How can I make a great tuna sandwich?
Asked by
Deepness (
1145)
August 6th, 2009
I have low sodium tuna in water. I have low fat mayo. I have some great cranberry-orange whole grain bread from pepperidge farm. I have a cupboard full of various spices.
What can I whip up in less than 5 minutes to make a great tuna sandwich? I’m not good at chopping up veggies but I’m open to suggestions. Thanks.
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39 Answers
Therein lies the problem: tuna in water plus all low fat ingredients, tastes, well, like low fat stuff and tuna in water.
I really think that celery adds a wonderful dimension to tuna. I also like a little bit of red bell pepper in mine. (I would not do that and use the cranberry orange bread.)
My favorite tuna sandwich is open-faced topped with thinly sliced tomato and avocado and then cheese. I run it under the broiler intil the cheese melts.
Don’t squeeze all the water out of the tuna. Just pour it out and mix in the mayo and a little relsih. Delish!
I’ll try to be more constructive. Here’s how I make mine: Tuna in oil plus a couple of dollops of real mayo. Add finely chopped onions and chopped celery. Spread mustard on a nice roll, add slices of tomato and lettuce. Voila.
I agree about using richer ingredients: tuna in oil, full on mayo.
I also agree about not squeezing the tuna dry, just pour off the excess water instead.
Toast the bread for texture.
Try it on a toasted english muffin for even more textural interest.
I like to make tuna salad with curry powder mixed into the mayo. If you want to eat it as a salad, i.e. over lettuce, you can add cut up apples, raisins and/or walnuts andgrapes. In a sandwich, I would probably just add celery and onion along wiht the curry powder and put lettuce and tomato on the bread.
I add celery, a little sweet pickle relish, celery salt & garlic salt. Put a piece of lettuce on it. And to me, the only thing that passes my lips is Miracle Whip.
I do like a good tuna salad sandwich. My hang-up is I have to make it myself or I wont eat it. “Creepy food.”
But what you are using. I wont eat it. Sorry. :-) No low anything please.
Toasted white bread or onion roll.
Chunk white tuna in water.
Real Mayo, crisp celery, chopped red onion.
Salt, pepper and some garlic power.
Slice of american cheese is optional.
Sounds like a plan for dinner, for me. :-)
Do realize that you are limited with your tastes here. Your tongue loves fat, no spice will taste like fat enough to compensate. I am of the opinion that life’s too short so I enjoy full fat mayo but rarely eat mayo to the point where a jar lasts me a year.
That said, I am a fan of lemon pepper. It is a really handy spice useful for tons of things, most of all fish. I add a generous amount into my tuna sandwiches. I also dice veggies such as carrots and celery and beets maybe into it, maybe a gherkin if I’m feeling pickle-y. Onion is also good, chives or green onion substitute easily. But only fresh, no onion powder or dehydrated chives, eew.
You say you aren’t great at chopping veggies, well here’s your chance to start getting better! The term to google for videos and info on getting better is “knife skills”. I just saw a book in my local library yesterday about that, and there are plenty of free videos on Youtube about this.
I’d say scrap the tuna, and use roast beef. It’s so much more delicious! But maybe that’s just me…
You can tune a piano, but you can’t tune a fish.
I always put chopped up hard boiled eggs in mine.
And pepper. When I put the sandwich together I add paprika.
You can also be a Happy Waitress and turn it into a tuna melt.
Use those flavored Starkist packages. I like Sweet and Spicy and Hickory Smoked. Sweet and Spicy is good on it’s own, but when I use the smoked, I add grilled red bell peppers and onions, cheese, mayo and sometimes bacon if my arteries are flowing too freely that day.
Just for giggles, I’ve used half the mayo I normally would and added in the equivalent of Dijon mustard or bruschetta. Adds a bit of nice color, too, with the minced onion/green pepper.
I don’t know what I’d do with the ingredients listed. I don’t make tuna salad often, so I make it the way my parents did when I was a kid.
Chunk light tuna, drained well, mixed with diced onion, chopped hard boiled egg, regular mayo, fresh ground black pepper. Throw it on some toasted bread, top with lettuce, tomato, and cheddar cheese, and enjoy.
Or, I leave out the eggs and spread it on crackers with a sprinkling of shredded cheddar on top. That’s what I gave my kids for lunch yesterday, and they devoured it.
When I was little, I had a friend whose mom would always chop red grapes in half and mix them into her tuna salad – it sounds weird, but it’s so delicious! I used to trade sandwiches with her all the time…
Another thing you can do to liven up your sandwich is make the tuna as you usually would, and then put a layer of potato chips or pretzels in the sandwich, on top of the tuna. It gives the sandwich a little bit of a crunchy texture, plus a little added salt, which I always like!
You can just put the low fat tuna and low fat mayo on you low fat bread. Then add some salt to that, plus salami, cheese, more salami and some bacon. Add some ketchup and full-fat mayo on top of that, and a slice of normal white bread. Now flip the whole thing over, remove the first two layers (ie up to the second slice of bread) until you reach the salami. Now add some more full-fat mayo, a slice of ham and maybe another slice of cheese. And another slice of white bread. Voila! Enjoy your meal.
Alternatively you could just throw away all the ingredients you just mentioned and order pizza instead.
This is great. I had a tuna melt last night, and it was Shag-nasty (as my undergrad advisor used to say). I don’t know how I could have gotten a tuna sandwich wrong, but I sure did. Great recipes, all!
Here’s what I would do: add some salt, pepper and freshly-squeezed lemon juice to the tuna, then stir in some Extra Virgin Olive Oil (from any reasonably good supermarket) and then throw in a tablespoon or so of non-pareil capers with a little bit of their juice. Skip the crummy mayo, and drain the tuna real well first.
@Les Has it down. Tuna melt. Grilled cheese with your tuna inside. Yummy.
Drain the tuna , in a bowl add tuna , salad cream , tomato ketchup , fried onions ( in a little sugar ) add some honey . There you have the perfect potato filling or warmed sandwich .
Salad cream, for Americans. (Americans may not have that here, except in stores that carry British food, as in NYC)
LOL, thanks @aprilsimnel… I had absolutely no idea what salad cream is.
@aprilsimnel & Zendo sorry i should have thought about that .
Ok this what I did.
I didn’t drain the water out. I just poured it out. Seasoned it with 5 different peppercorns, garlic powder and onion powder and a heaping tablespoon of low fat mayo. Added in dried cranberries and put it on toasted potato bread. Thanks
Drain tuna, place in mixing bowl with onions, pickle relish, chopped boiled eggs, and a few shakes of mint flakes, and mayo (or salad cream – thanks @sandystrachan )
Drain the tuna, add mayonnaise and a good all purpose seasoning. Cut the crust off bread, and use slices to line a muffin pan. Add tuna, top with cheddar cheese, and bake for 20 minutes.
Or drain tuna well, add a little seasoning, put between two pieces of raisin bread with sliced American cheese. Coat the outside with melted butter and fry in a frying pan until the outside is golden.
@PandoraBoxx I used to bake the crustless bread in muffin pans with cheese only as a snack for my kids. We called them “cheese snacks,” appropriately enough, and we all loved them. The tuna salad addition is a great idea.
Tuna mixed with tomato sauce, mayonaise spread on brown toasted bread, layered with leerdammer cheese and pickled gerkins yum!!
Toast one side of a muffin (wholemeal if required) add tuna/mayo mix, tomato and a slice of mozzerella cheese black pepper and basil, grill until golden brown yum!
I always use salad cream for tuna it gives it a better flavour than mayo , it also boosts well for those who can’t have eggs .
I thought salad cream would be widely available in US cause , wasn’t it an German / American who invented the stuff Mr Heinz And the headquarters are in the states
@sandystrachan, I googled salad cream, and it sounds like it might be similar to something sold in the States called Durkee’s Famous Sauce.
Dairylea and salad cream sandwiches Mmmmm!
Two ways to go with tuna for me:
1). Basic tuna salad: tuna, real mayo, chopped hard boiled egg, celery, onion, season to taste.
As such, this will not cut it alone, so, on lightly toasted sourdough: mayo, alfala sprouts, tuna salad, avocado slices, bacon, lots of bacon, and season the sprouts and avo with salt and fresh ground pepper (cheese is optional, I like swiss or muenster)
2). All out tuna salad: tuna, real mayo, chopped hard boiled egg, celery, onion and one or more or all of the following: chopped black olives, chopped green olives, with pimento is great, chopped sweet pickle/gherkin and/or chopped sour or half sour dill pickle, capers, chopped marinated artichoke bottoms, chopped cucumbers….lets see….have I forgotten something?
@PandoraBoxx I would love to try that sauce .
Salad cream sandwiches , oh and tomato sauce ketchup sandwiches mmmmmmm
Salada cream is alot like thin mayonnaise – very similar in flavor (or “flavour”.)
Salad cream is made with no eggs, it has a different taste /flavour even consistency .
salad cream is more vinegary
put pickles in it! and don’t use miracle whip
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