The Hot Tip That Will Change The Way You Make Tuna Salad Forever

Tuna salad is a staple dish for both everyday lunches and for special occasions. The classic tuna salad recipe combines canned tuna, onion, celery, carrots, pickles, mayo, and salt and pepper to taste. However, tuna salad is easily customizable to your own personal preferences. You can omit ingredients you don't like and replace them with ingredients you do like. In a way, the only mandatory ingredients are the tuna and the mayo, which holds everything together.

Another fun way to change up your tuna salad is by experimenting with ingredients of different textures. You can add crisp lettuce, crunchy potato chips, or crumbly bacon to break up the monotony of an otherwise texturally bland dish. In fact, tuna from a deli might taste different because of the ingredients they use, so you can get creative to find what you like best.

Yet another way to mix up your tuna salad is with new flavors. For example, spices that will take your tuna up a notch include curry powder, dill, or lemon pepper because their bold flavors complement the flavors of ingredients already in the dish. Some ingredients can even change both texture and taste at the same time! 

If you're bored with your regular tuna salad, there's an ingredient you can add to give the dish both new texture and new flavor. Adding pickled jalapeño juice to your tuna salad can give it a creamier texture, as it mixes in nicely with the mayo.

According to Men's Health, pickled jalapeño juice also gives tuna salad "a bite and a burn." Jalapeños are middle of the road in terms of heat level, but they can still pack some punch, so you should be cautious when adding jalapeño juice. Barefeet in the Kitchen notes two tablespoons of the pickled jalapeno juice in its recipe but recommends starting with less and increasing from there if you'd like more of a kick.

As an added bonus, you can pit an avocado and scoop your spicy tuna salad into its divot (via The Dessert Dietician). The smoothness of the avocado compliments the creaminess of the tuna salad while also taming the heat of the jalapeño. Yum. 

If you really want to make a spicy tuna salad, consider making the dish with a Mexican flair. One way to do this is to start out with your standard tuna salad, and then add a few extra ingredients that will kick the heat up a notch or two.

Mexican Food Journal recommends adding avocado, cilantro, lime juice, and serrano chiles. Keep in mind, however, that serrano chiles are much spicier than jalapenos. You might want to start out with less chile in your tuna salad, and add more if desired. Another way to give your tuna salad a Mexican twist is by adding ingredients like corn, bell peppers, and onion. Cook at Home Mom even suggests adding homemade taco seasoning for added flavor.

These Mexican-inspired tuna salads can be served with tostadas, lettuce wraps, or tortilla chips to really bring the meal together. And hey, you might even have leftovers! Just remember when storing tuna salad that this dish should be refrigerated and not kept for more than five days. Any longer than that, and you risk food poisoning, which definitely isn't fun.

Not all of us want to have our mouths set on fire by jalapenos or chiles, but there are plenty of other ways to add some sweet heat to your basic tuna salad recipe. For example, you might consider adding a sweet element to tone down the spices. Besides, sweet and spicy are already a perfect combination, so why not apply it to tuna salad?

Budget Bytes recommends adding not only cracked pepper and cayenne pepper to a tuna salad but also brown sugar to balance out the heat. You should be adding sugar to your tuna salad anyway, as sugar and fish pair well together, so brown sugar isn't really too far a stretch.

You can even make more of a deconstructed tuna salad with both sweet and spicy elements. MyRecipes has a version of tuna salad that includes hot pepper sauce as well as sweet peppers, brown sugar, and grated orange peel. These ingredients will definitely give your dish a bit of a kick, but the sweeter elements will help keep the heat enjoyable.