Chickpea Tuna Salad (No Mayo)

Make this healthy chickpea tuna salad without mayo for a quick and easy lunch today! High-protein and loaded with flavor and colors, this chickpea and tuna salad recipe is tasty, filling and super satisfying!

And you can even make it ahead! Simply follow the meal prep instructions to make this healthy salad using canned tuna and chickpeas ahead.

Did you know you can throw canned chickpeas, canned tuna and some vegetables in a bowl and call that a salad? And it’s a really good one. This simple salad is the perfect healthy meal to make with canned tuna and chickpeas for lunch. It tastes good, it smells good (unexpected, right?) and you can make it in around 10 minutes. Well, depending on how fast you can open cans and chop fresh vegetables. It’s the perfect no-cook recipe! So if you’re feeling hungry but a bit lazy – just make this!

Chickpea Tuna Salad Ingredients

As mentioned, this tuna chickpea salad is packed with colorful and healthy ingredients that are super easy to find:

Canned tuna. And I used tuna in brine. You need to make sure to drain it really good, before adding it to the salad. Canned tuna is quick to use, pretty cheap, rich in protein, vitamin B12 and omega-3’s. I personally love canned tuna in salads, but I often use it to make this delicious Crustless Tuna Quiche.

Chickpeas. You can either go for canned chickpeas or if you’ve cooked some yourself – use that to make this chickpea salad with tuna. Chickpeas are super versatile, rich in both fiber and protein, as well as iron and folate. They’re the perfect salad ingredient, but you can even use them in quick stir-fries like this 15-Minute Spicy Chicken and Chickpeas Skillet.

Vegetables. This is a more Mediterranean-style salad and I used tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, arugula, jalapeno or some other hot pepper, some red onion, garlic. But you can of course, add whatever you think will go well in the salad. You can use some other herbs, add more veggies or leave some behind if you don’t like them.

Olives and olive oil. We’re not going to make a fancy dressing and will keep the salad simple and dairy-free. Therefore – use pitted olives of choice and some extra virgin olive oil.

How To Make Chickpea Tuna Salad?

Making this chickpea tuna salad for lunch is the easiest thing in the world! Especially during summer, it’s super convenient as there’s absolutely no cooking involved. All you do is chop chop, toss toss. Here’s the process in more detail:

Drain the canned tuna and rinse and drain the canned chickpeas in order to use them in the salad. You want to drain really well, as you don’t want to end up with a soggy salad.

Next, chop all vegetables. So this involves the tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, parsley, onion, jalapeno and mince some garlic.

Put everything into a big salad bowl that will allow you to toss well, add in the olives, olive oil and some lemon juice. Now toss and serve immediately!

Your quick and easy tuna salad is ready for lunch!

Options

This tuna salad is very versatile (pretty much like all salads). This means, if you don’t like a certain ingredient, you can simply kick it out of the recipe and there will be no consequences.

For example, you don’t like tomatoes? Leave them out and add a vegetable you actually like. Or don’t add any.

The only thing you’d need to adjust is probably salt and sour – so taste test and add more lemon if needed.

Here are some other ingredients you might like to try in this tuna chickpea salad:

• any type of beans – black beans, white beans
• hard-boiled eggs for a more high-protein meal
• feta cheese or other cheese for extra saltiness and creaminess
• kale, spinach or lettuce
• roasted vegetables like peppers, eggplant or zucchini
• fresh herbs like basil, oregano, mint or cilantro

Meal Prep Option

Now, would this salad keep like this in the fridge for more than a few hours? The answer is no.

Ingredient Prep. But leave out the tomatoes and dressing ingredients and this tuna chickpea salad is good enough to be on your weekly meal prep plan. Remember to keep dressing, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes separate and add them right before you’re about to serve to keep this salad fresh.

Salad Jars: Another option to make the salad ahead and store it for longer is to build salad jars. Start with the dressing, olives, then cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, tuna, cucumber, onions and the greens on top. When it’s time to eat – throw that into a bowl, add some salt if needed, toss and enjoy!

Keep in mind that this chickpea tuna salad recipe makes around 2 servings, so feel free to make more.

More Healthy Salad Recipes:

Well, I sure hope you love this quick and easy healthy salad with canned chickpeas and tuna for lunch or whenever you make it! If you’re in the mood to try more healthy salad recipes, make sure to check out these recipes:

• Healthy Avocado Chicken Salad
• The Best Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
• Arugula, Avocado and Shrimp Salad

Originally published in June 2019 and last updated in February 2023.