Tuna Dip Recipe (Pastinha de Atum)

This easy canned Tuna Dip recipe is full of flavor and comes together in minutes! Just measure, mix and you’re done! And the best part? All you need are five easy to find ingredients to make this Pastinha de Atum Tuna dip! Plus, you can serve it as a dip, on a sandwich or in wraps. It’s great as an afternoon snack, too, or as an inexpensive appetizer at a get-together with friends. – recipe is easily doubled!

Why I love this Tuna Dip Recipe

Oi Gente!

We love this tuna dip with mayo, known as pastinha de atum in Brazil. It’s great to serve as an appetizer with crackers, chips, raw veggies, or bread. And speaking of bread, this is also an excellent filling for a tuna sandwich that you can enjoy for a quick lunch or dinner. It’s seriously so versatile.

I’ve loved pastinha de atum tuna dip since I was a kid. My mom would always serve it to unpretentious unexpected visitors, because it’s cheap and you can prepare it in just a few minutes. When I was a teenager, this was my go-to dish to bring to ‘festa Americana‘ parties! It was something I could make myself, and everyone always loved and enjoyed eating it.

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My mom’s secret ingredient to her recipe is a package of Maggi powder onion soup. But in this recipe, I subbed that with onion powder and fresh green onions, and it’s awesome! The green onions really give it the oompff this recipe always needed, and I’m so happy to share it with you!

Another modification I made to my mom’s original recipe is keeping it chunky, so in reality, it’s a little less of a dip and more of a spread. But if you don’t like to bite into chunks of tuna like I do, you can always just measure the ingredients into a food processor and pulse it a few times until smooth. That’s it.

I hope you love the recipe as much as I do!

Beijinhos xx

Here’s what you’ll need to make Pastinha de Atum:

• Canned tuna—choose a good quality, flaky tuna in water.
• Green onions—these are also called scallions. You need both the white and the green parts!
• Onion Powder
• Olive Oil
• Mayonnaise

In terms of equipment, you’ll just need:

• Knife and cutting board
• measuring spoons and measuring cups
• mixing bowls

How to make Canned Tuna Dip with Mayo:

Prep the ingredients. Squeeze as much of the water out of the tuna as you’re able. Mince the white part of your green onions, and quickly slice the pretty green parts. Grab the olive oil, the onion powder, and the mayo and that’s it. You are prepped.

Measure and combine. Add the drained tuna to a medium bowl, measure in the onion powder, and the olive oil. Add in the green onions, and lastly the mayo. I like adding the mayonnaise last so that I can add more or less depending on how creamy I want it.

If you want creamier tuna dip, add more. Less creamy? Add less.

Mix it all up. While you stir to combine the ingredients, you can smash some of the tuna chunks if you’d like. I like to keep mine a little more on the chunkier side, so I don’t break them up too much.

And, if you like a more smooth tuna dip, you can pulse this mixture a couple times in a food processor to get a perfectly creamy dip!

Other than that, have a taste, season with salt and pepper and that’s all, meus amigos! Be sure to test the tuna dip with mayo with the chips or bread you intend to serve it with—these sometimes have salt in them, and tasting them together before you season helps you not to oversalt the dip.

You can serve immediately or you can put it in the fridge to cool for a half hour to an hour—this will also help the flavors develop to make your pastinha even more delicious!

How to serve Tuna Dip:

This recipe is great to serve with your favorite crackers for easy entertaining. You can also serve it with fresh or toasted bread!

And speaking of bread, you can totally also serve this recipe as a sandwich for an easy and delicious lunch or afternoon snack.

And if you’re looking for a lower carb option, you can serve it in lettuce leaves as lettuce wraps!!

Pastinha de Atum Variations:

Finding yourself making this recipe over and over again? I know—same!!!

Here are a few ingredients to add to this tuna spread for crackers to change up the flavors:

• Shaved carrots, minced celery, peppers or any other crunchy veggie you love!
• Olives, capers or little pickles if you like a little tang
• Strong mustard, sriracha or your favorite hot sauce to transform this recipe into a spicy tuna dip with mayo
• Boiled egg! This will add more substance to the canned tuna dip. Just make sure the egg is cool when you add it to the recipe so the residual heat doesn’t cook the mayo. Smash it with a fork and mix it in!

Other Brazilian appetizer recipes:

• Pao de Queijo – Brazilian Cheese Bread
• Black Bean Salsa Recipe
• Caldinho de Feijao – Creamy Black Bean Soup Shooters
• Yuca Fries
• Cilantro Garlic Bread

Great cocktail recipes to serve with your pastinha de atum:

• Classic Caipirinha Recipe
• Batida de Coco – Brazilian Coconut Cocktail
• Pineapple Rum Punch Recipe
• Quentao – Brazilian Grog Recipe

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