Your Tuna Salad Could Benefit From Some Added Heat

Tuna salad is a workhorse of a meal that can be thrown together for an easy lunch or dinner with endless variations made from pantry staples. Whether it's a simple tuna salad sandwich made with mayonnaise, one you add mix-ins to for crunch, or a Mediterranean variation that opts for a lighter base like olive oil, you could make a different style every day of the week for months on end. But even with all these options, tuna salad almost always has one clear flavor profile: It's very rich. That's why it tastes so good and fills us up, and for anything with a high level of richness, spice can be a revelation.

While tuna salad recipes may call for briny pickles or a squeeze of lemon juice, most will further benefit from a hit of spicy ingredients for some welcome bright flavors. The pungent bite of a spicy element helps balance out the savory and heavy notes of fatty ingredients like mayo and oil, making it all the more satisfying for your taste buds when you finally dig in. You don't need to go heavy on the heat — a few dashes of hot sauce or a spoonful of mildly spicy peppers will make your tuna salad pop without overwhelming what you already love about it.

The obvious and easy way to add heat to tuna salad is with hot sauce. It's delicious for sure, but there are many more creative ways to bring the spice. If you already like pickles or olives in your recipe, one of the best options is pickled hot peppers. Fiery pickled jalapeños or fruity cherry peppers give you the acidic zip and satisfying warmth you want without losing the crunch of normal pickles. You can also dig into hot and spicy pastes like Middle Eastern harissa, or Asian ingredients like garlic chile sauce and chili crisp oil. And don't sleep on unique, non-chile forms of heat. A healthy sprinkling of lemon-pepper seasoning will add a solid zing to your tuna, or you could opt for a punchy mix-in of wasabi.

Beyond the specific ingredients you can add, there are plenty of recipe inspirations for tuna salad you can take from spicy cuisine. Sriracha, rice vinegar, and Kewpie mayo will transform your canned fish into a sushi-inspired spicy tuna sandwich. Or go for a Mexican-inspired tuna salad with green chiles and warm spices like cayenne, cumin, or even full-on taco seasoning. The world is full of tasty, spicy dishes for you to choose from, and any one of them could inspire a spicy tuna salad.