We’re well into Summer now and with the heat and humidity, I’m always preferring lighter lunches! Having lunch outside on the porch or inside in the air conditioning, I typically go for a salad. Seems boring, but many a salad-lover will tell you, salads can be simple or complex, making yourself a different one every day of the week! Here I wanted to share the recipe for tuna salad that uses fresh ingredients, the best canned tuna and a healthier mayonnaise option that is Paleo approved! You can add in extras as you wish, like cucumber or hot peppers, and make it your own! I then put the tuna salad over power greens and it’s a great way to recharge midday!
In one of my earlier posts I mentioned every meal I’m always focusing around a protein. I love finding protein from different sources, whether it be plant-protein, animal-protein or fish-protein! Take a look at the info-graphic below, Tuna is a great protein source! Generally you can get a nice 20 grams per 3 ounces! 
Now… this post has become much longer than I intended because I wanted to also break down the importance of using a quality tuna from a sustainable, environmentally conscious company while also mentioning the understanding of mercury in canned tuna. Look at the graphic below you can see canned Light Tuna, which would be Skipjack Tuna, is in the “safe to eat 2-3 meals per week” category while canned White Albacore Tuna is less safe, in the “1 meal per week” category.
Canned tuna is tricky not only because of the mercury concern but also because of the environmental practices some companies do and do not adhere while fishing for tuna.
I’ll go through a few that I used to buy, until I did more research to find out these supposedly good canned tunas were no good at all!
First is Bumble Bee Tuna. This one is from a well-known company and it’s easily found in most grocery stores. It looks great and tastes good too.
But, by doing research, Bumble Bee doesn’t catch their fish and tuna by healthy environmental standards. Bumble Bee was rated one of the worst tuna companies in a recent study by Greenpeace. From the Greenpeace Ensuring Sustainable Seafood section of their website:
Unfortunately, most of the tuna found on supermarket shelves—including well-known brands like Bumblebee and Starkist—come from destructive fishing methods that injure and kill other marine animals and may put workers at risk.
The global tuna industry is out of control. It is emptying our oceans of fish, harming other marine lifeand exploiting workers in shocking ways.
Workers have reported being beaten, abused and forced to work on ships for months or years at a time. Fishing vessels use methods that wreak havoc on marine life. Tuna is even being stored in the same shipping containers as the dirty fuel the ships use, then sold to consumers.
Pretty sad and pretty gross. You can find the 2017 Greenpeace Tuna Guide Here but I did a screenshot to show the rankings from Greenpeace, a study of 20 Tunas found in grocery stores, where Bumble Bee is almost last at #17 out of 20!!
Another Albacore Solid White Tuna is Blue Harbor. It’s actually owned by Starkist. Look again above… StarKist is LAST! The WORST! And from what I’m reading in reports such as this article in Under Current News and ST Jude Tuna they don’t follow fair, ethical and environmentally sustainable fishing practices. To me, the label is very deceiving. It looks to be a great choice and it tasted good. But if it’s owned by StarKist…
Another that to me looks to be a good choice would be Wild Selections White Tuna. It’s actually owned by Bumble Bee.
An article regarding the concern while buying tuna I found in the Huffington Post Tuna Industry Failing on Sustainability had some good news!
Thankfully, there are brands in the U.S. that are stepping up to ensure their tuna customers have sustainable and ethical options to buy. Wild Planet, American Tuna and Ocean Naturals received the top scores and were identified as reliable brands for consumers. Each brand has a comprehensive approach to sustainability and sources from operations that are fair and socially responsible. Whole Foods finished near the top tier for selling more responsibly caught tuna.
So my favorite to purchase is from wild planet. It is ranked #1 by Greenpeace and is by far the best tasting (although when you open the can appearances can be a bit discerning). Just to mention again, Chunk White Albacore Tuna is high in Omega but is also higher in mercury content compared to Skipjack Tuna. Wild Planet provides both White Albacore and Skipjack Tuna. Here I’m using Skipjack!
Open the can… looks like cat food.
