Tuna & Avocado Endive Boats
serves 2 · 10 min · no-cook · packs for lunch · the no-mayo tuna salad
A tuna salad rebuilt without mayonnaise—avocado and goat yogurt make the cream, lemon and capers cut it, sumac doubles the citrus, and it rides on endive or romaine instead of bread. It comes together in one bowl, keeps a day for a packed lunch, and eats with your hands.
Ingredients
- 2 water-packed tuna packets (~3 oz each), drained well
- 1 ripe avocado
- 2 tbsp goat milk yogurt
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about ½ lemon)
- 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp white miso paste — optional, for umami
- ¼ tsp ground sumac
- ¼ tsp dried dill
- A pinch of Aleppo pepper or smoked paprika, to taste
- 2 tbsp capers, drained
- 1 celery stalk, finely diced
- 3 tbsp red onion, finely diced
- 3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp hemp hearts — optional; omega-3s and a little body
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 endive heads, leaves separated (or romaine hearts)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds, to finish — optional
Drain the tuna hard—press the water out. Whisk the goat yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, miso, sumac, dill, Aleppo, salt, and pepper into a loose cream. Mash in the avocado with a fork and leave it chunky—this is the cream that replaces mayonnaise. Flake in the tuna, then add the capers, celery, red onion, parsley, and hemp hearts. Fold gently—tuna in flakes, not paste. Let it sit ten minutes so the onion mellows and the sumac blooms. Spoon into the endive leaves or romaine, finish with sesame seeds and a grind of pepper, and eat with your hands.
| Cal / serving | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~360 | 27g | 14g | 22g |
per serving, batch of 2, yogurt version, water-packed tuna · Fiber 9g · Sugar ~3g—the lighter build (skip the hemp hearts and the added oil) runs ~290 cal / 24g protein; the Chosen Foods mayo hybrid below adds ~45 cal.
Variations
With Chosen Foods mayo: for the texture of a classic tuna salad, fold in 1 tbsp Chosen Foods Classic Mayo and cut the goat yogurt to 1 tbsp—the avocado-oil base keeps it off soybean and canola oil. For full mayo, use 2 tbsp and skip the yogurt, then add an extra squeeze of lemon to keep it bright.
Spice direction: push Greek with extra dill and a little oregano; push deli with ¼ tsp Dijon or mustard powder and a pinch of celery seed; push smoky-warm with cumin and smoked paprika in place of the Aleppo.
Oil-packed tuna: if your packets are in olive oil instead of water, drain them and drop the 2 tsp added olive oil—the packet already carries the fat.
Why this works
No mayonnaise means no soybean or canola oil—the cream comes from avocado and cultured goat dairy instead, trading a seed-oil base for monounsaturated fat, potassium, and probiotics. Tuna brings complete protein and marine omega-3s; the hemp hearts add plant omega-3s and zinc. Endive and romaine carry it on fiber and water instead of bread, so lunch lands near 360 calories and 27g of protein without the saturated fat a tuna melt stacks up. Capers and lemon do the seasoning, so the added salt stays at a quarter teaspoon, and the ten-minute rest is what lets the raw onion settle and the sumac come forward.