Quick answer: This is the highest-protein tuna salad in the collection — about 30 grams of protein per serving of filling, at roughly 150 calories, ready in 15 minutes with no cooking. Both Greek yogurt and cottage cheese go in together, blended smooth, rather than picking just one dairy source. Serves 4. Sodium is comparatively low, about 420 mg per serving.
This is the flagship recipe of the Tuna Salads collection — the one built specifically to answer “what’s the highest-protein version I can make.” A generous tuna portion, plus both Greek yogurt and cottage cheese blended together, get it well past what either dairy source manages alone.
If you’re looking for a specific style instead — dairy-free, spreadable, chunky with eggs — the other tuna salads in this collection each take a different, narrower approach.
Why This Recipe Has About 30 Grams of Protein
| Source | Per serving |
| Canned tuna, drained (137.5 g) | 26.7 g |
| Cottage cheese, 4% (15 g) | 1.7 g |
| Plain Greek yogurt (15 g) | 1.5 g |
| Everything else | 0.2 g |
| Total | 30.1 g |
Five cans of tuna across the batch — more than any other recipe in this collection — carries almost all of the protein here, with the two dairy sources adding a modest boost on top.
A Note on Sodium
About 420 mg per serving, roughly 18% of the WHO’s 2,300 mg daily limit — one of the lowest in the collection, since the dairy portions here are genuinely small, used as an add-in rather than the main bulk.
- Canned tuna: ~344 mg
- Cottage cheese, 4%: ~53 mg
- Everything else: ~23 mg
What You Need
Makes 4 servings (filling only — nutrition figures don’t include bread)
- 5 cans (5 oz / 142 g each) light tuna in water, drained (about 550 g drained total)
- ¼ cup (60 g) plain Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup (60 g) 4% cottage cheese
- 2 stalks celery, finely diced
- 2 tbsp red onion, minced
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- Black pepper, to taste
How to Make It
- Blend the yogurt and cottage cheese together until smooth — this small step is what lets both fit into a dressing that isn’t watery or lumpy.
- Drain the tuna thoroughly and flake it into a bowl.
- Combine with the blended dairy, celery, onion and lemon juice.
- Fold in the dill, season with pepper.
Tips
Blending the two dairy sources together matters more than it sounds. Left separate, the cottage cheese curds sit oddly against the smoother yogurt; blended, they read as one dressing.
This one holds up better over a few days than the yogurt-only version, since cottage cheese doesn’t thin out with time the way yogurt alone sometimes does.
Substitutions
Dairy: all-yogurt or all-cottage-cheese both work, but the protein total drops a little either way — this recipe is specifically built on using both.
Storage
Up to 3 days refrigerated, sealed.
High Protein Tuna Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Blend the yogurt and cottage cheese together until smooth.
- Drain the tuna and flake it into a bowl.
- Combine with the blended dairy, celery, onion and lemon juice.
- Fold in dill and season with pepper.
Notes
- Highest-protein, lowest-sodium tuna salad in the collection.
- Nutrition figures are for the filling only, not bread.
Nutrition
Per serving of filling (recipe makes 4):
| Calories | 150 |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Sodium | 420 mg |
Verified against the Tuna nutrition workbook, calculated ingredient-by-ingredient from USDA FoodData Central reference values. Figures exclude bread or crackers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this use both yogurt and cottage cheese instead of just one?
Blended together, they push the protein total higher than either would alone, without needing an unreasonably large amount of just one dairy ingredient.
Is this the same as Cottage Cheese Tuna Salad?
No — that recipe is a chunkier bowl-style salad built with whole cottage cheese curds and hard-boiled eggs. This one uses a small, blended amount of both dairy sources as more of an add-in.
Can I use only Greek yogurt or only cottage cheese?
Yes, but the total protein drops slightly either way — this recipe is specifically built around combining both.
What should I serve this with?
Bread, lettuce wraps or crackers — none of which are included in the nutrition figures above.
More High Protein Tuna Recipes
The flagship of the growing Tuna Salads collection, alongside Cottage Cheese Tuna Salad, Tuna Salad Without Mayo and Tuna Salad Recipe Without Mayo.
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