This avocado tuna salad recipe is an easy healthy lunch or snack that's ready in 5 minutes with just 4 ingredients. And it's a gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, Whole30, and keto tuna salad recipe. This quick meal is packed with protein and so delicious!
I love this avocado tuna salad. It makes a great quick and easy healthy snack or lunch. And it's another way to eat one of my favorite foods—avocados. This recipe uses just four essential ingredients, but it reminds me of the old school tuna salad I used to eat as a kid. For me, it's a true paleo comfort food.
To round this main dish out, you could pair it with a delicious soup. Avocado stuffed with tuna salad along with a quick tomato soup or broccoli soup makes a perfect fast meal.
It's really simple to put this avocado tuna salad together. Best of all, it requires NO cooking, so it’s perfect if you’re in a hurry or don’t feel like heating up the stove. It also requires no mayonnaise! This mayo-free tuna salad gets its creaminess from the avocado instead.
Ingredients for avocado tuna salad
Avocados are in season throughout most of the year. Choose a ripe avocado that’s firm but with a little “give.” You can check for ripeness by pulling the small piece of stem. If the stem comes off easily, the avocado is ripe. If it holds firm, then it’s not ready quite yet. The spot where the stem meets the avocado should appear green underneath. If the stem falls off easily and the spot underneath is brown, the avocado is overripe and may be brown inside.
When it comes to selecting the fish, you can use whatever tuna you have—leftover tuna from last night's dinner works great in this recipe. In fact, home-cooked tuna may be even better than canned! Of course, most of us opt for the canned variety out of convenience. Be sure to select a good quality canned tuna
With a recipe this simple, choosing the best tuna and avocado will make a huge difference. When there are only four components to a dish, you want to choose the best items you can find—this means perfectly ripe avocados and high-quality tuna.
Making Quick Tuna Salad Stuffed Avocado
Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit (carefully) and scoop out the middle of both halves leaving a shell of avocado flesh. You want to have about half of the avocado in the mixing bowl to use for the salad. Add a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice, stir in a bit of finely chopped onion to taste, and mash all the ingredients together. Once the other ingredients are combined, gently mix in the tuna to finish this easy tuna salad.
The key to making this recipe truly great is tasting it as you make it. Because avocados and lemons vary in size, it's important to taste as you go along to make sure you have the right balance of creaminess and acidity in the tuna salad. Add a little more avocado or lemon juice if needed to strike the right balance.
I love how perfectly simple this recipe is—yet you can easily customize it to suit your taste by adding dill pickle, red onion, fresh herbs, or even hot peppers for a little kick. You could even use lime juice instead of lemon. Just add whatever else you like in your tuna salad.
When you’ve got your perfect tuna salad blend, you simply scoop into the avocado cups and enjoy. You get a few bonus bites of avocado left in the shell (who can complain about more avocado?!).
This stuffed avocado boat is a simple, classic meal. It’s low carb, high in protein and full of healthy fat, so it will keep everyone full and satisfied for hours. It’s an easy, simple lunch solution. This avocado tuna salad is a great quick meal or snack to make any time.
Avocado Tuna Salad Recipe Video
An easy no-mayo quick and easy healthy snack or lunch.
- 1 avocado
- 1 lemon juiced, to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped onion to taste
- 5 ounces cooked or canned wild tuna
- sea salt to taste
- fresh ground pepper to taste
- Cut the avocado in half and scoop the middle of both avocado halves into a bowl, leaving a shell of avocado flesh about 1/4-inch thick on each half.
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Add lemon juice and onion to the avocado in the bowl and mash together. Add tuna, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust if needed.
- Fill avocado shells with tuna salad and serve.
More Easy Paleo Salad Recipes
This looks really good! I can’t wait to try it.
It’s one of my favorites – hope you enjoy it!
GREAT idea to use part of the avocado, mashed, as the creamy component that holds the tuna salad together. I am DEFINITELY doing this. Thanks!! 😀
Thanks – hope you enjoy it!
This was great! Thanks for sharing it.
Carb free. . I love it!
Thanks!!
What a delicious combination!
Thanks – glad you like it!
Glad I found this. Trying to go Paleo. *Thought* I didn’t like Tuna. This has just proved me wrong and given me a great new option. Thanks!!!
Awesome! Thanks Dominic!
Oops, I scooped out all the flesh. Oh well, it’ll still be delicious and creamy!
This will become my new lunch favorite.
This recipe looks delicious AND it fits the paleo autoimmune protocol. So, thank you! I just started a weekly Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable through my blog, and I would love it if you linked up this recipe. I’m trying to expand resources for the AIP community. Here’s the link: http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/12/04/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-5/
Eileen, I am happy to share this recipe on your Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable!
I was wondering what kind of onion you used? Thanks!
I usually use a sweet onion, like Vidalia or Maui.
I can t eat onion, usually sub roasted garlic but that might not be a good combo here
I love this recipe!
Thank you 🙂
Just made this and the 10 minute tomato soup — both delicious
Thank you Judi! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
My husband and I just started Paleo this week. This was delicious! With recipes like this I know we can meKe this healthy life change!
That’s great Cindy! Paleo is easy once you get a few recipes down.
I am itching to try this, I absolutely love avocado’s with fish, this looks perfect for a light but satisfying lunch – Ps I found your page via Pinterest, this is super popular! 🙂 xx
Looks delicious! Avocados are one of my most favorite things! I am definitely going to give this a try. Pinning! I enjoyed your talk on Pinterest at Blogher Food ’14. Thanks for taking the time to put together a wonderful presentation!
Thanks, Marion! Avocados are one of my most favorite things too. Hope you enjoy it!
made these to take for lunch out on the boat. Very good.
Thanks, Lisa!
I wish I could find some tuna without soy added. Every can and packet I’ve found has soy flavoring added
The ingredients in the Wild Planet tuna are just tuna and sea salt.
Costco has a canned version without soy.
Thank you, I LOVE this recipe, today I added some chopped cucumber for some crunch and it was even better!!
Wow! Did not expect it to taste that good. So easy and so fresh. Will become a staple. Make sure to add enough salt!
Thanks! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This looks so yummy, Lisa! I wish I could have it for lunch today 🙂
Thank you for sharing this week at Brag About It link party on VMG206 (Mondays at Midnight).
~ Megin of VMG206
Thanks Megin!
I’m liking this idea of using avocado instead of mayo. I bet it adds some wonderful flavor too! Such a easy and yummy recipe. 🙂 I hope you can stop on by and share this or any other recipe with us on Five Friday Finds!
Love this idea! So much protein and healthy fats in this little treat!
Great healthy recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Hugs,
Jody
I enjoy adding a chopped, boiled egg to this recipe for even more protein. Great idea about the lemon, I’ll add that next time.
One of my favorites! I like to pop it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes to give it more of a tuna melt consistency 🙂
This was so good!!! Will def do again
This was delicious! Modified it a little, I skipped the onion and used some fresh cilantro instead..so so Good! Thanks for posting the recipe!
great serving idea! these flavors go really well together love how they’re paired in this recipe, thank you for this!
Eating this now and am blown away by how balanced everything tastes with only 4 ingredients! And I’m getting full! Perfect recipe for Whole 30. Thank you for sharing!
Oh! Amazing! What nice combination. Very much appreciated the post!
Is the cals without shell?
Hi Jeremy, the nutrition information is for one serving (the recipe makes two servings) and includes everything. Hope this helps!
I just saw that this recipe is for 2 servings so it make complete sense now!! lol. Thanks. I have made it several times and love it!!
This sounds amazing!
I hate Avocado but this recipes wants me to give it another try. Probably because in Sri Lanka we mix it with condensed milk and have it that way. I think I might scoop it out though and mix it a bit more with the tuna. Great idea and recipe. Thank you.