Tuna White Bean Salad

This Tuna White Bean Salad is a delicious way to use canned tuna, and this is a tasty lunch any time of year! And we’re updating this favorite salad recipe to use more tuna and add sliced celery so now it only has 12 net carbs per serving!

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This Tuna White Bean Salad is a favorite recipe of mine for a quick lunch salad, and if you’ve never thought of combining these ingredients, you might be surprised what a delicious lunch salad this is. In the early days of my blog I discovered Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link), which changed my way of thinking about canned tuna forever. That tuna plus my love of parsley and lemon inspired this delicious tuna salad.

I first started loving this salad when I was eating more beans than I am now. So recently Kara and I recently decided to update this recipe to be a more carb-conscious salad and take better photos.

And we absolutely loved the new-and-improved version of this recipe! I first made this when I had plenty of fresh parsley from the garden, but parsley is an herb that’s available and inexpensive all year from the grocery store, and I love that this salad uses ingredients I almost always have on hand. And it’s something I love to pull out of the fridge for a quick lunch; hope you will try it!

What ingredients do you need for this recipe?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

• canned white beans
• canned tuna, preferably Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link)
• celery
• parsley
• green onion (or chopped red onion)
• extra-virgin olive oil
• fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
• black pepper and sea salt to taste
• fresh lemon wedges to squeeze on at the table (optional)

How did we make Tuna White Bean Salad lower in carbs?

To make this recipe lower in carbs, we doubled the amount of tuna, added sliced celery, and increased the amount of dressing to make sure there was enough for the added ingredients. And those changes gave us a salad with only 12 net carbs per serving!

What herbs work for Tuna White Bean Salad?

I’ve never tried the salad with other fresh herbs besides parsley, but I think both fresh basil and fresh cilantro would be delicious in this salad.

What other salads can you make with tuna and beans?

If you’re a fan of dried bean salads with tuna, try Cannellini Bean Salad with Tuna and Peperoncini or Pinto Bean Salad with Tuna and Peperoncini.

Want more salads with dried beans?

Check out Amazing Salads with Dried Beans if you’re a fan of this type of salad, and that round-up includes mostly vegetarian bean salads!

More Favorite Recipes with Tuna:

Check out Low-Carb and Keto Canned Tuna Recipes to see more favorite dinners and lunches I’ve made with tuna packed in olive oil.

How to make Tuna White Bean Salad:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

1. Rinse beans and let them drain well. (Pat dry with paper towels if needed.)
2. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and fresh ground black pepper to make the dressing.
3. Put the beans in a bowl and add the dressing. Let beans marinate while you drain the tuna, slice celery, chop parsley and slice green onion.
4. I  always use my favorite Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link) for this salad.
5. Open two cans of tuna and drain oil (either in a colander placed over a bowl of using the lid of the can.) Break tuna apart slightly inside the can using a fork.
6. Slice enough celery to make one cup. Slice green onion (or chop red onion.) Forgot to snap a photo of the green onion!
7. I use a packed cup of chopped parsley, but if you’re not that much of a parsley fan you can use less.
8. Gently stir the sliced celery, chopped parsley, sliced green onion (or chopped red onion), and drained tuna into the marinating beans. 
9. Season to taste with more salt and fresh ground black pepper if desired and serve immediately.
10. This is good with pieces of lemon to squeeze on at the table.

More Favorite Salads with Parsley:

• Cucumber Salad with Parsley and Feta
• Middle Eastern Tomato Salad
• Quinoa Tabbouli Salad
• Fattoush Lebanese Salad
• Tabbouleh Salad with Almonds

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Yield: Makes 6 servings

Tuna White Bean Salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

If you like canned tuna packed in olive oil, this Tuna White Bean Salad is great to keep in the fridge and pull out for a quick lunch. And we updated the recipe to have more tuna and sliced celery so it's much lower in carbs than you might think!

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• one 15.5 oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained well
• two 5 oz. cans tuna in olive oil (see notes)
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 cup chopped parsley (more or less to taste)
• 1/4 cup sliced green onion (see notes)

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup good quality extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice (see notes)
• black pepper and sea salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put beans in colander and rinse well with cold water, until no more foam appears. Let drain, then pat dry with paper towels.
2. In small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
3. Put the beans into a bowl big enough to hold all the salad ingredients and mix in dressing.
4. Let the beans marinate while you drain the tuna, slice the celery, chop the parsley, and dice or slice the onions.
5. Put the tuna into the same colander you used to drain the beans and let the oil drain off.  (I wipe out the colander with a paper towel so the tuna doesn’t get wet. Drain tuna over a bowl if you don't want that oil going down the drain.)
6. Slice one cup celery into thin slices.
7. Chop the parsley and thinly slice green onion (or red onion, whichever you’re using.)
8. Add sliced celery chopped parsley, red or green onion, and drained tuna to the marinating beans and gently combine. (Don’t overstir, you want the tuna to stay chunky.)
9. I usually taste and see if I want a bit more lemon juice.
10. Season to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt and serve. This is great with extra lemon to squeeze on at the table.
11. This will stay good in the refrigerator for several days, but it probably won’t last that long.

Notes

I love Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link) but any brand of olive oil packed tuna will work. You can use finely chopped red onion if you prefer.

This recipe created by Kalyn, inspired by many other similar salads seen in cookbooks and on the web.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 258Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 1.8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9.7gCholesterol: 22mgSodium: 145mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 6gSugar: .6gProtein: 20g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.

Did you make this recipe?

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating (under the PRINT button in the recipe) or share a photo of your results on Instagram! THANKS!

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This original version of this salad with beans was too high in carbs for a low-carb diet, but the updated salad recipe has only 12 net carbs per serving which might work for some people. Tuna White Bean Salad would be fine for any phase of the original South Beach Diet, but limit portion size for phase one.  

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more tasty salads like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Danica's Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This salad with tuna and white beans was first posted in 2007, and I have made it regularly since then1 The recipe was updated with new photos in 2011 and it was updated with a lower-carb recipe and more information in 2023.

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