Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives

If you need a tasty idea for summer potlucks, this Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives is always a hit for a treat with canned tuna! And we made this with Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows for a macaroni salad with about 10 net carbs per serving.

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I think any kind of macaroni salad is always in danger of being a bit boring if you don’t use strongly flavored and interesting ingredients. But I’m happy to report this Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives was loaded with flavor due to good quality tuna in olive oil, chopped Spanish green olives, and a generous amount of lemon juice and green olive brine in the dressing.

We also added finely chopped celery for a little crunch, and some sliced green onions for more flavor, and we devoured some of this for lunch on the day we tested the improved recipe and took these photos. And besides the great flavor, another things we loved about this macaroni salad with tuna is that it’s made with Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows, which was one thing that kept the carbs very low for this type of salad!

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.)

• Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) or other macaroni of your choice
• Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link), or other tuna of your choice
• large Spanish green olives
• celery
• green onions
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice but if you’re juicing a lemon I’d add some lemon zest
• olive brine (from the jar of olives)
• mayo
• Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link), probably optional but it does add some flavor.

How did we make Tuna Macaroni Salad with fewer carbs?

• We used Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) for the macaroni in the salad, and this high-fiber wheat pasta from Italy is a lot lower in net carbs than regular pasta.
• We used a lot of low-carb ingredients like tuna, green olives, and celery compared to the amount of macaroni.
• Using 8 oz. of the Fiber Gourmet Elbows (which is normally 4 servings) to make 8 servings of salad not only reduced the amount of carbs, but it makes the Fiber Gourmet pasta less expensive per serving.

More about Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta:

The biggest drawback to the Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta for many people will be the price. I haven’t found it in stores near me, so I buy it at Amazon where you can buy a package of 6 boxes and get it for $6.66 per box. (affiliate link). For me it’s such a treat to have “real” pasta without so many carbs that don’t mind buying six boxes at once. And since this recipe uses 4 servings of elbow macaroni to make 8 servings of salad, that also makes it more affordable.

What if you don’t like green olives?

There’s an archived recipe on the site for Tuna and Macaroni Salad with Dill Pickles that will show you how to make a similar salad with pickles if you’re not a green olive fan.

How to make Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives:

(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.)

1. This is the Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) we used. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add some salt, and cook until the macaroni is al dente. (For us that took 15 minutes for the Fiber Gourmet Elbows; check package directions for other brands.)
2. Let tuna drain while you cook the pasta and prep other ingredients. (This colander is over a bowl because I don’t want the oil going down the sink.) 
3. When the pasta is cooked, dump into a colander and let it drain well.
4. Chop up 20 green olives and slice 4 olives to garnish the top of the salad. 
5. Chop the celery and thinly slice green onions
6. Stir together lemon juice (and zest if using) and green olive brine, and then whisk in mayo and Szeged Fish Rub (if using) to make the dressing. (Blogger fail; forgot to take a picture of that!)
7. Put the pasta, chopped green olives, chopped celery, and sliced green onions into bowl and mix together.
8. The mix in desired amount of dressing and stir until ingredients are well-coated with dressing. 
9. Gently stir in tuna, being careful not to over-mix; you want the tuna to remain in small chunks.
10. Season salad to taste with salt and fresh-ground black pepper, remembering that the olives are salty.
11. The salad can be chilled or served right away, and leftovers will be good in the fridge for a day or two.

More Lower-Carb Pasta Salad Options:

• Family Favorite Shrimp and Macaroni Salad 
• Pasta Salad with Sausage, Zucchini, Olives, and Peppers
• Low-Carb Italian Pasta Salad
• Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad
• Pesto Pasta Salad
• No-Pasta Salad with Zucchini and Italian Sausage
• Spaghetti Pasta Salad

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Yield: 8 servings

Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

If you need a tasty idea for a summer pot-luck, try this Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives that's kicked up in flavor with lemon as well. And we used Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows to make a macaroni salad with more fiber and fewer net carbs.

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients:

• 2 cups Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (see notes)
• 10 oz. canned tuna, see notes
• 24 large Spanish green olives
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/2 cup sliced green onion
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice (see notes)
• 2 T green olive brine (from the jar of olives)
• 1/2 cup mayo 
• 1/2 tsp. Szeged Fish Rub (optional but good)

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, adding a couple of teaspoons of salt.
2. When the water boils, add the pasta, stir, and let it come back to a boil.
3. Lower heat a little and cook until macaroni is al dente, that was 15 minutes for us for the Fiber Gourmet Elbows. When the pasta is cooked, dump into a colander and let it drain well.
4. While the pasta cooks, drain the tuna into a fine strainer placed over a bowl and let the oil drain out.
5. Chop 20 olives and slice the rest of the olives into slices to garnish the top of the finished salad.
6. Finely chop the celery and slice the green onion
7. Stir together lemon juice (and zest if using) and green olive brine, and then whisk in mayo and Szeged Fish Rub (if using) to make the dressing.
8. Put the pasta, chopped green olives, chopped celery, and sliced green onions into large bowl and mix together
9. Then mix in desired amount of dressing and stir until ingredients are well-coated with dressing. (You might not want all the dressing if , but save it to add to leftovers.)
10. Then very gently stir in the tuna, being careful not to over-mix; you want the tuna to remain in small chunks
11. Season the finished salad to taste with salt and fresh-ground black pepper, remembering that the olives are salty
12. The salad can be chilled or served right away, and leftovers will be good in the fridge for a day or two.

Notes

We loved the Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) for this recipe, but use any macaroni you prefer if you don't care about having fewer carbs.

We made this with two 5 oz. cans of Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link).

I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice for the dressing, but if you're squeezing a lemon I'd add some lemon zest.

Recipe created by Kalyn.

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 298Total Fat 21gSaturated Fat 3.2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 17.2gCholesterol 26mgSodium 378mgCarbohydrates 23.3gFiber 13.1gSugar 1gProtein 14.5g

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.

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Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions: 
If you make this Tuna Macaroni Salad using Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows and limiting the serving size to one-eighth of the recipe amount, this salad will have about 10 net carbs per serving. It’s high in fat for the South Beach Diet, but I’d eat it for a treat.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Pasta Recipes or Salads to find more like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives was first posted in 2012. It was updated in 2023 with new photos and the recommendation to use Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows for a lower-carb salad and was last updated with more information in 2024.

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