This week in Ottawa has been extremely warm; temperatures have been 30°C+ with humidex readings of over 40. Needless to say, turning on the oven in our apartment isn’t really an option. If you can believe it, we fried up some bacon one night, and, as much as I love the smell of bacon, I thought it seemed too heavy in the heat. Therefore, bacon was only on the menu once this week 😦 

With summer temperatures in full swing, sandwiches seem to be on the menu a lot more frequently. I thought I would share with you one of my favourites. Tuna Salad Sandwich. Now, you have likely noticed that the title of this post includes the word pickle. It may seem strange that pickles would share top billing along with the tuna, but trust me; my pickle to tuna ratio is out of control. It should likely be called a Pickle Tuna Salad Sandwich 🙂

Tuna sandwiches were one of our staples growing up. My parents enticed us to eat this by promoting it as fish and chips.

Fish = Tuna, & Chips = Potato Chips!

There is nothing better than biting into a delicious tuna sandwich and encountering the satisfying crunch of a salty potato chip. When I started making this sandwich as an adult, I found it absolutely necessary to include potato chips.

I am not sure how or when I started adding pickles to my tuna salad. All I know is that as the years pass, the amount of pickles goes up in relation to the amount of tuna. I started off, innocently enough with just one dill pickle cut up into the tuna. If one pickle is good, then two must be better. Then a crazy idea struck me, what if I added sweet pickles along with the dill pickles. Well, let me tell you, it takes your sandwich to a whole new level of tanginess!

I also add celery and chives to the tuna salad, to balance out all the extra sodium that I have added 🙂

I always start by cutting up the pickles, celery and chives. When I was measuring it out, to provide the full recipe today, I was totally amazed to see that I am adding over a cup of extras to the tuna!  Once I have cut up the veggies, I add two cans of white tuna. I have never made this with another type of tuna, but I am sure that any kind will do. To this, I add real mayonnaise, salt and pepper. (I know, with the tuna and pickles, I really don’t need to add the salt, but hey, a girl likes what she likes)

Once the salad has been mixed together, I like to leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours to get cold. If I know I am going to be pressed for time, I will put the cans of tuna in the fridge in the morning, so that the tuna is already cold when I make the salad.

Once the salad has been chilled then I pile it onto a fresh bakery bun and then add the fun part – potato chips! I always use plain ruffled chips, but now as I am thinking about it, I think I am missing out by not adding ruffled dill pickle chips to this sandwich!

A tuna sandwich presented as fish and chips is totally awesome and perfect for summer!

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Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup diced baby dill pickles (approximately five pickles)
• 1/3 cup diced sweet mix pickles (approximately eight pickles)
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• 2 cans tuna – drained
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Plain ruffled potato chips

Directions:

1. Mix diced pickles, celery and chives together in a large bowl.
2. Add in drained tuna and combine.
3. Stir in mayonnaise and season with salt & pepper.
4. Serve on a fresh roll and top with crunchy potato chips.
5. Be sure to have extra potato chips around, they always seem to disappear, even if we are only making two sandwiches 😉