Subway Tuna Salad

Subway Tuna Salad is great for a tasty lunch or dinner. Make a classic tuna salad sandwich, wrap, or salad with your favorite toppings. There is no need to go to the restaurant when homemade tuna salad with this copycat recipe is much better. You will find it is easy to make your own Subway Tuna Sandwiches at home. 

homemade Subway tuna salad sub sandwich.


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Best Tuna Salad

Just because a tuna salad sandwich is quick and easy to prepare doesn’t mean it must be bland. Take this copycat Subway Tuna Salad recipe, for example.

You can whip it up in only a few minutes, but it’s a deliciously satisfying meal for lunch or dinner at home or perfect for anyone who is brown-bagging it.

Subway restaurants may be known for their sandwich artists, but there isn’t any reason why you can’t make an even better tuna salad hoagie!

Why is this the Best Subway Tuna Salad Recipe?

There are countless recipes for tuna salad online. Many are fancy, calling for expensive tuna or herbs and other seasonings. Who needs it?

Subway’s tuna salad recipe is barebones and allows the authentic taste of the fish to be front and center. The mild tuna salad flavor becomes the perfect base for adding your favorite toppings.

Whether you want to keep your Subway tuna salad sandwiches with shredded lettuce and sliced tomatoes or spice things up with pickled jalapenos, red onions, and a few cheese slices, the choice is yours!

Subway Tuna Salad Ingredients

There are a few components to this tuna sub sandwich. There’s the basic sandwich with tuna salad, cheese, and bun. Then you have the various vegetable toppings and sub dressings if desired. Here’s a list of what you need:

Tuna Salad Sandwich

  • Water-packed tuna – I recommend yellowfin tuna
  • Mayonnaise
  • White American cheese slices
  • Sub sandwich buns

Vegetable Toppings

  • Shredded lettuce
  • Tomato Slices 
  • Cucumbers
  • Bell peppers 
  • Red onion slices
  • Black Olives 
  • Dill pickle slices 
  • Sliced jalapenos

Sub Sandwich Dressing

  • Oil – Canola or light olive oil is best.
  • Red wine vinegar
Subway tuna salad sandwich ingredients on a tray.

Ingredient Substitutions

One reason why Subway’s sandwiches are so famous is that they offer such a wide range of toppings. But, when you make a Subway Tuna Salad sandwich at home, you have even more options.

Here are just a few topping suggestions that Subway doesn’t offer, along with alternative must-have ingredients.

Consider adding some of these toppings to your sandwich:

  • Sundried tomatoes
  • Avocados
  • Sprouts
  • Tarragon
  • Apple slices
  • Chopped hardboiled eggs

Tuna Types

There are a lot of different choices when it comes to tuna. Although the recipe calls for canned tuna in water, there is no reason why you can’t use oil-packed tuna instead.

When choosing your tuna, remember that anything labeled as skipjack or light tuna comes from smaller tuna species that typically have lower mercury levels.

Mayonnaise Alternatives

Mayo provides the creaminess that is so essential for a good tuna sub. However, depending on diet philosophy, it is considered either healthy (low-carb/keto) or not the healthiest ingredient (low-fat/low-calorie).

  • Save calories and fat by using a light mayo instead.
  • If you want to eliminate mayo, many people like to substitute sour cream or Greek yogurt.
  • Another fantastic alternative is mashed avocado with a touch of white vinegar or lemon juice to add acidity.

Tuna Sandwich Bread Choices

You can change the entire tuna sandwich with your choice of bread. For the sake of your teeth, you should probably stay away from any crusty bread, but ciabatta or even focaccia bread are excellent choices.

If you are a bit daring, try something sweet, like raisin-nut bread, for a totally unique taste experience.

closeup of a homemade Subway tuna salad sandwich.

How to Make Subway Tuna Salad

Here are the simple steps for making this Subway tuna recipe:

  1. Prepare tuna salad by first draining excess water from the tuna. Place drained tuna in a small bowl, and flake tuna with a fork.
  2. Add mayonnaise, and stir well to combine.
homemade Subway tuna salad in a bowl.
  1. Cut sub sandwich bread in half.
  2. Build the sandwich by first placing small scoops of tuna salad on the top portion of the bun.
  3. Place desired toppings on the bottom portion of the bun.
  4. Then cut the cheese squares into triangles and place 2 triangles on top of the vegetables.
  5. Dress the sandwich with a squirt of mayonnaise, oil, and vinegar if desired.
  6. Then close the bun and enjoy!
homemade Subway tuna salad sandwich with cheese and toppings.

