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Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill

Name: Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 6.7-ounce jars tuna fillets in olive oil; Juice of half a lemon; ½ cup mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill; 2 tablespoons diced red onion or diced pickled red onion*; Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

posted by Liz Berg on July 24, 2018 (updated 8/1/22)

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A simple Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill is a breeze to prepare and wonderful served on a crusty roll for lunch or a light dinner. And when Lent rolls around it’s a staple for Friday lunches.

With a dressing of mayonnaise and fresh lemon juice plus a boost of flavor from fresh, aromatic dill, this is an easy way to shake up your usual Tuna Salad Sandwich Recipe!

Easy Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill on a white plate with cornichons

Table of Contents hide

1 Why You Should Make this Tuna Salad Recipe

2 Tips for Making Tuna Salad

3 More Recipes You’ll Love:

4 Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill

Why You Should Make this Tuna Salad Recipe

When I get in a lunchtime rut, I often make chicken or tuna salad for sandwiches. My mom’s version was a can of tuna, chopped celery, and mayonnaise. That’s it. And we loved it.
As I grew older, I added more ingredients, like in this Tuna with Cranberries and Pecans. But sometimes, less is more, and this simple tuna salad is ready in no time. Add or take out ingredients according to your tastes.
Only a few ingredients needed and lunch is served!

Easy Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill on a whole wheat bun on a white plate

Tips for Making Tuna Salad

As anyone who has made tuna salad knows, it’s pretty much a dump and mix recipe. But there are a few hints for making it the best it can be!

Use a good quality tuna. I have moved from the canned, water-packed tuna I bought in my 20’s and now look for the jars of tuna fillets in olive oil (affiliate links). Yes, it’s more expensive, but give it a try. The higher grade of this product is worth the occasional splurge.
Use fresh dill in this recipe, not dried. The taste is far superior!
PRO-Tip: It’s simple to pickle your own onions. The sharpness is minimized, but there’s still some crunch and mild onion flavor. The pickling process entails finely dicing some onions and covering them with your favorite vinegar for only 10 minutes. I used champagne vinegar, but other kinds of vinegar would also work. Avoid a dark balsamic as the purple of the onions gives a needed pop of color to the tuna salad.
The salad dressing is just mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice. Make sure you use freshly squeezed lemon juice and quality mayonnaise. I like Hellmann’s organic.
I prefer flaking the tuna fillets into pieces versus mixing it into a paste, so the tuna is identifiable in the salad.
Canned and jarred tuna is generally on the salty side. I did not add any salt to my recipe, but some freshly ground black pepper would be a nice addition.
If you want to add diced celery, pickles or any other favorite tuna salad ingredient, please do!
Serve this tuna salad on a bed of leaf lettuce or between two slices of bread or on a bun or roll. Lettuce and/or a slice of tomato would be terrific on your sandwich.

More Recipes You’ll Love:

Slow Cooker Beef Drip Sandwiches from Valerie’s Kitchen –perfect ALL year long as there’s no need to turn on the oven
Curried Turkey Salad Sandwich from That Skinny Chick Can Bake –great for your Thanksgiving leftovers
Reuben Sandwich from Spend with Pennies –one of my top 3 favorite sandwiches!
Pressed Brick Sandwich from That Skinny Chick Can Bake –ideal for picnics and tailgates
Grilled Pesto Chicken Sandwich from Real Housemoms–give your chicken sandwich an Italian twist!

Easy Tuna Salad with Fresh Dill on a white plate with fresh dill and cornichons

This post has been updated with new text and photos in 2018. This is a photo from the 2011 blog post.

The Recipe: