Tuna White Bean Salad

Tuna White Bean Salad is a delicious way to use canned tuna, and this salad is a tasty lunch any time of year! We updated the recipe to be a bean and tuna salad with more tuna and lots of celery!

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This tasty Tuna White Bean Salad is a favorite of mine for a quick lunch! In the early days of my blog I discovered Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link), and that changed my way of thinking about canned tuna forever. That tuna plus my love of parsley and lemon inspired this delicious tuna salad.

But I first started making and loving this salad when I was eating more beans than I d0 now. So recently Kara and I recently decided to update the recipe to make it a more carb-conscious salad, and to take better photos. And we loved the new-and-improved version of white bean salad with tuna! If you’ve never thought of combining these ingredients, you might be surprised how amazing this is as a lunch salad.

I first made this when I had plenty of fresh parsley in the garden. But parsley is an herb that’s available and inexpensive all year from the grocery store, and I love that this salad uses ingredients I often have on hand. I’m so happy when I can pull this out of the fridge for a quick lunch; hope you try it soon!

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.)

• canned white beans
• canned tuna, preferably Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link)
• celery
• parsley
• green onion (or chopped red onion)
• extra-virgin olive oil
• fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
• black pepper and sea salt to taste
• fresh lemon wedges to squeeze on at the table (optional)

What herbs will work for Tuna White Bean Salad?

I haven’t tried the salad with other fresh herbs besides parsley, but I think both fresh basil and fresh cilantro would be delicious in this salad.

How low in carbs is the improved Tuna White Bean Salad?

To make this recipe lower in carbs, we doubled the amount of tuna, added sliced celery, and increased the amount of dressing to make sure there was enough for the added ingredients. Those changes gave us a bean salad with only 12 net carbs per serving and 20 grams of protein!

How to make Tuna White Bean 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.)

1. Rinse beans and let them drain well. (Pat dry with paper towels if needed.)
2. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and fresh ground black pepper to make the dressing.
3. Put the beans in a bowl and add the dressing. Let beans marinate while you drain the tuna, slice celery, chop parsley and slice green onion.
4. I always use my favorite Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil for this salad.
5. Open two cans of tuna and drain oil (either in a colander placed over a bowl of using the lid of the can.) Break tuna apart slightly inside the can using a fork.
6. Slice enough celery to make one cup. Slice green onion (or chop red onion.) Forgot to snap a photo of the green onion!
7. I use a packed cup of chopped parsley, but if you’re not that much of a parsley fan you can use less.
8. Gently stir the sliced celery, chopped parsley, sliced green onion (or chopped red onion), and drained tuna into the marinating beans.
9. Season to taste with more salt and fresh ground black pepper if desired and serve immediately.
10. This is good with pieces of lemon to squeeze on at the table.

Make it for a Low-Carb Meal:

Although I eat this salad with white beans and tuna most often for lunch, it could be a tasty main dish for dinner too. Serve with one of these salads that are extra low in carbs:

• Al’s Famous Hungarian Cucumber Salad
• Marinated Zucchini Salad
• Cucumbers Caesar
• Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad
• Zucchini Carpaccio

Want more salads with dried beans?

Check out Favorite Salads with Beans if you’re a fan of this type of salad, and that round-up has lots of vegetarian bean salads!

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Yield: Makes 6 servings

Tuna White Bean Salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

If you like canned tuna packed in olive oil, this Tuna White Bean Salad is great to keep in the fridge and pull out for a quick lunch. And we updated the recipe to have more tuna and sliced celery so it's much lower in carbs than you might think!

Ingredients

Ingredients:

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• one 15.5 oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained well
• two 5 oz. cans tuna in olive oil (see notes)
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 cup chopped parsley (more or less to taste)
• 1/4 cup sliced green onion (see notes)

Dressing Ingredients:

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• 1/4 cup good quality extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice (see notes)
• black pepper and sea salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put beans in colander and rinse well with cold water, until no more foam appears. Let drain, then pat dry with paper towels.
2. In small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
3. Put the beans into a bowl big enough to hold all the salad ingredients and mix in dressing.
4. Let the beans marinate while you drain the tuna, slice the celery, chop the parsley, and dice or slice the onions.
5. Put the tuna into the same colander you used to drain the beans and let the oil drain off.  (I wipe out the colander with a paper towel so the tuna doesn’t get wet. Drain tuna over a bowl if you don't want that oil going down the drain.)
6. Slice one cup celery into thin slices.
7. Chop the parsley and thinly slice green onion (or red onion, whichever you’re using.)
8. Add sliced celery chopped parsley, red or green onion, and drained tuna to the marinating beans and gently combine. (Don’t overstir, you want the tuna to stay chunky.)
9. I usually taste and see if I want a bit more lemon juice.
10. Season to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt and serve. This is great with extra lemon to squeeze on at the table.
11. White Bean Tuna Salad will stay good in the refrigerator for several days, but it probably won’t last that long.

Notes

I love Genova Tuna Packed in Olive Oil (affiliate link) but any brand of olive oil packed tuna will work.

You can use finely chopped red onion if you prefer.

This recipe created by Kalyn, inspired by many other similar salads seen in cookbooks and on the web.

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 258Total Fat 12gSaturated Fat 1.8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9.7gCholesterol 22mgSodium 145mgCarbohydrates 18gFiber 6gSugar .6gProtein 20g

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.

Did you make this recipe?

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Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
The original version of this salad was high in carbs for a low-carb diet, but this updated salad recipe has only 12 net carbs per serving which will work for some low-carb eaters. It’s too high in carbs for strict tuna. Tuna White Bean Salad would be fine for any phase of the original South Beach Diet, but limit portion size for phase one.  

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more tasty salads like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find more 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:
This salad with tuna, white beans, and parsley was first posted in 2007, and I’ve made it over and over since then! The recipe was last updated into a lower-carb recipe in 2023. It was last updated with more information in 2026.