Recipe Variations

No need to just make a tuna salad sandwich. Here are some great ways to make it as a tuna melt, wrap, or salad instead.

Tuna Melt: Place the scoops of tuna on the bottom half of the bun and top with cheese. Put the tuna and cheese topped bottom bun and the top bun on a baking sheet. Broil until the cheese is melted. Add toppings if desired.

Tuna Salad Wrap: Place the tuna salad and toppings on a large flour tortilla and roll it up burrito-style.

Tuna Salad Salad: Place the shredded lettuce in a bowl. Top with vegetables, cheese, and scoops of tuna salad. Dress with oil and vinegar or a vinaigrette dressing.

What Goes Well with a Tuna Salad Sub?

This tuna fish recipe from Subway deserves a salty side dish to help balance the flavors. Potato chips are great; the crunchier, the better.

Try crunchifying your sandwich by topping the tuna salad with a handful of your favorite thick-cut potato chips.

Are you more of a fries person? That’s great, too!

Of course, you’ll need something to wash everything down, and the best way to do that is with something bubbly. Soda, seltzer, or even beer go great with this copycat Subway tuna salad recipe.

How to Store Tuna Salad

You can easily halve this tuna fish salad recipe by using only one can and a tablespoon of mayonnaise. But if you have any leftovers, keep them fresh in the fridge in an airtight container.

Remember, oxygen is the enemy, so use the smallest container you can, and press plastic wrap directly on top of the tuna to prevent it from drying out.

How Long Does Tuna Salad Last?

The tuna fish recipe from Subway keeps in the fridge for up to three days.

homemade Subway tuna salad sandwich.

I hope you give this copycat recipe for Subway’s tuna sandwich a try soon. Food tastes better when you make it at home. You can make this with the tuna you like best, and you can modify this recipe any way you like.

Favorite Sandwich Recipes

More Tuna Recipes

Check out more of my easy sandwich recipes and the best fast food recipes here on CopyKat!

homemade Subway tuna salad sub sandwich.

Subway Tuna Salad Sandwich

You can make Subway Tuna Salad Sandwich at home with this easy copycat recipe.
5 from 11 votes
Print Pin Rate Add to Collection
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Subway Tuna Salad Sandwich, Tuna Salad Sandwich
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2
Calories: 553kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 5-ounce cans water-packed tuna
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 2 6-inch sub sandwich buns
  • 1 cup shredded lettuce
  • 6 slices tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup sliced cucumbers
  • 1/4 cup sliced green bell peppers
  • 1/4 cup sliced red onions
  • 1/4 cup sliced black olives
  • 10 slices dill pickles
  • 10 slices jalapeños
  • 2 slices white American cheese
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Instructions

  • To prepare the tuna salad, drain the excess water from the tuna. Place the drained tuna in a small bowl, and flake with a fork.
  • Add the mayonnaise and stir well to combine.
  • Cut each sandwich bun in half lengthwise.
  • Place two small scoops of tuna salad on the top portion of each bun.
  • On the bottom portion of each bun, add shredded lettuce and a few slices of tomato, green bell pepper, red onion, black olives, and pickled jalapeños.
  • Cut the cheese squares into triangles and add 2 triangles on top of the vegetables on each sandwich.
  • Add a squirt of mayonnaise if desired, close the buns, and serve.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 553kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 7602mg | Potassium: 2198mg | Fiber: 24g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 7490IU | Vitamin C: 569mg | Calcium: 634mg | Iron: 5mg

About Stephanie Manley

I recreate your favorite restaurant recipes, so you can prepare these dishes at home. I help you cook dinner, and serve up dishes you know your family will love. You can find most of the ingredients for all of the recipes in your local grocery store.

Stephanie is the author of CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home, and CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home 2.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hillary Clinton

    i worked at subway. our tuna was just tuna and cheap real mayo. we ordered from Sysco foods. subway is the reason i love cheap off brand mayo. i know, its crazy. and i would never admit it to anyone in real life. when subway first got soup (not sure if they still have it) it was frozen in the bag, it was the exact same soup panera bread, or at that time called st. louis bread co, used and we charged half the price.

5 from 11 votes (8 ratings without comment)

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