Dill pickle tuna pasta salad
20 min · 36 g protein · 375 cals / serving
Little macaroni and flaky tuna in a creamy, tangy dill pickle dressing made mostly with Greek yogurt, with crunchy pickles, celery, red onion, sweet peas and plenty of fresh dill. Lunch-box comfort for two days, with more tuna than pasta in every forkful.
Ingredients
- 6 oz pasta, elbow macaroni or ditalini (7–8 minutes)
- 1 cup cooked frozen green peas
Dill pickle dressing
- 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp light mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp white vinegar, brine from the pickle jar (or white vinegar)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 4 (5 oz) cans canned tuna, light tuna in water, drained well
- 3 large whole dill pickles (1 1/4 cups chopped) pickles, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, finely diced
- 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
Steps
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water (start it in the kettle) for the time on the pack. Add the frozen peas for the last minute, then drain and rinse under cold water until cool. Shake very dry.
- While the pasta cooks, stir the yogurt, mayonnaise, pickle brine, mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.
- Add the cooled pasta and peas, tuna, pickles, celery, onion and dill and fold together until everything is coated.
- Divide among four containers. Keep it cold, in the fridge or with an ice pack, and eat within 2 days; stir in a spoon of pickle brine if it looks dry.
Good to know
Can I make it even higher in protein?
Use 4 oz of pasta instead of 6 and keep all the tuna, at about 74 instead of 70. A chickpea or lentil pasta works too and adds fibre; cook it a minute less so it holds its shape.
Can I make it ahead for the week?
Two days is the limit for a fish salad. For a third and fourth lunch, keep the dressed pasta and vegetables in the fridge and fold in a fresh can of tuna the morning you pack it.
Per
- Calories
- 88
- Protein
- (41%)
- 9 g
- Fat
- (13%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (46%)
- 10 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 275 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1501 kcal goes into the pot and 1475 g of ingredients comes out as about 1705 g of food: 88 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.