Cheapo Recipe: "Tuna Stretcher" Salad

Make tuna cabbage wraps with healthy tuna salad.

If you like healthy tuna salad, I’ll bet you’ve noticed the incredible shrinking tuna can at your neighborhood supermarket. Not long ago, the average canned tuna was packaged in 7-ounce tins. Then it was 6 ounces. As of 2008, the tuna fish industry made the audacious move to cut costs by introducing a 5-ounce can, barely enough for a healthy tuna salad sandwich.

Sadly, we can’t do much about this fishy situation. We love healthy tuna salad. So, we won’t be boycotting the canneries anytime soon. But I can tell you that we buy tuna fish less often than we used to. Especially now that we’ve challenged ourselves to stay on a very tight grocery budget.

Here’s a delicious, healthy tuna salad recipe that can stretch your cans of tuna just a little bit further:

NOTE: Use a food processor, if possible; otherwise finely chop the ingredients. People are picky about their healthy tuna salad fixings, so most of these items are optional. Feel free to experiment!

• 2 cans of tuna, well-drained
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
• 2 celery stalks, cut into pieces (optional)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)
• 2 scallions, finely chopped (optional)
• 5-7 black olives, pitted (optional)
• 1/2 cup dill or bread-and-butter pickles, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed (optional)
• salt and pepper, if desired

If you have a food processor, just mix the carrots, celery, scallions and olives together and pulse until they are coarsely chopped. Put tuna into a medium mixing bowl and break up the chunks with a fork. Stop when it’s a consistency that you like. (I pulverize tuna into a paste-like pulp, but that’s the New Yorker in me. )

Add tuna, mayonnaise and mustard to the carrot mixture. Pulse a few times until mixed. Transfer it all to the bowl. Pulse the pickles in the food processor until finely chopped. Fold pickles into the healthy tuna salad. Add celery seed, salt and pepper, if you like. (Personally, I think it’s salty enough.)

We find that this healthy tuna salad doubles our tuna sandwich output, compared to deli-style tuna. It tastes fantastic on rye bread. Lettuce or cabbage wraps are another scrumptious serving idea.

Next time you’re shopping for tuna, don’t fret about the can size … just grab a couple and make this healthy tuna salad recipe. You’ll congratulate yourself for rethinking the shrinking!