A cooking expert has shared her simple recipe for tuna pasta salad, which takes just 10 minutes to cook and 30 minutes to prep – but there’s a twist with the ingredients
If you need a quick dinner, or want to prep lunches for the week, tuna pasta salad is a classic. This dish is versatile and can be made with a variety of veggies, so it’s a balanced meal.
Chelsea, the culinary whizz behind the popular blog Chelsea’s Messy Apron, has shared her quick and easy tuna pasta salad recipe that takes just 10 minutes to cook and 30 minutes to prepare. But there’s a twist.
Instead of the usual mayonnaise found in traditional tuna pasta salads, Chelsea introduces a “secret ingredient” that “adds so much more flavour”. She revealed: “This salad ranks as one of my favourite creamy pasta salads. It’s creamy, richly flavoured, and has loads of texture.
“We are completely convinced this is the best of the best as far as tuna macaroni salads go!”.
The secret to making your tuna pasta salad “taste better”, according to Chelsea, is Caesar salad dressing, reports the Express.
She explained: “I know, it’s a little unique, but it’s a game changer! It complements the tuna so nicely and keeps the salad from tasting like plain mayo (like so many tuna mac salads you’ve probably had in the past! ).
“The Caesar salad dressing adds a lot of seasonings and flavour, so you don’t need to add too many other ingredients. It’s a convenient shortcut for loads of flavour.”
Ingredients
- 129g frozen peas
- 284g tuna, preferably in olive oil
- 198g Caesar salad dressing
- 151g sour cream
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3g garlic powder
- 94g pickles
- Half of a red bell pepper
- Two celery stalks
- 77g carrots
- 72g red onion, diced
Method
Add frozen peas to the pasta during the final minute of boiling. Drain the pasta and peas, rinse under cold water, allow to cool, and dry.
In the meantime, in a medium bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients: Caesar salad dressing, sour cream, salt and pepper to taste and garlic powder.
Measure the vegetables after dicing: dice the pickles, bell pepper, celery, onion, and carrots.
Transfer the pasta and peas to a large bowl. Top with all the salad vegetable toppings and the thoroughly drained tuna.
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Add the dressing and gently mix everything together. Stir until all the ingredients are well coated, then taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
At this point, you may need to add more salt, but it depends on how salty the Caesar salad dressing is.