But, break it up and taste it, the best canned tuna ever! I’m not sponsored or given money for anything I post in my blogs, so this is 100% my opinion. The “bad” canned tuna’s above I thought tasted pretty good but I am on a mission to make better and more sustainable purchases. This Wild Planet Tuna honestly, in my opinion, tastes the best!
The Wild Planet tuna is very good, you can eat it directly from the can! And it’s pole & line caught in a safe sustainable manner where Greenpeace approves and ranks them #1 on their list of canned tunas to buy! This makes me feel good because I’m convinced most tuna salads pre-made and bought in deli’s or a lunch store are most likely created with cheap, not the best quality tuna. Tuna caught using dangerous methods and then because the taste isn’t top quality, it’s masked with a ton of ingredients. Always best to know exactly what you’re eating, where it’s coming from and how it’s getting to your plate. Then when you make your own meals, you know exactly what you’re putting in your food, the best you can! So grab some Wild Planet Tuna, add to a bowl then cut up some fresh local organic red onion and yellow pepper…
For the mayonnaise I have found at Whole Foods, Primal Kitchen. It’s made from avocado oil, it’s sugar free and uses cage-free eggs. It does have a bit of a different taste from your standard mayonnaise, but added to the tuna with vinegar and fresh squeezed lemon, it makes for a really delicious and healthy tuna salad! It’s Paleo Approved! **I’ll be completely honest with you though, after a few times using it, I opted to go without it and just adding the vegetables and red wine vinegar. The tuna itself has such a great flavor, it really doesn’t need a bunch of mayo of any kind.**
I picked a fresh banana pepper from our garden to give my skipjack tuna salad a nice sweet banana pepper kick!
Kali loves to help and she loves the skipjack tuna! It is healthiest in terms of lower levels of mercury so I feel good about her eating it and it is packed with nutrients!
Once you have your tuna salad made, you can add it over a bed of power greens like kale, spinach or watercress, or even cut up the greens and mix together along with cucumbers! I posted a blog about Collard Green Creativity where I make a tuna wrap using collard green leaves! Make it your own and enjoy!
| Prep Time | 10 mins |
| Servings |
people
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- 1 can Wild Planet Skipjack or White Albacore Tuna SkipJack is lower in mercury, White Albacore is higher in Omega but also higher in mercury
- 1/4 cup cut yellow peppers or red or orange, whichever you prefer
- 1/4 cup cut red onion
- 1-1 1/2 tbsp paleo mayonaise any mayo will do but this recipe makes it paleo approved!
- 1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/2 lemon lemon juice squeezed
- 1/4 cup cucumbers
- 1 tbsp diced hot peppers for a spicey kick
- 1-2 cup power greens kale, spinach, watercress, arugula, spring mix - whichever you prefer
Ingredients
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- Combine all ingredients together except for power greens. When tuna salad is mixed, serve over or with power greens for a great salad or wrap in collard greens for a healthy raw tuna salad green wrap!
Thank you for having this information online !!!
I have wondered about tuna for years, and I am sadly disappointed at what, to me, seemed to be a cleaner and better tasting tuna
“Blue Harbor” .
I opened 2 cans of it to get enough cleaner tuna for a sandwich today, and to my surprise I was lucky to find enough for “1” sandwich.
I bought some when my husband was alive, as he liked tuna, but I did not care for the 3 brands you have talked about. So I thought, here is a new one to me, read the label, thought, sounds like it could be a good one. Well, I bought 1 can and we tried it, it looked so clean, I could not believe it. I have been buying it for the past 6
To see your article now, makes me literally feel sick. I went looking online to see if it was okay to give my kitty a little bit of the colored .
WELL, no way am I giving any to my kitty and it is all going in the trash.
Thank you so much, and I am going to try and find some of your recommendations if I think I want a tuna sandwich.
Hi Patsy!
Thanks for reading my post about the canned tuna available and what is best to go with. It is so challenging to know what food brands we can trust, especially when (as such in this example) we open the item and it looks and tastes good. I tend to go down a “rabbit hole” when I get on a mission to make the most trusted and healthiest choices for myself and my family. Once I’ve done that research, my goal and hope is to share insight of what I have found so others can at least get some better awareness of what they might be purchasing. Thanks for reading and commenting! Hope you are doing well!
Jamie