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Tuna salad

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This tuna salad is good on a bagel, in a tuna melt, etc.

Principles

This being a salad (and not, say, a cake, or bread, etc.), the important thing is not the precise recipe, but rather the approach.

  1. High-quality ingredients. Greens should be fresh. Tuna should be the good stuff (premium-quality, packed in olive oil rather than soybean oil or water, etc.). Mayonnaise should be a good brand or homemade rather than e.g. Hellman’s or supermarket brand.
  2. Seasonings are always “to taste”. Put in some whatever; mix it in; taste it; if it’s not enough, put in more whatever.
  3. Don’t skimp on the mayo. The salad should not be dry.

Ingredients

Basics

Additions

All of the below is “however much it turns out you need”:

For the vinegar, use balsamic if you have it; otherwise, mix white or apple cider vinegar with e.g. cherry syrup (or some other strongly flavored fruity syrup). You need just enough to cover the chopped onion in a measuring cup.

Seasonings

All of these are “to taste”:

Procedure

  1. Hard-boil eggs, let them cool.
  2. Quick-marinate the onion in the vinegar by putting them both in a measuring cup and covering with plastic wrap for 15–30 minutes.
  3. Drain onion. Cut celery into big chunks. Chives, ditto. Peel eggs. Put all of this in a food processor and pulse several times, until finely chopped. Transfer to large bowl.
  4. Drain tuna. Break up tuna chunks into small flakes. Add to bowl.
  5. Add seasonings and lemon juice to bowl. Mix to combine.
  6. Add smetana and mayonnaise to bowl. Mix to combine.
  7. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
  8. Transfer to small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate.