Add Some Heat To Your Tuna Salad With One Powerhouse Spice

Tuna salad toes the line between refreshing and hearty, all within one meal. The creamy mayo offers an incredible mouthfeel that enhances the tender tuna. The dish is certainly great, but it tends to lack bold flavor. That's why we're suggesting you turn up the heat with curry powder to transform a dull tuna salad into something deliciously spicy.

Typically made from cumin, coriander, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and cloves, curry powder is deeply savory, a little spicy, and incredibly warming. It's great for meat and poultry, and it brings a wonderful depth to fish, as well. Any form of mildness is banished away when curry powder is added; the spice provides a blooming heat that gently spreads throughout a dish for a fiery effect. It's particularly great with mayonnaise, since the fatty condiment slightly tempers the spice from curry powder while still letting the flavor shine clearly through.

Curry powder is the surefire way to heat up chicken salad, and it's the perfect addition to tuna salad, too. The spice amps up the mild fish while complementing the peppery celery, sweet green onions, and sharp Dijon mustard that make up a tuna salad. After draining the canned tuna, add it to a bowl with mayonnaise, chopped celery, minced red onions, and the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of curry powder into the bowl, along with salt and pepper. Mix well until the mayo takes on a pale golden color. Give it a taste and add more curry powder according to your preferences.

Curry has a bold flavor that will definitely stand out in a tuna salad, and you can customize the dish further to complement the spice's unique taste. While some people make a nutritious switch to Greek yogurt instead of using mayonnaise, you can opt for plain coconut yogurt instead. It has a mildly sweet, nutty taste that complements curry powder's earthiness while matching the natural sweetness of tuna. To give the dish a slightly more tropical flair, brighten it up with a squeeze of lime rather than lemon.

The spice also makes for a delicious dish when added to simple apple tuna salad. The cinnamon and cloves in the curry powder provide it with a rich sweetness that's perfect when paired with the tangy, fruity apples. Swap out the mayo for Greek yogurt and serve the tuna salad on sandwich bread or a bagel.

The combination of spices and apples is quite autumnal, but curry powder with a roasted sweet potato and tuna salad is the epitome of fall. The caramelized sweet potatoes shine with a layered, blended spice like curry powder. This isn't your typical tuna salad, but you can give it a creamier touch by making the dressing with mayo or yogurt rather than olive oil and mustard.