Give me your favourite tuna recipe!

[SausageSimon]

I have an eating disorder (think food phobias, fear of contamination and bad tastes or texture) that after a good 22 years is very gradually becoming less of an issue and I'm trying my best to broaden the range of foods I can eat.

I'd love to eat tinned tuna but need some suggestions for great recipes to start me off!
I managed to try a bite of a tuna melt panini and lived to tell the tale

Tuna pasta could be a good start, is there an alternative to mayo I could use? Could maybe handle mayo if I used a small amount

What're your favourites?

We love our version of tuna pasta bake. A home made cheese sauce with tuna, peas and sweet corn and pasta shapes.

A jacket potato with tuna and cheese is one of my favourites

Tuna, chopped celery, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, broad beans and red onion with lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil is really tasty- chop all the bits up small. Light but filling with the beans.

Tuna salad with green beans and a couple of new potatoes.

Salade Niçoise with tuna, lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, cooked green beans and cold new potatoes, very colourful and easy to make.
Might be a step too far for you though, but maybe something to try in the future?

Well my favourite is just tuna mayo on a baguette or baked potato but we had tuna pasta tonight which has peas, sweet corn, onion, garlic, broccoli and a creamy tomato base over pasta topped with cheese

Or tuna mayo with sweet corn mixed into plain pasta is nice too

My DD doesn't like mayo, so I rinse then drain the tuna (press a spoon down on it to get more of the water out), then add a knife-full of light cream cheese and a really small bit of tomato ketchup and then mix up with a fork. It gives a look of a small amount of mayonnaise but doesn't drown the tuna in mayo. I'd then add a bit of sweetcorn, sometimes maybe even one or 2 chopped up grapes or olives if you like them.

Salad nicoise, but there are lots of challenging flavours and textures in there.

Tuna fishcakes. Dry-ish mashed potato & tuna combined, then coat with flour, or flour, egg, breadcrumbs, then shallow fry. Mushing the potato and tuna together might not appeal though!

Tuna also combines well with lemon. It's a bit studenty but tuna with spaghetti, sweetcorn, broccoli, and a lemon and olive oil dressing is nice hot.

Just echoing the classic: Tuna plus tinned sweetcorn plus mayonnaise, perhaps a small amount of mayo to start, it's not vital to have mayo at all tbh but does go beautifully. I'd eat it out of a bowl as opposed to sandwich or cooking because I don't get on with bready pasta-y potatoes things. It's a staple for me and I find eating difficult at times.

Natural yoghurt and lime juice are also things we use instead of mayo for my mayo-avoidant DH. Mild mustard occasionally, but maybe not with tuna.

I respect your systematic approach. DH did similar, very successfully, after very restricted eating for many years. Lots of luck with it.

Dd had huge food sensitivity issues. Mayo was a no for a loooong time. She tolerated pasta salad with tuna, tinned sweetcorn and a dash of olive oil. That progressed to a mix of oil with mustard to make a dressing, after that was ok I added in cheese in slightly increasing increments , phasing out the oil dressing.
She now eats a cheese sauce on it but mostly prefers a warm tuna pasta with a blob of Philadelphia stirred through.

I use creme fraiche or Greek yoghurt instead of mayo. I love tuna, favourite dishes below

Tuna pasta bake with Coleman's packet mix for the sauce - add steamed broccoli and top with pine nuts instead of the crisps their recipe advises. Drizzle a little garlic olive oil on the top before baking

Tuna 'crack'

1 x can of Tinned tuna in brine, drained
A little creme fraiche to bind (approx 1 heaped tbsp)
1/2 Avocado diced very small
Medium tomato diced very small
1/4 yellow pepper diced very small
1/2 small red onion diced very small
Pinch of salt
Good grind of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme leaves
Pinch of lemon zest and small squeeze of juice

Mix well to combine and is amazing on sandwiches, baked potatoes or eaten straight out of the bowl

When I was a student I used to do tuna pasta with just pasta, tuna, tinned sweet corn and grated cheese. I've also had it with peas. It's the kind of food I don't cook anymore but now I'm thinking about it I miss!

A nice simple, store cupboard tuna pasta recipe that is tasty: cook the spaghetti, drain and drizzle a little olive oil in, stir in chilli flakes and black pepper, then stir in drained tuna, top with parmesan.
If I have them then I add chopped parsley and / or capers but it's nice without.

Chop and fry an onion in olive oil til translucent. Add 50g dry rice per person and stir into the onion, coating with the oil. Add a dash of white wine or Noilly Prat and stir. Then add enough veg stock to cook the rice (I do this by eye, so probably about 500ml stock), a can of chopped tomatoes, a good squirt of tomato purée, a few chilli flakes, some soy, Worcester sauce and oregano. Stir, and leave to simmer until rice is cooked, giving it the odd stir here and there. Chuck in a couple of cans of drained tuna in spring water, serve in a bowl with grated cheese.

Can of tuna in a bowl. Add sweetcorn, edamame and peas. Add spicy soy & lime dressing (available at ASDA, or make your own, or us any dressing you fancy.) Eat. Yummy.

Or tuna crunch toastie / pannini. Mix tuna with lemon juice, red onion or spring onion, any peppers you have, celery. Grind of black pepper. Add grated cheese. Toast. Also nice on a potato with the addition of sour cream.

Try tinned tuna mixed with fresh lemon juice instead of mayo. Add some spinach leaves if you can on a seeded granary roll. One of my favourites!

Our family likes tuna kedgeree.
Tuna, onions, rice, boiled egg and peas stirred through with cream or yoghurt.
Eaten hot.

Thank you so much for your lovely suggestions! I think tuna pasta will be the best for me to start with. Love the suggestion of chilli flakes! And Greek yoghurt instead of mayo sounds like it'll be a much better option for me.

Tuna kedgeree sounds interesting too! A nice healthy meal, think I'll struggle with trying it at first but all of those ingredients I do like

I got all tempted by tuna for lunch with this thread and can add a toasted potato cake with avocado on top and then tuna and lemon juice on top of that to the collection (but would not necessarily give it recipe status!)