A Healthy Tuna Salad Without Mayo Recipe that is super easy to make with greek yogurt. High protein, gluten free and delicious!
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If you’re looking for a quick, healthy lunch – this healthy tuna salad recipe is the perfect meal. Done in under 10 minutes, this recipe uses canned tuna, plain greek yogurt, and a few other ingredients.
This healthy tuna salad is lower in calories and fat than classic tuna salad while being higher in protein.
Healthy Tuna Salad
If you’re like me and you hate mayo – you’re going to love this greek yogurt tuna salad. It’s everything you love about regular tuna salad (creamy/crunchy/yummy!) but better for you! Here’s why we like it:
Why we love this Healthy Tuna Salad recipe:
There is a lot to love about this boneless chicken breast recipe. It’s one of our favorite proteins for a healthy dinner because it’s:
- Super Quick to make: This recipe is done in under 5 minutes.
- Minimal Ingredients: Made with less than 8 ingredients, this tuna salad is made with pantry/fridge staples
- High Protein: This tuna salad without mayo has over 30g of protein – making it the perfect lunch, dinner or even snack!
- Tuna salad with No mayo – Like I said before.. mayo is just not for me. Plus, it’s relatively high in fat and offers little to no nutrition value. Greek yogurt is higher in protein, low fat and low calorie
Ingredients for Tuna Salad without Mayo
To make this tuna salad without mayo you’ll need:
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.
We used tuna with no salt added so you may need to add a pinch of salt. Make sure to use plain greek yogurt
Is tuna salad healthy? Typically tuna salad is not healthy. It’s often made with mayo which is high in fat and calories. Tuna is high in healthy fats and has lots of vitamins and minerals so it is a healthy option.
How many calories are in tuna salad? Traditional tuna salad has 500 calories per serving. This healthy tuna salad recipe has under 175 calories for 1.5 cups. It’s high in protein too!
How To Make Tuna Salad without Mayo
- Open and drain tuna.
- Chop all vegetables.
- In a bowl mix together all ingredients.
- Serve over a salad or on a sandwich
See? It seriously couldn’t be any easier!
SUBSTITUTIONS FOR HEALTHY TUNA SALAD RECIPE
Tuna: We prefer to use canned tuna in water. You can also use tuna in olive oil. Make sure your tuna is wild caught. We like this brand. We used canned tuna with no salt added so you may need to add a pinch of salt. I haven’t tried this with canned salmon but I think it would work!
Greek Yogurt: We like to use plain non fat greek yogurt. You can use full fat greek yogurt or regular yogurt. We haven’t tried this with nondairy yogurt but I think it would work. Greek yogurt is a great mayonnaise substitute for tuna! If you’re wondering what to put in tuna instead of mayo, you really can’t tell the difference with greek yogurt!
Carrot/Celery: Feel free to add more or less carrot or celery. You can also omit them.
Dairy Free: I have not tried this with dairy free yogurt, but I think it would work. Make sure that your yogurt is unsweetened, plan yogurt.
Spices: We kept this recipe simple with pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. You could add other spices like dried or fresh parsley, red pepper flakes or whatever you like
Buffalo Sauce: This healthy tuna salad is great with a splash of buffalo sauce added.
Keto: You can omit the carrots to reduce the amount of carbs in this recipe
Other Add ins: You can add fresh herbs, lemon juice, chopped dill pickles, dijon mustard, chopped avocado or red onion if you’d like. Feel free to add whatever your favorite mix ins are!
Mayo Substitute for Tuna
Greek yogurt is the perfect mayonnaise substitute for tuna. It’s rich and creamy while being lower in fat!
Tuna Salad Without Mayo FAQ
Instead of using mayo in tuna salad you can use greek yogurt or regular yogurt. Yogurt mimics the texture of mayo with less fat and more protein.
Yes, you can use yoghurt instead of mayonnaise in most recipes. Yoghurt is a great replacement for mayo in tuna salad.
Tuna Salad will last in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days. It’s best eaten fresh
Yes, you can make this tuna salad without mayo ahead of time. It will last for up to 3 days in the refrigerator, but we recommend making and eating it fresh.
This is such a great recipe for a quick meal or meal prepping – I think you’re going to love it!
What to serve with Tuna Salad:
Tuna salad is a complete meal in itself. Here are some things to serve with tuna salad:
- Spinach Strawberry Salad
- A tuna salad sandwich
- over mixed greens
- Traditional Greek Salad
- over lettuce leaves as low carb wraps
How Do You Store Tuna Salad?
Storing: You can keep this tuna salad in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. After that it will lose it’s freshness
Can you freeze tuna salad? We do not recommend freezing this tuna salad. The fish/yogurt will get funny after freezing
Will it be okay out of the fridge in a lunch box/on the go? Because this has tuna in it and dairy, we wouldn’t recommend leaving it out of the fridge for more than 2 hours.
Serving: You can serve this tuna salad however you like! We like it on a sandwich or a salad, but it’s also great on top of apple slices, in lettuce wraps, or even as a healthy ‘dip’.
Other healthy lunch recipes:
Here are some of my favorite healthy lunch recipes!
Tuna Salad without Mayo
Ingredients
- 5 oz canned tuna in water drained
- 1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
- ¼ cup carrot finely minced
- ¼ cup celery finely minced
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Open and drain tuna.
- Chop all vegetables.
- In a bowl mix together all ingredients. Note: If your tuna is unsalted, you may need to add a pinch of salt to this recipe. Most canned tuna does have added salt so add to taste.
- Serve over a salad or on a sandwich
- Note: We used tuna with no salt added so you may need to add a pinch of salt.
Patricia Habbyshaw says
Great Idea !!! Thank You
Here is another one for you…
My Mother used to make Italian Tuna Salad and I made it for her in her later days…
1 can tuna in water or Oil (like Cento)
onion
diced tomatoes
Red Wine Vinegar
Olive Oil
Mix all together and Chill !
That’s it and SOOO Good !
ENJOY ! :}
Patricia Habbyshaw says
OOPS !
I forgot the Celery which is Optional but good, too !
The Clean Eating Couple says
Yum! That sounds great!!
Trudi says
Nice idea ! I have not tried ti yet but carrots and yogurtb sound fine as well as celery for calcium
I have not eaten tuna in ages. but I an willing to give this a try
The Clean Eating Couple says
It’s really yummy!
John Genova says
Does anyone have a good recipe for Tuna with Hummus?? I hate Mayo and have thought Hummus would be a great substitute but without a good recipe I feel like it might turn out “blah”. Come on give it to meh!!!
The Clean Eating Couple says
This recipe doesn’t have mayo.. it uses greek yogurt. Maybe give this a try before you try the hummus?