17 tinned tuna recipes for when you feel drained
Thea Everett
It’s cheap, versatile, and it’s a pantry staple: tinned tuna is there for you in good times and bad, and that’s why we love it. Whether you’re looking for family meal ideas, a quick and thrifty lunch, or you just can’t be bothered thinking up WHAT to cook for the millionth time in a row – look no further. These recipes have your back.
Try many a 15-minute tuna pasta, tuna sushi rolls, or a tuna and egg puff pie. You might have felt drained before you started cooking, but you certainly won’t after you finish.
Give one of our tinned tuna recipes a go to give your weekly rotation of recipes a freshen up. There’s more to that can than you might first think…
Our best tinned tuna recipes…
Ultimate niçoise salad with roasted new potatoes
Purists will not abide our ultimate niçoise salad, but we love its crispy potatoes, and think they make this Mediterranean dish hearty enough to enjoy in winter as well as summer!
Sometimes you want a pasta dish but you don’t want a red sauce or something heavy with cheese… Enter tuna and anchovy pasta. There’s a secret to why this pasta dish tastes so good, and it’s a little thing called BUTTER. It brings together the slow-cooked onions, anchovy and meaty tuna wonderfully, to create a hearty pasta dish, scattered with flat leaf parsley.
Leave your scepticism at the door, tinned tuna in a pie DOES work and it’s a comforting, warm hug of a meal. It’s paired with boiled egg and the sauce it’s stirred through is really tasty. Try it with mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and we think you’ll be surprised.
Our tuna fishcakes are made with tinned tuna, matzo meal, finely chopped onion and mashed potato. Serve them with salad, pickles and tartare sauce, or give them a go fish-and-chip-shop style alongside homemade chips!
This pasta takes the base of a puttanesca and makes it something extra-comforting with the addition of tuna and mozzarella. It’s all baked in the oven for a gooey, golden treat of a midweek meal.
What do you get if you take the flavours of a classic French salad – tuna niçoise – and turn them into a healthy and filling pasta dish? An epic lunch, that’s what. It’s high in protein too, so is great for a post-workout meal.
Fancy a bit of cheat’s tapas? Make speedy microwave mash, then stir in tinned tuna, fresh parsley, lemon and egg yolk. Shape into croquettes, then breadcrumb and fry in vegetable oil until crisp. Delightful!
Pasta with anchovies and capers
Another pasta, this time for garlic lovers. Here, a pasta sauce is made from anchovies, capers, garlic and lemon and it’s all ready in a speedy 10-minutes. You can’t say fairer than that.
Kids adore our easy tuna pasta. But whether you’re feeding children, cooking to a budget or need something fast when you get home from work, tuna pasta salad makes the cut every time. This one only takes five ingredients to rustle up.
Rice with chicory, tuna and orange cream
In this dish, we’ve used black rice which offers a certain dramatic impact – but you could use brown, white or red if you prefer. Stir it through a creamy tuna sauce, before serving with chicory and coriander. This makes a beautiful lunch or side to a dinner party.
This healthy, low-fat dinner of tuna and avocado inside-out rolls is much less expensive to make than you might think. AND even better, it’s a lot of fun to put together. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be spreading sushi love.
Quinoa, tenderstem broccoli, avocado and tuna salad
There’s so much nourishing goodness packed into this hearty salad that you’re bound to feel invincible after just one bowl!
You can’t have too many inexpensive and quick pasta dishes. Try this 15-minute tuna linguine which we’ve pepped up with chilli, parsley and lemon juice.
People go wild for our crunchy tuna pasta bake: it’s one of our most popular recipes! Inexpensive, and texturally satisfying, we think you should give it a go…
Tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad on griddled tomato bread
The combination of tuna and cannellini beans is always successful. Here it’s turned into the perfect filling at-home lunch, with the use of a few store-cupboard ingredients.
Tuna and rice is a lovely combination, but it’s rarely found in recipes. Here butter, beans and tuna are stirred through a simple tomato pilaf for a 20 minute fuss-free family supper.
Tuna pasta shells with sweetcorn
Tuna and sweetcorn pasta shells is our saving-for-payday saviour! This store-cupboard combo works every time. Bubbling and golden from time in the oven, it’s perfect for making in a big batch and saving for tomorrow’s lunch.
Discover all our storecupboard recipes for more ideas using the contents of your cupboard.
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