Well, it was their favorite sandwich a week or so ago. Like everyone else, we’re in semi-quarantine to avoid the COVID-19 virus. I am working remotely, their mom can’t work remotely but she is working, so I’m working at home and home schooling. I’m making lunch for them every day (they take lunches to school every day, but making them during a lunch break is different than making them in the morning for some reason). I introduced them to tuna melts a couple of weeks ago and they liked them so much that they ate them every day that week. They’ve moved on to quesadillas, which is an old standby for us, but the tuna melts were a hit for a while.
Of course, tuna melts are all about the tuna salad, so really this is my tuna salad recipe.
2 10oz packages of tuna packed in water, drained.
Mayonnaise
Sweet Pickle Relish
Celery Salt
Hot Sauce

Per usual, I’m mostly not giving proportions here – most cooking is to taste, yours might be different from mine, but I’ll describe what I’m looking for when I make it.

Mix mayo into your tuna until you have a creamy consistency. Some of this might depend on the brand of mayonnaise you’re using. I’ve been using Sir Kensington’s lately. It’s a little more expensive than mainstream brands, but not much, and I like the ingredients better (sunflower oil rather than soybean oil, egg yolks rather than whole eggs).

Mix in your sweet pickle relish. This is for taste and texture. I mix in enough to see green mixed in with any random forkful. I use the Whole Foods store brand sweet pickle relish, it’s made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. I try to avoid corn syrup whenever possible (it’s not always possible, that crap is everywhere).

That’s the basics of tuna salad right there. Once you get that together there’s a lot of different directions you can go with it. I’ve seen grapes, celery, diced onions, apple, ect…
My mom used to put celery in it when I was a kid. I’m not a fan of that, since the celery loses its crunch pretty quickly in the fridge. However, growing up in Chicago, I’m familiar with the magical power of celery salt – it’s a staple on Chicago style hot dogs. It goes great in tuna salad as well.
Add in celery salt to taste – start conservative with this. I like a lot of it, but it’s a pretty earthy taste and a little bitter. I find it balances the sweet relish nicely, but if you prefer sweet you might not want a lot of this.

Finally, I add in some hot sauce for a bit of zing. If I have nothing else available I’ll use Tabasco. That’s a little spicy for my kids – at eight and ten they eat pretty spicy foods relative to their peer group (they love Cholula hot sauce), but they’re not up to the level of spicy that I enjoy yet. We used to have a Cajun restaurant in Madison that introduced me to Panola Cajun hot sauce (https://www.amazon.com/treasuresofthesouth-KYDHS6OZ-Cajun-Sauce-Size/dp/B00DOGZGOW/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1L3TIKCSXZNOE&dchild=1&keywords=panola+hot+sauce&qid=1586526172&sprefix=Panola+%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-5). This is wonderful stuff. It has less kick than Tabasco, but more flavor. I mix in enough of that to just slightly tint the tuna salad red.

That’s it. It will keep in the fridge for about five days – there will be a bit of separation over night, so you have to stir it back together. For tuna melts I lightly toast sourdough bread, add a layer of tuna salad to the toast and cover with a slice of american cheese. Then throw it under the broiler until the cheese is melty.
Another great sandwich with this salad, by the way, is to put it between two slices of bread with a couple of slices of avocado and some horseradish.
It’s pretty quick to make, start to finish, and the tuna melts make a great homeschooling lunch.
Stay safe everyone.