I love to make this salad for lunch when I have leftover pasta in the fridge. It’s a definite upgrade from a tired tuna sandwich! It also makes a great one-dish lite dinner. Experiment with pasta shapes – kids love them! If you have different types of leftover pasta, you can even do a fun mix. Any shaped pasta works well. Try wheels, shells, bowties, rotini, or cavatappi (like I used here).
In this recipe, I use a mixture of corn, red peppers, onions and hearts of palm. Feel free to play around with different veggies, or use whatever you have available in the fridge. Peas, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, pickles, radishes, scallions and fresh dill are all good additions.
Tuna Pasta Salad
1/2 box shaped pasta
2 cans albacore tuna in water, drained (don’t flake, leave chunky)
1 11 oz. can corn niblets (do not drain)
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
4 hearts of palm, chopped
1/2 cup mayo (or more, if needed)
squirt of mustard, optional
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp garlic powder
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
Method:
Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and add to a bowl. Add tuna, corn (with liquid), peppers, onions and hearts of palm. Mix in mayo, mustard, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add more mayo, if needed, to make it creamy. Chill and serve.
NOTE: Using the liquid from the canned corn helps make the pasta salad creamy. I use the Green Giant corn niblets which use less water. If you are using a different company, and the corn comes packed in a lot of liquid, use only about 1/8 of a cup of the liquid.
Can I come for lunch? :)
Dina, you have an open invitation!
I’m gonna try this with last night’s penne, which is not supposed to be in my fridge!
Chanie,
My dad loved this stuff! Huda took it to work for lunch and really enjoyed…. I’m definitely going to make it again, but I wonder if I can skip the pasta.
if on the phase 2 south beach diet, i use whole wheat pasta right?!
In South Beach Diet Phase 2, you are allowed only whole wheat pasta. Personally, I do not follow this because Whole wheat pasta is actually higher on the glycemic index than regular pasta. The best type of pasta to eat is called Dreamfields, and it’s available at health food stores. It is a low carb diabetic pasta. If you can’t find it, you can eat regular pasta but make sure to cook it al dente (see package for time) and watch your portion sizes.
Just finished making this for dinner, I like that it tasted different from the usual one that I make with mayo, peas, cheese and boiled egg. I also went out and bought some dream field pasta, thanks for the tip. This was quick to put together and tasted great, this one’s a keeper!
Thanks Pat, I’m so glad you liked it!
I used your recipe for a Seuda Shlishit I made for all my sisters in law yesterday. It was a huge hit! Thank you for a super-easy, great tasting recipe.
Thanks Rachel! So glad you liked it! It really is perfect for seuda shlishit.
I’ve been searching for a pasta salad recipe for my mishloach manot, and thanks to you I’ve found it! Thanks for posting this yummy recipe and happy Purim!
So glad I could help! Happy Purim!