half and juice only one half of the lemon over the bowl. I’ve found if you juice the whole thing, the lemon flavor overpowers everything and it makes the recipe too liquid. Use the other half in your water.

4. Season the onion/lemon mixture with salt and pepper and stir. The acid in the lemon will take a good amount of the “bite” out of the onion. Let them marinate while you prepare the rest.

5. Cut the celery into thin slices cross-wise making little “u” shapes. If you have large stalks, cut the stalk in the half length-wise, then continue to cut across to make smaller pieces. Add to the bowl.

6. Drain the tuna, leaving just a little of the water in the can. I find reserving just a little of the liquid helps bring the whole mixture together. Add to the bowl and flake with a fork, mixing with the other ingredients.

7. Add the mayo and stir. Taste and add salt/pepper if needed.

8. Chop the dill and add it to the bowl and mix to combine.

9. Finish with the celery leaves (if you have them) and one more grind of black pepper to the top.

SERVING:

Add some crackers or toast to the side — my go to. You can put it on a sandwich in the summer! Add cheese and make a tuna melt! You can add it to greens! A wrap! You can double the recipe! This stores in the fridge in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

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