A tuna egg sandwich filler is easy to make up quickly using basic ingredients.   I always have 1-2 cans of tuna in the cupboard as it’s a versatile food that can be quickly turned into a sandwich filler, vol au vent filling, or jacket potato topping.

Ingredients:

• One small can of tuna, typically weighing 160-200grams
• 1-3 hard-boiled eggs, one will give you a bit of egg, 3 eggs will give you a 50:50 mix, so that’s personal preference
• Some squirts of mayonnaise or salad cream – probably close to 2-3 tablespoons.

Method:

1. Open and drain the tin of tuna – don’t rinse it. I open the lid with a can opener, then keep the lid in place and turn the whole can upside down over the sink and squeeze it tightly until all the brine, or water, has been squeezed out.
2. Shell the eggs, chop them up and mix with the mayonnaise or salad cream. You can make them as chunky as you like.
3. Add the tuna into the mixing bowl.
4. Combine the two.
5. At this stage you can choose whether to leave your tuna and egg sandwich filler as a chunky mass of sandwich filling, or you can take a hand blender to the lot and really blend it into a smooth paste. Personally, I leave it chunky still.

Now it’s ready to use! If you want to store it in your fridge, it’ll keep for 4-5 days easily in a lidded pot.

One small tin of tuna and 3 eggs will be enough to make 4 good sized sandwiches. If you’ve only used 1 egg, then it’ll make 3 good sized sandwiches, or stretch to 4 thinner ones.

You can use mayo or salad cream as the binder. Salad cream is more popular in the UK, but not so common to find in other countries – it’s very similar to mayo, but contains an added twist of mustard powder and vinegar, making it just a little tangier.

When you see sandwich fillers in the supermarkets, you’ll notice that they are very smooth in the pot – this is because they’ve been whipped up so they go further – you can use a food processor or stick blender to make your filling as smooth or lumpy as you like.  I prefer a rustic sandwich filler, choosing to cut up the ingredients as little as possible, so the texture pulls through and I get great whole pieces of the tuna and egg.

Menu Cost:

A small can of tuna will cost from £0.62, depending on the brand; 2-3 eggs will cost from 8p each; salad cream or mayo will cost about 5-10p, depending how much you use and which brand. This tuna and egg sandwich filler can be made for under £0.90 in most cases – making four great, tasty and filling sandwiches for your lunchbox and making double the quantity you’ll get in most supermarket sandwich filler pots that cost £1-1.50 each.

2022 Price Update:

With the 2022 Cost of Living Crisis, how much has this gone up? I’ve taken my prices from Aldi, which is where I am currently shopping most often.

• 160g Tuna – a four pack of Fishmonger Tuna Chunks in brine costs £2.65, making one tin of tuna 66p
• Eggs are now closer to 11p, although there’s problems in the egg supply chain because of avian flu and problems with shops getting stocks of some goods in. Three eggs is about 33p.
• Salad cream/mayo is difficult to calculate “for a big squirt”, a large bottle of Bramwells 520g salad cream is 55p.

I’d guesstimate today’s cost to be £1 plus the cost of the squirt of salad cream, which might be just 1-2p.