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A creamy, light Tuna Pasta Salad, perfect for either a quick dinner, a packed lunch or a picnic. Eat it hot or cold, add your favourite additions, and you have the most budget-friendly and delicious classic. Beware though – it’s moreish!
Who doesn’t love Tuna Pasta Salad?! Quick, light and is perfect for leftover lunches the next day.
Canned tuna is easy to buy and has a long shelf life in the cupboard, meaning you can always whip up a sandwich, pasta, jacket potato filling, salad or wrap if you have it in stock.
If you love this, you might also enjoy my Tuna Pasta Bake as a hot dish too.
Why you’ll love this Tuna Pasta Salad recipe
⭐️ Ready in 10 minutes
⭐️ Summery, light and delicious
⭐️ Inexpensive and ultra easy
Tuna Pasta Salad Variations
- Avocado Tuna Salad – Add a large peeled and cubed avocado
- Very Healthy Tuna Salad – Replace the mayonnaise or creme fraiche (or both) with low fat Greek yoghurt
- Tuna Salad Sandwich – Leave the pasta out, mix everything together well and spread between two slices of bread
- Tuna Pasta Salad without Mayo – Add more creme fraiche or/and Greek yoghurt instead
- Tuna Salad Wrap – Leave the pasta out, mix everything together well and roll into a tortilla wrap
- Tuna Pasta Salad with Cheese – Either sprinkle grated cheese over the top or mix small cubes of cheese in with the rest of the ingredients
- Tuna Salad with Egg – Add a hard boiled egg or two to the ingredients
- Tuna Melt – Swap the pasta for a bagel and you have a new version of a perfect crunchy, cheesy meal with tuna and veggies
Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad Ingredients
- Tuna – I use basic but good quality canned tuna fish (see notes below for more tuna info)
- Pasta – I often use farfalle (pasta bows) for this recipe, but you can use whichever shape you have in or prefer
- Sweetcorn – I use no added sugar, canned and drained corn. You can use frozen (and defrosted) if you prefer
- Peppers – I use orange or red bell peppers for sweetness, but use whichever you like
- Cucumber – You can peel and deseed if you’re that way inclined, but I just chop it up
- For the dressing: Mayonnaise, creme fraiche, Dijon mustard, lemon (juice only) and fresh chives
Type of tuna
For this recipe you can use tinned tuna either in brine, oil or water, depending on your preference.
You can get premium tuna in jars of olive oil if you want to push the boat out, which is delicious, but regular canned tuna is totally fine.
You could also use fresh tuna if you’d prefer, but this would obviously need to be cooked first and, honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary for this recipe.
How to make Tuna Pasta Salad
1. Put your pasta on to cook for about 10 minutes, then drain.
2. In the meantime, mix the dressing ingredients (as per the recipe below) until smooth.
3. Add everything into a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour over your dressing and mix everything together well before serving.
Substitutions
- Vegetables – Use any other vegetables you prefer. Frozen peas are a nice alternative to sweetcorn. Red onion is also a nice addition
Leftovers
How long will Tuna Pasta Salad keep in the fridge? This is perfect for cold leftovers. It travels well so is also fantastic for picnics or packed lunches too.
If you are planning to store this, you can keep the dressing separate and then mix it just before serving. It will stay fresher/crispier this way. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
In the freezer I wouldn’t recommend freezing this recipe as it’ll end up soggy when you defrost it.
Other 10 minutes pasta recipes
Under 15 minutes
Baked Tortellini ‘Lasagne’ {10 Minute Meal}
Under 15 minutes
Prawn Pasta {10 Minute Meal}
Under 15 minutes
Smoked Salmon Pasta {10 Minute Meal}
Under 15 minutes
Cream Cheese Pasta {10 Minute Meal}
FAQs
Yes! Just omit the step where you run the pasta under cold water and mix the pasta straight in with the other ingredients after you’ve drained it. It’s delicious either way.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Tuna Pasta Salad {Easy & Delicious!}
Ingredients
- 200 g Pasta
- 220 g Tuna, Drained
- 520 g Sweetcorn, Drained (x2 tins)
- Cucumber, Chopped into small chunks
- 2 Red peppers, Deseeded and chopped into cubes
For the dressing:
- 4 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp Creme fraiche
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 Lemon, Juice only
- 15 g Fresh chives, Finely chopped
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions.
- Meanwhile, mix the dressing ingredients until smooth.
- Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water.
- Mix all of the other ingredients together with the dressing.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Super good tuna pasta salad recipe!!!
Made this delicious. Veggie so swapped the tuna for cannellini beans.
Had this last night, so quick and easy to make and really delicious!!
Took leftovers to work for lunch and still had some left, so saving it until tomorrow to have with quiche!
Xxx
This was lovely. Easy to make and enjoyed by everyone!…so much so that my daughter requested it for her school packed lunch 🙂
V easy to make, everyone enjoyed it. This works really well for lunch boxes.