Spice Up Mexican-Style Tuna Salad With This Creamy Dressing

Canned tuna can be used in far more recipes than the creamy salad many of us eat with crackers or on a sandwich. It's an affordable, relatively healthy, and easy-to-find ingredient for more traditional leafy salads too. One thing about tinned tuna, however, is that it's sort of bland on its own, so it needs a bold dressing to pair with your favorite veggies. To help spruce up your salad game, we have a creamy and spicy dressing suggestion for you to try (and you might want to make a double batch).

We're talking about the custom dressing featured in our original Mexican-inspired tuna salad created by Tasting Table recipe developer Julie Kinnaird. The dressing works so well in this particular salad because its creaminess melds well with the crunchy lettuce and tortilla chips, while its spice levels provide more heat and flavor to the tuna. It gets heat from jalapeños, acidity from fresh lime juice, and an herby boost from the cilantro. The creamy base comes from a combination of mayonnaise and sour cream, two ingredients that also temper the spicy flavors from those other ingredients.

To make the dressing, Julie Kinnaird recommends that you deseed and chop the jalapeños first. You'll combine the rest of the salad dressing ingredients with the prepared pepper in a blender or with an immersion blender, until you reach a smooth and creamy consistency. If you want a creamy dressing without dairy, substitute the mayo and sour cream with avocados and avocado oil. To step up the spice, use more jalapeños or add Serranos instead, because those peppers pack more heat. A dash of hot sauce can also give more flavor and spice to the dressing. Be sure to do a taste test before you transfer the dressing to a container, and add more salt or other ingredients to meet your desired flavor profile.

Like we said at the top, you might want to double this dressing recipe, because it can be used for far more than just this tuna salad. Add more flavor to our spruced-up tuna salad by swapping the dressing with this one instead. This Mexican kale salad with black beans and tomatoes can also be leveled up with the spicy dressing. And as a final suggestion, try it with our southwest pasta salad for more bold spiciness.