Add This Powerhouse Ingredient To Tuna Salad For An Explosion Of Flavor

Although lunch often gets overlooked in exchange for emails, childcare, or catching up on cleaning, a mid-day meal is a break worth taking. Fortunately, there are plenty of easy-to-make lunch dishes that are as convenient as they are delicious. One of the most practical, nutritious, and timeless lunches is a tuna salad. And if you're a foodie who finds lunch difficult to incorporate into your daily schedule, a classic tuna salad zhuzhed up with roasted garlic will get you to the table without compromise.

Tuna salad is typically made with canned tuna, celery, red onion, pickles, mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Roasted garlic, which is made by baking the allium vegetable until it's golden brown and fragrant, has a less pungent taste than its raw form, boasting toasty, caramelized notes of savory, buttery goodness. Introducing roasted garlic to a classic tuna salad balances the acidity of lemon juice and adds depth to the fatty, rich taste of mayonnaise while giving the mild-mannered flavor of tuna a deepened complexion of umami. Unlike raw garlic, which is firm and crunchy, its roasted counterpart is soft enough to seamlessly blend into the seafood medley, making it a deceptively delicious addition.

Lunch is meant to be time-efficient, and roasting garlic for tuna salad doesn't need to complicate that. For quickly roasted garlic, turn to your air fryer, which can transform it twice as fast as an oven. You can roast garlic in advance and store it in the refrigerator submerged in oil for up to two weeks.

With its bold and mouthwatering flavor, roasted garlic alone can upgrade your tuna salad from ordinary to extraordinary. However, there are additional ingredients that can elevate your tuna salad even further when paired with roasted garlic.

From rich and tangy, to savory and subtly sweet, roasted garlic tuna salad combines many flavors. The only thing missing? Heat. Swap regular mayonnaise for one infused with hot sauce or introduce chopped jalapeños to give the dish a touch of fire that completes the palate. For an umami bomb and a crunchy textural infusion, crumble smoky pork bacon atop the bowl and you'll never look at tuna salad the same again. To freshen up the dish, sun-dried tomatoes add a tangy brightness, and a dollop of pesto brings an herbaceous kick that marries well with the deep flavors of roasted garlic.

Though a roasted garlic tuna salad is just one of the many ways to transform a can of tuna, it's one of the best. And you don't need to memorize the expert guide to cooking with garlic to introduce this roasted allium, either. Flavorful, convenient, and memorable to boot — what's not to love?