I love the idea of tuna salad.

Turning a shelf-stable protein into a quick lunch or dinner? Using pantry ingredients to make a sandwich or salad that is cheap and filling and portable? Yes, please!

But the taste of the tuna salads I grew up on was not enough to win me over. Convenient? Yes. Delicious? Not really.

Most people I know put boiled eggs in their tuna salad. Let’s face it: tuna already smells pretty bad all by itself. It really does not need an assist from boiled eggs to put the olfactory aspect over the top.

Besides, the soft texture of the boiled eggs does not work for me in a tuna salad.

Sometimes people add celery to improve the texture. That’s logical to them, I guess.

Y’all. To me, celery has not improved the texture of anything. Ever.

I believe that even celery wonders why celery exists.

Things turned around for me many years ago when I discovered this recipe for a different type of tuna salad than I’d ever had before.

It called for no boiled eggs. No celery. I figured it was worth a shot.

I found it on Allrecipes.com, which you might think of as the community cookbook of the internet.

It has all these weird ingredients in it – many of them I typically avoid.

But somehow, it all seems to work together.

Maybe that’s how normal people feel about regular tuna salad.

For me, though, this recipe is the only one I have used in years.

Does it still smell like tuna? You betcha.

But the smell of dill runs a close second, and I like that.

Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

BARBIE’S TUNA SALAD

(adapted from Allrecipes)

Ingredients
2-3 small pouches tuna OR 1 family-sized pouch of tuna, flaked
1/4 cup – 1/2 cup mayonnaise or mixture of mayonnaise and Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon sweet pickle relish
2 Tablespoon Parmesan cheese (the kind in the green can)
1 teaspoon dried minced onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
■ Drain tuna (if necessary) and flake into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup mayonnaise and remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add mayonnaise or Greek yogurt to achieve desired consistency. Taste mixture and add salt and pepper if desired. Cover bowl and refrigerate at least overnight. If you do not have time to refrigerate the tuna salad overnight or for several hours, substitute about 1/2 teaspoon onion powder for the minced onion.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.