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This Tuna Pasta Salad with shell noodles, peas, tuna, celery, and Greek yogurt is fast, healthy, and a dish your whole family can enjoy!
Tuna Pasta Salad
I don't know about you, but for me, warm weather screams pasta salad! This tuna pasta salad is a classic! It easy, fast, and I usually have all the ingredients that I need to throw it together. My kids love this pasta salad and we eat it for lunch all the time, but it works great as a dinner or side dish.
I also love feeding my kids something that I know has great health benefits. Did you know tuna fish is a great source of protein and contains omega 3 fatty acids that can help fight heart disease? For the sauce in this recipe I use a mixture of mayonnaise and Greek yogurt. I love the creaminess that the Greek yogurt adds, and it's packed with protein. You could also serve this dish with whole wheat pasta.
How to make Tuna Pasta Salad:
Cook your pasta according to package instructions, then drain them and allow them to cool a little. I like to use mini shell noodles, but any type of bite-size pasta can be used.
While the noodles cook, chop the celery and onion, drain the tuna, and warm the peas (you could also add the peas to the boiling pasta water during the last minute of cooking).
Mix the mayonnaise and Greek yogurt together until smooth.
Add the cooked pasta, tuna, celery, onion, and peas to a large mixing bowl. Pour the dressing on top and toss to coat.
If you'd like to make this recipe in advance I would suggest waiting to add the sauce until you're ready to serve, otherwise the noodles will soak up the sauce and it wont have the creaminess that you want.
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Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces small shells pasta, , or your favorite bite-size pasta
- 7 ounces canned albacore white tuna, packed in water, , drained
- 2 ribs celery, , chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion, , chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- dried dill weed, , to taste, optional
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, , to taste
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package instructions, until al dente. Drain.
- In a large bowl add chopped onion and celery, peas, cooked pasta, and drained tuna.
- In a separate bowl, mix the mayo and Greek yogurt.
- Stir half of the sauce into the pasta mixture and toss to evenly coat. Season with salt and pepper and dried dil, to taste.
- Refrigerate pasta and remaining sauce separately, covered, for 30 min. Stir in remaining sauce and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe in June 2011. Updated May 2018.
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
This is the easiest, most classic version of the tuna pasta salads. Don’t omit the dill weed, either fresh or dried. It’s delicious!!! Thank you!
Your Tuna Pasta Salad is absolutely delicious every time and a go-to for me! This salad is like a “party in your mouth”! Thank you for sharing it! I even add hard boiled eggs sometimes and a little Mayo too! A definite 5STAR recipe! I have made it with elbows and little farfalle. Both pastas go well with the recipe ingredients. And sometimes I use old Bay seasoning to add a little spice to the mix! Never fails!
I have never made a tuna pasta salad in my life but was looking for quick meals to take to work and saw this. It is absolutely delicious and only took me a few minutes to prep.
Looked for a real good tuna pasta salad and I found it here.
I like my tuna packed in oil so I used that and I think Mayo is too bland so I always use Miracle Whip for that extra bite and it resulted in a good salad
Add a little bit of pickle juice for a zing
I made this exact recipe but added more dill, more celery, more Mayo and half a cup of sour cream instead of the yoghurt and it was delicious! It would have been way too dry without the extra Mayo.
Made this with some adjustments to give it more nutrition and a better balance of soft and crunchy textures. Way too little celery in the original recipe. It gives this bowl of mush a much needed crunch and more moisture. Also used real tuna in olive oil, I think it has a better richer flavour. I increased the amounts for almost everything except the dressing. There was plenty of that, even still a touch too much and I didn’t feel like I had to add it all.
Came out great! Something I could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
3 cups (dry) of fusilli pasta
2 large 160gram cans of tuna in olive oil, drained (Rio Mare brand is the most delicious canned tuna I’ve ever found)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup chopped cellery (4-5 stalks)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
fresh dill and Old Bay seasoning
I made this EXACTLY as written (even weighed out the pasta before cooking) – but mine turned out very dry and bland. Had to make more dressing to make it even palatable. Very disappointed – and wondering how it received so many great reviews?? But I think it has good bones, so I will use the recipe as a base, tweak the ingredients, and increase the dressing.
How long can I keep the tuna pasta salad in the fridge? I am hoping to meal prep it for 3-4 days lunch. Thank you.
To quote my wife’s cargiver. “it is the bomb” Instead of tuna, I used smoked salmon and a little stone ground mustard…Made for 6 and gone in an hour…Thank you…it is great!!
Easy and delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
I made this salad twice. I very nice summer dish especially if you love dill.
This is close to a recipe I lost and I’m really excited to find yours. one question though. I never used yogurt. Seems like I mixed some vinegar with the Hellmans mayo, but do not remember how much mayo or vinegar, Any suggestions? Thank you
I’d suggest 2 Tbsp vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) and use 1 cup Mayo total instead of the mayo and yogurt.
Why frozen peas?
Fresh or frozen is fine.