Best-ever Tuna Salad with Capers or Pickles

Tuna salad, rainbow tomatoes, arugula, and a lemon wedge on a grey plate on a light colored background

4.54 from 28 votes

Best-ever Tuna Salad with Capers or Pickles

Here's how to make the best tuna salad with capers and/or pickles you'll ever meet. It's classic tuna salad with a few amplifications, and you'll never look back.

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Fish + Shellfish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: tuna salad with capers, tuna salad with pickles

Calories: 301kcal

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

15 ounces (425 grams) canned tuna
3 ribs celery diced very small
1 medium shallot minced
2 tablespoons (30 grams) capers
½ cup minced full-sour or dill pickles optional
¾ cup (180 grams) mayonnaise
2 tablespoons (30 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon (15 grams) Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill OR ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Drain water or oil from tuna and place into a medium mixing bowl. Break up any large pieces of tuna with a fork.
Add celery, shallot, and capers or pickles (or both).
Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper, and mix to combine well.
Serve with salad or on a sandwich or tuna melt.

Video

Notes

Any kind of canned tuna will work, but I especially like a good-quality white or light tuna, salted and solid-packed in olive oil. Try to look for tuna that says pole-and-line caught, troll-caught, or MSC certified on the label.
If you like, you can use a separate mixing bowl to combine the mayo, lemon juice, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper before stirring into the tuna mixture.
Tuna salad will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week. Give it a stir to mix in any settled ingredients before serving.

I first published this recipe here in 2020. I've since updated the post for clarity, but the recipe remains the same.

Nutrition