
Meals · Casseroles & bakes
Tuna casserole
The pantry-shelf dinner of a thousand childhoods, rebuilt without the can of soup: egg noodles, tuna and peas in a real béchamel under a crumb crust.
- Time
- 50 min (15 prep + 35 cook)
- Servings
- 6
- Per serving
- 528 kcal
- Protein
- 27 g
Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.
Ingredients
- 340 g dry egg noodles, cooked just shy945 g
- 3 tbsp butter45 g
- 1/2 yellow onions, diced100 g
- 2 stalks celery, diced80 g
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour35 g
- 2 cups whole milk480 g
- 1 cup chicken broth240 g
- 2 1/2 cans canned tuna, drained300 g
- 1 cup cooked frozen green peas150 g
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded100 g
- 1 tsp salt5 g
- 1/2 tsp black pepper1 g
Topping
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs40 g
- 1 tbsp butter, melted15 g
Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.
Steps
- Soften the onion and celery in the butter, stir in the flour for a minute, then whisk in the milk and broth to a smooth sauce.
- Off the heat: cheese, tuna, peas, salt and pepper, then fold through the noodles.
- Into a baking dish; toss the crumbs in melted butter and scatter over.
- Bake at 190°C for 25–30 minutes until bubbling and the crumbs are golden. Rest 10 minutes.
Why this score
moderately fillingNo single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.
Three routes to fullness — one is enough
What pulls it down
Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 3169 kcal goes into the pot, 2536 g of ingredients comes out as ~2145 g of food → 148 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.
Per
- Calories
- 148
- Protein
- (20%)
- 7 g
- Fat
- (35%)
- 6 g
- Carbohydrates
- (45%)
- 16 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 244 mg
Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.
Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.
More meals
Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.