Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad
Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad is loaded with flavor from lime and cilantro, and this is the perfect lunch on a hot summer day. See tips for making the salad without cilantro if you’re not a fan!
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This Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad is just the kind of main-dish salad that always sounds good to me when it’s really hot outside. This is a salad that started as a lunch inspired by the need to use up some cilantro. But I added juicy cherry tomatoes, avocado, tuna packed in olive oil, and a dressing with lime juice to make a salad recipe I’m sure I’ll be making over and over.
And if you’re growing tomatoes and having a cherry tomato explosion at your house, this salad is an easy and delicious way to use them. And it’s also just as tasty with cherry tomatoes from the store! I hope you enjoy trying it!
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe with ingredient amounts.)
- avocado
- fresh squeezed lime juice (I used my fresh-frozen lime juice)
- cherry tomatoes
- chopped cilantro (or see notes for another option)
- sliced green onion
- Genova Tuna in Olive Oil (affiliate link), or other tuna of your choice
- fresh ground black pepper
- Olive Oil (affiliate link), preferably extra-virgin olive oil
What canned tuna do I use for Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad?
I used my favorite Genova Tuna in Olive Oil (affiliate link) for this recipe, which is probably one of the reasons this tasted so good to me. This is the brand I buy over and over and it’s much less expensive than the imported olive oil packed tuna I used to buy.
How low in carbs is this Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad?
This tasty salad only has 5 net carbs per serving with 23 grams of protein. The salad is low in net carbs, partly because I use a generous amount of tuna in proportion to the other ingredients.
What if you don’t want cilantro?
I realize cilantro is a deal-breaker ingredients for some people, and if you have those anti-cilantro tastebuds just use more thinly-sliced green onion in this Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad!
How to make Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Peel the avocado and dice into 1/2 inch pieces. (I used my new avocado tool!) Toss avocado with 1 T lime juice and season with salt.
- Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
- Chop cilantro, slice green onions, and whisk together lime juice and olive oil to make the dressing.
- Drain 2 cans of tuna, preferably tuna with olive oil.
- Gently flake tuna apart with a fork.
- Put tomatoes into the bowl with the avocado and gently toss.
- Then add green onions and cilantro (if using) and gently toss again.
- Add dressing and gently stir in the tuna.
- Season Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad with fresh ground black pepper (and a little more salt if desired) and serve!
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad can easily be a main-dish salad with nothing else added, especially lunch. But if you wanted something to go with it, the salad would taste great with any of these side dishes:
- Chipotle-Lime Deviled Eggs
- Cucumbers Caesar
- Al’s Famous Hungarian Cucumber Salad
- Cucumber Guacamole Appetizer Bites
- Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
Want more recipes with my favorite tuna?
Check out Favorite Healthy Tuna Recipes for more treats with this delicious canned tuna!
Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad
This Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad would make a perfect lunch on a hot summer day. And this salad has a generous amount of tuna compared to the other ingredients, making it high in protein and low in carbs.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 avocado, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 T fresh squeezed lime juice
- salt to taste
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half (see notes)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro (see notes)
- 1/2 cup sliced green onion (more or less to taste)
- two 5 oz. cans tuna packed in olive oil (see notes)
- fresh ground black pepper
Dressing Ingredients:
- 2 T fresh squeezed lime juice (see notes)
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Peel avocado and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- Toss avocado with 1 T fresh lime juice.
- Put avocado pieces into a plastic bowl and toss with 1 T lime juice.
- Season generously with salt.
- Cut tomatoes in half.
- Chop the cilantro and slice green onion.
- Whisk together the olive oil and lime juice to make the dressing.
- Drain tuna well, and flake apart slightly with a fork.
- Add tomatoes to the bowl with the avocado, then gently stir in the chopped cilantro and green onion.
- Add the dressing, stir to coat the ingredients, and then gently stir in the flaked tuna. (Don’t over-stir.)
- Season salad with fresh ground black pepper and more salt if desired.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
If you substitute larger diced tomatoes, I would drain them in a colander. I love Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link), but use any tuna you like for this salad. Measure the cilantro after chopping; use a more green onion and leave out the cilantro if you're not a cilantro fan.
I would use my fresh-frozen lime juice for this recipe. I like sour flavors, but you might want to use less lime juice if you’re not a huge fan of lime.
This recipe created by Kalyn.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 285Total Fat 18gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 33mgSodium 195mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 5gSugar 3gProtein 23g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet/ Low-Glycemic Diet, South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad is a great choice for low-carb or Keto diets and for any phase of the original South Beach Diet. If you’re strictly following the South Beach guidelines on fat, they would prefer tuna packed in water.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe for a salad with tuna, avocado, and tomatoes was first posted in 2008. The recipe was last updated with more information in 2025.
