My favourite Tuna Pasta Salad is healthy, filling and PACKED with flavour! This slimming friendly tuna recipe is also great for making ahead – perfect for lunchboxes, picnics or BBQs.
You will also love my Healthy Tuna Pasta Bake
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As the weather gets hotter I turn to easy recipes that are filling yet light. This colourful Mexican-style pasta salad ticks all the boxes for me!
- Healthy but filling
- A great Slimming World lunch with minor tweaks
- Delicious as leftovers
- Perfect for picnics, lunchboxes or BBQs
- Kid friendly
Tuna Pasta Salad Ingredients
Here’s what you will need – but feel free to add your own personal touch! The only stipulation I have is to use the best quality tuna you can find.
This recipe uses a number of canned ingredients – tuna, sweetcorn and black beans so it’s a great pantry recipe.
But honestly you can totally freestyle and use whatever you like – this is an easygoing recipe folks! If you want to bulk this salad you can add finely diced lettuce or cabbage.
You can even leave the pasta out and just make this a healthy tuna salad instead 😉
- Canned tuna steak stored in brine (or olive oil)
- Elbow macaroni – or whatever small pasta shapes you prefer
- Canned black beans, drained and rinsed (great for using in slimming recipes, including sweet ones!)
- Avocado – this is very high in Syns so you can leave out for a SW version
- Canned corn (sweetcorn)
- Red onion
- Feta cheese
- Cherry tomatoes
- Peppers
- Fresh parsley or coriander
- Limes, olive oil for the dressing
Quick and Easy Peasy!
After cooking your pasta, all you have to do is prep all the vegetables, open a few tins and toss everything together.
Mix the juice of a lime with one minced garlic clove, two tablespoons of olive oil, dried oregano and dress your tuna pasta salad.
Add salt and pepper to taste and a sprinkling of cayenne or paprika for a touch of spice. You can also add some finely diced chilli pepper if you like it a bit hotter!
This pasta salad will keep in the fridge for a couple of days and you can serve it as a main meal or a side dish.
Healthy Pasta Salad Variations
Leave out the tuna and this recipe is vegetarian. If you leave out the tuna and cheese then it is vegan – you can replace the cheese with a vegan alternative if you like.
If you are not a tuna fan you can replace it with cubed chicken breast – it works just as well as a chicken pasta salad 😉
SW Tuna Pasta Salad
This pasta salad is perfect for Slimming World and Weight Watchers with a few minor modifications.
If you are following the Slimming World plan I will leave it up to you whether to add the avocado. I personally will put up with a few syns (there’s 14 in a whole avocado so approximately 2-3 per serving if serving 6) because I love it!
To control the amount of olive oil you add you can use a spray bottle filled with olive oil and add a few spritzes on your portion rather than dress the whole salad.
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Healthy Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 200 g (7oz) elbow macaroni
- 400 g (14oz) tin black beans drained and rinsed
- 200 g (7oz) canned tuna in water drained
- 200 g (7oz) canned corn drained
- 150 g (1 cup) feta cheese cubed
- 200 g (7oz) cherry tomatoes diced
- 1 avocado cubed
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 orange bell pepper diced
- 1 small red onion diced
- 1 mild or hot red chilli pepper deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
- 3 tbsp fresh parsley (or coriander) roughly chopped
Dressing
- 1 lime juice only, plus extra wedges to serve
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil use olive oil spray for Slimming World variation
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 garlic clove minced
- pinch cayenne pepper or smoked paprinka to taste
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to pack instructions until al dente. Rinse thouroughly in cold water, drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add a little olive oil and toss together so that it doesn’t stick.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss to combine.
- Mix the alll the ingredients for the dressing together and then drizzle over the salad. If you want to control the amount of olive oil then leave out of dressing and spray your portion instead.
- Toss to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a pinch or cayenne pepper or smoked paprika, as much as you like.
- Serve immediately or keep chilled until needed.
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