The Tuna Salad Mistake I Made for Years (And How I Fixed It)

I started canning as a kid, helping my mom fill jars with my favorite dill pickles and bread-and-butter cucumber slices every summer. She’d chopped them up to mix with a big scoop of mayonnaise and can of tuna for tuna salad sandwiches, but all I ever tasted was eggy, sweet mayonnaise, overpowering the mellow canned fish and even the vinegary pickles.

I tried piling on extra pickle slices, which just made the bread soggy. I stirred in horseradish and spicy mustard, which helped but still couldn’t outcompete the mayo. For years, I stopped eating tuna salad altogether.

Today, I keep canned tuna in my pantry primarily to fold into a tuna salad, but you won’t find mayonnaise in my refrigerator. That’s because I switched my base for this classic sandwich filler to tangy plain yogurt.

No Mayo? No Problem

Like mayonnaise, yogurt gives structure to flaky canned fish so that you can smear, dollop, or scoop with ease. But unlike mayo, yogurt’s natural tanginess gives bonus pop to my favorite tuna salad add-ins: Dijon mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, chili paste, relish—and crunchy pickles. Even classic mild additions, such as celery, seem fresher and crisper when mixed with yogurt.

Yogurt also restores some tuna’s natural brininess. Because the fish is fully cooked and then heated again when sealed into a can, it loses most of its flavorful fats and juices. Yogurt contributes less fat than mayonnaise, but that’s a good thing in my book, both health-wise and in how it affects the taste of the fish, which should be the primary flavor. After all, it’s called tuna salad, not mayo salad.

The lower fat content of yogurt also means it’s more likely to make tuna salad watery. I make yogurt at home, and it typically comes out thinner than store-bought versions that are thickened with pectin and other additives. Straining homemade or store-bought plain yogurt removes excess whey and creates thick Greek-style yogurt that supports the tuna flakes.

Before you add diced pickles or relish, strain those too for denser tuna salad. Leftovers tend to separate in storage, but a quick stir and another spoonful of yogurt restores the texture.

If I don't have yogurt on hand, I'll use sour cream instead. If I haven’t convinced you to entirely drop the mayo from tuna salad, start with a mayonnaise and yogurt blend like in this egg salad upgrade.