36 Comments on “Tuna Avocado Tomato Salad”
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My bf doesn’t care for tuna tho I love it. I was thinking of using flaked salmon instead?
Yes, I like the sound of that!
Pam, love it! The flavors really shine in this one.
Now THIS sounds like a great tuna salad!!
What a great way to use up my farmers market tomatoes, and to remind me that I have been eating too many bad carbs and it is time to get back on the SB wagon! Thanks. Shelly
Becky I do love that imported tuna, but this brand that I get is less than half the price, and it's really quite good, so I usually don't splurge on the expensive stuff
This does sound like a perfect salad for summer! And I love tuna! They have the best imported canned tuna at Caputos Market if you ever are there!
Lydia, farmer's market! My tomatoes aren't growing at all so I'm wondering what I should do about next year.
Oh, now I'm starting to regret the decision not to grow tomatoes in my garden this year.
Thanks Jeanette; love this kind of salad when the tomatoes are good!
Love all the fresh summer flavors in this salad Kalyn – great for lunch or dinner!
My kids completely turned up their noses to this but it’s my lunch for the day and it’s quite good!!
All your recipes have been fantastic thus far, a huge thank you from someone clueless about South Beach even if I’ve read the book 4 times now. 🙂
My favorite flavors- all in one place. I added this to my gluten-free recipe picks for the week! Thanks, Kalyn.
What a fresh looking salad! I like the idea of using tuna in a salad.
This looks so delicious!
Kalyn, this looks very yummy! Some of my favorite ingredients! Cheers!
gosh kalyn, it’s a whole encyclopaedia’s worth of writing to think up of ways to get kids to eat ‘real’ food. the snails have been BlogHer-ed – if you’re the culprit, i’d like to thank you!
Gosh, so many of my favorite things and I have a bunch of just-picked cilantro just waiting to be used. Thanks for the recipe!
Melissa
Kayln-
You are a kick! Thank you for sharing your talents. I look forward to trying your recipes and the food recommendations. This is new for me, I have never responded to a blog before, but yours is well worth it.
Cindy B.
Well if I’ve gotten even more distracted than usual from responding to comments it’s because I’m tending four kids aged 13, 11, 7, and 4. Believe me I didn’t feed them anything remotely as fresh and healthy as this (more like mini-corn dogs and waffles). These kids were quite interested in the snail post, although when they saw Med Kiwi’s daughter eating the snail they went “ewwww.”
Kalyn, it’s winter here – cold, rainy, gray. But I would love to have this salad anyway!
Med Kiwi, that is unfortunately true!
it’s always difficult to get kids to eat something that looks quite new to them, and i can imagine cilantro is something they will either look at in disgust, or spit it out as soon as they bite into it. and so it is with snails!
I love the ingredients in this salad, Kalyn. My tomatoes are starting color up (fingers and toes crossed) so it won’t be long before I’ll be making it myself.
Delicious – such gorgeous colours. I’d use a really grassy olive oil to compliment the lime and coriander.
That looks so wonderful to me. I also love Tonno tuna, and always have a few cans in the pantry. My tomatoes are just about ready and after I have that first tomato sandwich, I’ll make that salad.
Kalyn, you hit all the summer high-notes here. Though I wonder if snails would be a possible substitute for the tuna? Just in case of global food chain interruptions. 🙂 (Oh, okay, I’m just interested in snails!)
Tuna in olive oil is so good; I’ll have to look for the brand you mentioned! Your South Beach suggestions have made me very curious about that eating philosophy, so I just checked the book out of the library and will start reading it tonight.
This is one of those dishes I look and want to grab!! So beautiful Kalyn!
Sounds like a perfect lunch salad!
We are finally getting some summer weather, too. And I might even have some tomatoes later. That’s my entire garden this year… 5 tomato plants ;-))
Hi Kalyn.
This salad looks wonderful! I’ve been eating my own tomato, avocado, red onion, cucumber, cilantro and albacore tuna combination with a sesame-lime vinegarette for many years, but didn’t think it would be interesting enough to post about. Well, you have proven me wrong on that thought. Thank you for sharing. Great photo!
Oh goodie, a recipe that uses my new (thanks to you!) supply of Vege-Sal. We’ve been getting some great greenhouse tomatoes from our local organic farm — not quite the same as field-grown, but pretty darned delicious.
Looks good! I miss the pictures in my reader already.
YUM! I can’t wait until tomatoes are in season so I can try this.
amazingly, greeks will use parsely in many dishes, but cilantro is virtually unknown here, even though it looks so similar to parsely. i found it once in a supermarket, and never since then (and thanks for your prompt reply to my email problem)