With the holidays mostly over, and the new year just around the corner, I'm guessing more than a few of you are thinking about your resolutions for the new year. If eating healthier, reducing your reliance on animal products, or bringing lunch from home is on that list, I have the perfect sandwich for you! While one could make the case that this is better for the planet and better for you, the "better" in this Better "Tunafish" Sandwich doesn't have anything to do with either of those things.
I gave it the name because I think it tastes better than one that's actually made with canned tuna. To explain that, I should first give you some background. I've never liked tuna salad sandwiches. If given the choice I'd choose an egg salad or chicken salad sandwich any day, and if I wasn't, I might just opt to skip lunch that day.
It's not that I have anything against canned tuna, it's a great pantry staple that can step up in a pinch, providing protein for a pasta or umami for a salad. But for some reason, the combination of the canned tuna and mayonnaise has never appealed to me. At best, these sandwiches remind me of canned cat food, and at worst, they smell like... Well, I'll leave that to your imagination.
With a fun array of texture and boatloads of umami, I've always thought that a tuna sandwich would be pretty good if only there was a way to get rid of the smell. That's why I'd always have high hopes for fishless vegan takes on this classic. Unfortunately, these plant-based variants almost always rely heavily on seeds, nuts and legumes, with a texture and taste that's nothing like the original.
Convinced I could do better, I started to think about how to make this happen, and I started with the texture of canned tuna. For me, tunafish has a dry fibrous texture, that eventually gives way to a rough paste as you chew through the fibers. Rummaging through the pantry, I skipped past the typical seeds, grains and nuts, but then stopped when I came across a bag of shredded coconut. Coconut definitely has a dry fibrous texture, but in its dried state it's a bit too tough. Wondering if rehydrating it would change that, I added some to a pot with water and cooked it. After about 30 minutes, the texture of my finely shredded coconut started to resemble canned tuna, but it still lacked the ability to turn into a thick paste as you chew. For that, I decided to go with some lightly mashed chickpeas. Together they had a texture and color that was pretty close, and as an added bonus, chickpeas have a reasonable high level of umami producing glutamic acids.
As for the taste, canned tuna is loaded with umami and has a flavor that's musty, nutty, and... well... fishy. My goal was to use ingredients that capture tuna's good qualities without the bad. To that end, tahini and nutritional yeast are able to do an admirable job providing both nuttiness and umami. Together with all the other flavor and texture elements of a tuna salad, this plant-based sandwich is truly better than the original.
Because this better "tunafish" salad keeps for a few days, you can help stick to your "bring lunch from home" resolution by keeping a bowl in the fridge so that making lunch is as simple as slathering a thick layer of it between two slices of bread.
For the vegan mayo, there are a few brands of plant-based mayonnaise in stores now, or you can also make your own.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried shredded unsweetened coconut
- 250 grams cooked chickpeas (drained)
- ¼ cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoons soy milk
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- ½ tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
- 75 grams celery (1 small rib, diced)
- 40 grams red onion (¼ small onion, minced)
- 65 grams dill pickles (1 small pickle, chopped)
- 9 grams flat-leaf parsley (a few sprigs, minced)
- ground black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Add the coconut to a pot along with a cup of water. Cook the coconut for 30-40 minutes, or until it is no longer tough and dry. Add more water if needed. Drain well.
- Add the cooked coconut and drained chickpeas to a food processor and pulse a few times until the chickpeas are chopped up into crumbles but not so long that it turns into a paste. You can also use a potato masher.
- Add the vegan mayonnaise, soy milk, tahini, nutritional yeast, mustard, celery, onions, pickle, parsley and black pepper. Stir to combine
- Serve between two slices of bread.
Steph says
This was awesome!! So fresh and non vegan tasting. I was wary of the coconut but it was perfect and not coconut or chewy! I'm making it for the second time this week!
Marc says
Hi Steph, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it! Love how you described it as non-vegan tasting 🤣
Livi says
You are a genius!
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks for the kind words Livi!😊
Victoria Freeman says
Left out the nori flakes for the fish taste
Bernardette says
Did you consider using some wakame or other type of seaweed to add a "fishy" flavor?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Bernardette, I didn't consider it. Seaweed such as wakame and konbu doesn't have a fish-like flavor in the same way that lettuce or carrots don't have a meat-like flavor. You could certainly add it, but I don't think it's going to get you any closer to the flavor of tunafish.
Julie Petrillo says
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe!!!! My husband and I just went vegan and one of the things we truly miss for lunch is a good tuna sandwich, we ate them at least once a week. Just tried this recipe today and we were shocked at how amazing it was and it was so easy to make. My husband ate two huge sandwiches because it was delicious and he was so happy to have his favorite sandwich back!!!
The only thing I added was some dill because we love it in our tuna. SO GOOD!!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Julie, that's so great to hear! Thank you for taking the time to leave me a note. Dill sounds like a great addition to this, I'll give it a try next time. While my site is not vegan, I do have a bunch of plant-based recipes so I hope you check them out too: https://norecipes.com/diet/vegan/
Julia says
love love love!!!!!!!!!
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Julia! We have a lot of other plant-based recipes here: https://norecipes.com/diet/vegan/ so I hope you'll check them out😉
PatR says
I couldn’t find the nutrition info. Link didn’t work.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi PatR, sorry about that, the nutrition data isn't filled in for some of the older recipes. Thanks for letting me know! Please give it a try now.
Olga says
Would prefer "Tunaless Sandwich" as description. 😍
Marc Matsumoto says
I thought about it, but from a keyword perspective people still search for tunafish. I hope you give this a try 😀 We're not a strictly vegan blog, but we have a lot of plant based recipes if you want to check them out https://norecipes.com/diet/vegan/
Amanda M says
If made ahead of time and refrigerated, will this hold up for a few days?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Amanda, a few days might be a bit long, but it should keep okay for a day.
JoAnn M Lakes says
Do you need to boil the coconut? Can you soak overnight?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi JoAnn, sorry for the slow response. You can soak them but they're not going to get as soft as cooking them. The coconut adds some fiber to the mixture which mimic the texture of fish when mixed with the chickpeas. If it's too tough though they'll get in the way and just be coconut mixed in with the chick peas.
Margaret Carlson says
I added umami seasoning (trader joes) and salt to the coconut cooking and it made it a bit more 'fish' like for those vegans not looking to avoid the taste of tuna.
Marc Matsumoto says
Cool idea, I've never tried their Umami seasoning, what's in it?
JoAnn M Lakes says
Marc, Umami seasoning from Trader Joe's is a fairly new offering in the spice department. It goes under the name Mushroom and Company. it's a multipurpose umami seasoning blend consisting of (ingredients) kosher salt, dried onions, ground mustard seed, porcini mushroom powder, white button mushroom powder, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and dries thyme.
You can also add dulse, wakame, or nori flakes to up the from the sea flavoring
Marc Matsumoto says
That sounds pretty good, I make an instant plant based soup stock powder using porcini powder, carrot powder, onion powder, hyper meast (a type of yeast that tastes like meat), and garlic powder.
Yolanda Quimby says
What about using jackfruit in place of coconut?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Yolanda, I haven't tried it in this recipe, but I think it should work pretty well. Just make sure to squeeze out the excess water first before using it in this recipe though or it will end up watery.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks ShaRee!
ShaRee Lifferth Yorgesen says
You're a genius! Clever use of the coconut.