Give Your Tuna Salad A Flavor Makeover With This Salad Dressing

The best tuna salad should be savory, a little sweet, herbaceous, creamy but most importantly, refreshing. Once you get the recipe down pat, you may achieve all these things but find the last characteristic a little lacking. For a delicious tuna salad with a fresh and revamped flavor, make it with Italian dressing.

Rachael Ray's favorite tuna salad skips the mayo, opting instead for olive oil and lemon juice. Foregoing mayo not only helps the flavor of the tuna shine through, but it prevents the dish from getting too heavy. Italian dressing is light and fresh, lending the salad a unique and welcomed flavor. The dressing is both tangy and earthy, all thanks to the vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and lemon juice it contains. Deeper within the surface, it gets an herbaceous, savory taste from thyme, oregano, garlic, and parsley. To top it off with a sweet finish, a dash of honey rounds things out.

With such a packed ingredient list, Italian dressing brings so much depth to tuna salad, all while meshing well with the mild fish, licorice-like celery, and piquant red onions. If you want a salad that's silky and lightweight, go with the vinaigrette version of Italian dressing. Complete with white or red wine vinegar, it coats the salad in flavor without weighing it down. For something heartier, use creamy Italian dressing. It features a touch of mayonnaise, along with parmesan cheese for a delicious umami flavor.

With Italian dressing displaying bright, zesty Mediterranean flavors, you can always add more fresh ingredients to complement the taste. Take a note from this spruced-up tuna salad and put in even more items that balance out the flavors. The cucumbers and red bell peppers bring a fresh flavor and you can add more to it with olive-oil marinated mozzarella balls. They mirror the herbaceousness of the Italian dressing while also coaxing the savory flavor out of the tuna. To top things off, complete the salad with chopped Kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes.

If you want to keep things basic but still extremely flavorful, swap out the mayonnaise and mustard in this simple yet refined tuna sandwich for Italian dressing instead. The recipe is no-frills, only relying on canned tuna, salt and pepper, and a few herbs to finish off the tuna and arugula sandwich. With Italian dressing, it makes the taste more impactful without you having to do much prep work.

For tuna salad that's a little more hearty, throw in some canned white beans. They bring a butteriness to the salad without completely altering the taste of the dish. Beans also have a subtle nutty flavor to them that works well with a few capers tossed in to brighten them up. Finish off the salad with chopped cherry tomatoes for a quick lunch or a filling dinner.