Go beyond the basic low carb tuna salad and make these delicious keto waffled tuna cakes! They are delicious and fun and make a perfectly healthy meal. This post is sponsored by Genova Seafood®.
Tuna salad is a standard dinner in our house. Whenever I look at my husband with that overwhelmed and exhausted look and say “what am I going to make for dinner tonight?”, he suggests tuna. And it makes good sense because it’s easy, everyone loves it, and it’s a healthy low carb choice. And I feel that huge sense of relief that dinner is essentially taken care of and I can spend my time and energy on the myriad other things that need attention.
I am also trying these days to be a much more conscious consumer, especially when it comes to my food sources. I like knowing where my food comes from, how it is treated, and how it is sourced. And I truly appreciate companies and brands that are as upfront with this as possible, so that I can feel more confident in what I am purchasing. I know a great many of my readers feel the same way.
Genova Seafood fits in with that M.O. perfectly, I have recently discovered. Their tuna is packed in olive oil in easy open cans, with no additives except for sea salt. And it’s high quality albacore or yellowfin tuna that is certified wild caught, assuring sustainability. Genova Seafood is a co-founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) and all fishing methods use Dolphin Safe practices. But even better than that, they tell you exactly where each can comes from and how it was caught. Each can is printed with the country where the tuna was caught.
Then they even take it a step further and each of the cans has a code on it. You can enter that code into the Genova Seafood website and find out even more about where your tuna was caught, how it was caught, and even the fishing vessel that caught the fish.For example, the fish used in these delicious low carb tuna cakes was caught in the eastern Indian Ocean using longline methods, by a vessel called the Felicia 88. How mind-blowing is that? Now that’s what I call knowing where your food comes from! I am so impressed and I know Genova is sold at many of my local stores like Safeway, so they’ve made a solid customer out of me.
So I decided to go beyond our usual easy tuna salad and get a little fancy with this wonderful canned tuna. These waffled tuna cakes were inspired by a recipe for waffled crab cakes from SkinnyTaste. They are easy to make, so fun and delicious, with a lemony dill sauce that really made them pop. I wasn’t sure my kids would go for them but they were a hit all around. Everyone gobbled them up.
Go beyond the basic low carb tuna salad and make these delicious keto waffled tuna cakes! They are delicious and fun and make a perfectly healthy meal.
- 3 cans Genova Albacore Tuna in Olive Oil in Easy Open Cans drained
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 3 tbsp avocado oil mayonnaise
- 2 green onions chopped (white and light green parts only)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 large egg whites lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup avocado oil mayonnaise
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- In a large bowl, combine the tuna, almond flour, mayonnaise, onions, salt, and pepper. Break the tuna up with a fork and really mash the ingredients together.
- Add the egg whites and mix in thoroughly. Using your hand, form the mixture into 6 even patties about ¾ inch thick. Place on a waxed paper lined tray and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Preheat the waffle iron to medium and spray with coconut oil spray or lightly brush with coconut or avocado oil. Place one patty in the center of the waffle iron and carefully close the lid. Let cook until golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Repeat with remaining patties.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, dill and garlic until well combined. Dollop over tuna cakes.
Many thanks to Genova Seafood for partnering with me to bring you this recipe.
Erika Kerekes says
Totally brilliant! I keep forgetting I have a waffle iron…when I saw this recipe I was so glad it is sitting in the kitchen. Making this immediately!
Carolyn says
Thanks, Erika. I will admit, the idea wasn’t mine. I saw waffled crab cakes in SkinnyTaste and then though how perfect it would be for tuna as well. My kids love them.
Lora @savoringitaly says
This is the tuna we get at our local market (when I can’t get something extra yummy from Sicily in a jiffy!!). This tuna idea is fabulous!!!!
Sara says
Forgive me if this is obvious to all but me, but do you drain or leave in the olive oil from the can? I have some tuna packed in water and figuring out if I need to add some oil or not 🙂
ps. so excited for your cookbook! I use your pie crust recipe from the lemon sour cream pie for -everything- pie related. And I just got my oven safe ramekins in the mail today. First thing I am going to try is your slow cooker lemon curd.
Carolyn says
It’s drained. It does say it at the end of the tuna in the ingredients list but it’s on the second line because of space issues.
Sara says
Oops. Sorry I missed it. I’m one of those people now that I roll my eyes at, haha. Thanks!! Excited to try this 🙂
Sarah @ The Chef Next Door says
What a fantastic idea! I would have never thought to make tuna cakes in my waffle iron. Something new for me to try. 🙂 I love Genova tuna, too. It’s my favorite!
Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says
Tuna is an awesome idea for a quick and easy dinner! Love this!
Alyssa | EverydayMaven says
This is such a good idea!!! We also default to tuna (usually my Twisted Tuna Salad). Trying this!
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl says
Now this is my kind of waffle! Yes please!
Lisa @ Wine & Glue says
I love tuna packed in olive oil, it’s like you are already two ingredients into a delicious dinner! This is perfect!
Kirsten/ComfortablyDomestic says
I love that you waffled the tuna cakes. Very fun! The lemon aioli and fun presentation will even get my kids to try them.
Judy says
I am about to make these for dinner. But I am curious why the recipe calls for egg whites instead of whole egg. Does that make them lighter?
Carolyn says
Yes a little less dense. It takes both because the volume of two full eggs was too much as well.
Judy says
Wanted to add, I just made them and they are delicious! Thanks for all your great recipes
Mary says
I made these tonight with 2x 6.7 oz jars of tuna in olive oil flavored with oregano and garlic. Eyeballed remaining burger ingredients. The aioli was loaded with lemon juice so I added sour cream to cut the sourness without o’d’ing on mayo. Cooked burgers in cast iron skillet, don’t have a waffle iron. Result: FABULUOUSLY DELICIOUS. A keeper!! Thank you!
Sharon says
If I can’t find avacado oil mayonnaise, what could I substitute? I want to make these for a dinner party on Friday.
Michelle says
Could you please state the amount of tuna in weight ? I’m from Australia and we don’t have that brand of tuna here
Carolyn says
Each can is about 5 ounces with the liquid…about 4 ounces dry.
Donelle says
Made these today and they are awesome! I added a couple of things (cuz that is what cooks do, right?) and they are so scrumptious. I love that I could use my waffle iron and they were a perfect savory lunch waffle. Thank you for posting.
Oriana says
I’m fourteen. My mom and I made these together and they were delicious. We halved the recipe, so we used a little extra almond flour because we couldn’t really cut an egg in half. Overall it was really easy and we will definitely make these again.
Carolyn says
So glad you liked them, Oriana! If you like this recipe, you might also like my other tuna cakes. 🙂