Tuna Salad Becomes Much More Nutritious With This Easy Mayo Swap

Tuna salad is a great way to fix a quick and delicious lunch, though whether a mayo-based salad necessarily makes sense is up for debate. As much as we love our store-bought mayo, it's a calorie-dense condiment, with approximately 90-100 calories packed into a single tablespoon. Almost all of that comes from fat, which is why it tastes so darn good. But every now and then, mayo swaps are great if you want to cut down on calories or replace it with different nutritional building blocks (along with flavor). If you're on that track, consider using labneh in place of mayonnaise for your next batch of tuna salad. 

Labneh is a very tangy dairy product somewhere between yogurt and cream cheese, primarily eaten in the Middle East, made from yogurt that's been strained. If it sounds similar to Greek-style yogurt, that's because it is, though it's strained for longer and traditionally made with goat's milk. Though it used to be more commonly found in Middle Eastern grocery stores, more American supermarkets have been carrying labneh for a while — I've seen it at some major chains (Whole Foods, for example), stocked with the yogurt products. 

Since labneh is essentially yogurt, it's considerably nutritious. For comparison, let's use a current brand of labneh available at Whole Foods, Yaza, as a quick example. It contains only 30 calories per two tablespoons (compare that to Hellmann's 100 calories per single tablespoon), with 1 gram of saturated fat and 1.5 grams of total fat. Hellmann's mayo has 10 grams of total fat in a tablespoon, with 2 grams of that being saturated.

The quantity of fat isn't necessarily the best indicator of nutrition, though. Yaza's labneh also has 3 grams of protein per two tablespoons, while mayonnaise has around zero. (There's egg in mayo, but in comparison to oil, the ratio is almost negligible.) Labneh is also rich in probiotics, calcium, and vitamin A, while mayo isn't.

In terms of how to use it, labneh is drier than mayonnaise, so keep that in mind, plus it's already salted. A ¼ cup of labneh per can of tuna should do, though I'd advise you to add in little things like lemon juice or extra virgin olive oil, should the salad be too dry. Add whatever other flavorings you like, including diced onion, celery, or herbs. Anything that pops with vinegar is also a good addition, like diced pickles or dill pickle relish.