Mayo-Free Mediterranean Tuna Salad Recipe

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Sometimes it seems that tuna salads tend to be a boring affair that is made to disappear inside a sandwich. But this mayo-free Mediterranean tuna salad is a different story, and is made to be the main event. Filled with Greek-inspired flavors like lemon, fresh dill, and feta, and piled high on a zesty whipped white bean base, it's the kind of salad you place on a platter and let everyone slowly discover the layers of flavor.

As a recipe developer and blogger who loves to travel, I come up with some of my best recipe ideas while eating away from home. This salad was inspired by some of the very late dinners I had in a small seaside town about an hour and a half from Athens, which has no shortage of great places to eat. Each dinner would start with a large composed platter of salads, filled with everything from white bean dip to gigantic beans in tomato sauce and chunks of oily tuna and fresh octopus. As you began to eat, all the flavors mingled together, often producing a bite of pita with white bean paste and some fish on it. That flavor worked so well together that when asked to come up with a Mediterranean tuna salad, I immediately knew it had to come with a white bean dip.

There's no mayo anywhere near our tuna salad. The dressing is a combination of olive oil, lemon, and oregano, which makes the salad taste bright, briny, and sharp. The whipped bean base adds a garlicky, lemony creaminess that adds flavor as well as texture. Once you place it on the table, you won't have to wait long for people to fall in love with it from the first bite, just like I did in that restaurant in Greece.

For the whipped white bean base that makes one of the best parts of this salad, you'll need cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, a good extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, garlic, lemon zest, kosher salt, and black pepper. For the tuna salad itself, you'll need English cucumber, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, oregano, kosher salt, black pepper, a couple of jars of good-quality olive oil-packed tuna, more cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, a red onion, Kalamata olives, capers, crumbled feta cheese, and fresh dill. Once you taste all the seasonings, you may want to add more flaky sea salt and black pepper for serving.

Combine half the cannellini beans, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, garlic, and lemon zest in a food processor.

Blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread onto a serving platter.

Smash the cucumber with the flat side of a knife or a rolling pin until it splits open, then cut it into rough chunks. Transfer to a large bowl.

Whisk together 3 tablespoons olive oil, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and oregano in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

To the bowl with the smashed cucumber, add the tuna in large flakes, the remaining whole cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion, olives, and capers.

Toss gently so the tuna stays in chunks.

Fold in the feta and dill.

Pile the tuna salad on top of the bean base. Drizzle with sauce and, if desired, finish with flaky sea salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

• Greek-Style Pita Bread Recipe
• Classic Tzatziki Sauce Recipe
• 5-Ingredient Olive Tapenade Recipe
• Easy Cacio E Pepe Focaccia Recipe
• Kremydotiganites (Greek Savory Pancakes) Recipe

The beauty of a composed salad like this one is that usually, if you want more of one thing and less of another, it's pretty easy to achieve. I would suggest maintaining one aspect of the salad — perhaps a creamy base topped with a tuna veggie mix, or the flavors of white bean, tuna, cucumbers, tomato, feta, and lemons — while playing around with the rest.

If you're sticking to a creamy base, then switching this white bean puree for hummus, fava bean dip, or even tzatziki would all work well. If you want to play around with the ingredients in the salad itself, I also love adding roasted red peppers, as they keep the Greek vibe going while bringing sweetness that balances out the olives and capers. Adding artichoke hearts to the mix is also great, and helps add textural interest and an extra layer of briny flavor to the dish.

If you want to keep the flavors but change up the presentation, then piling everything on top with arugula is a great move. Celebrity chefs sometimes add anchovy paste or Dijon to tuna salad dressings, and I found that both those tricks can be great here. A spoonful of black olive tapenade is also beautiful when stirred through the salad in place of the kalamata olive chunks.

Ahh, canned tuna. How vilified you were in social media and magazines in the early 2000s, when everyone was so busy eating fresh food and eschewing anything canned. But there's nothing wrong with preserved tuna, as long as it's the right kind. Without mayo to coat everything, the flavor of tuna in this salad is going to be very prominent, and oil-packed tuna is the clear choice to avoid a fishy taste and get a good texture.

Oil-packed tuna is often sold in glass jars, but can also be found in cans sometimes. It's more flavorful, stays moist after draining, and flakes into bigger chunks that hold their shape when you toss the salad. Water-packed tuna is just drier and blander, and without mayo to compensate for the fat difference, every flaw shows.

But there's variety in oil-packed tuna as well, and some work better than others in this recipe. Albacore tuna gives you firm, white-fleshed chunks that will hold up better when tossed with the veggies. Skipjack or yellowfin tuna is also good, but it is softer and flakier, so it will fall apart faster and give you a shredded rather than a chunky tuna appearance. Also, seek out olive oil-packed tuna whenever possible, which has amazing flavor and is much more in line with the Greek vibe of the salad. Tuna from brands like Ortiz or Tonnino is great and is relatively easy to find.

• Tunisian Fricasse-Style Tuna Salad Bites Recipe
• Spruced Up Tuna Salad Recipe
• Cheesy Deluxe Tuna Casserole Recipe
• Tuna Lettuce Wraps Recipe
• Creamy Kidney Bean Salad Recipe