Healthy Tuna Melt Quesadillas

These healthy tuna melt quesadillas are cheesy, lightly crispy, filling, and a delicious easy meal ready in less than 15 minutes!

Today, I want to share with you what I eat every Friday all Lenten season long and randomly throughout the year, these tuna melt quesadillas! 

I honestly can’t believe I haven’t shared these before. Except that, it’s another one of those “non-recipe” recipes.  Similar to my Healthy Breakfast Quesadillas and Healthy Chicken Quesadillas, these Tuna Melt Quesadillas are just something I throw together all the time without thinking about it as a recipe.  Very similar to my healthy tuna melts or healthy tuna melts on English muffins.  

Cheese + Protein + Tortilla = DELICIOUS for any meal!

I usually pair it with some sort of super-easy “finger veggie” like cherry tomatoes, celery, carrots, and more pickles. It’s filling, it’s quick, and it’s delicious! What more can I say about them except for how to make them!

How to Make Tuna Melt Quesadillas

I make my tuna salad filling the way my Grandma taught me, with just a couple of modifications.  She always added a lot of crunch to her tuna salad with onions, pickles, and celery.  I skip the onions because raw onions are not for me, but you could sub up to 1/2 the celery with onions if you want!

She also preferred miracle whip to mayonnaise.  I mimick that vinegary flavor with mustard, and I use mashed avocados to add creaminess.  Sometimes, if the avocado wasn’t ripe enough or big enough, I’ll also add a tablespoon or two of avocado oil mayonnaise. I’m not afraid of using mayonnaise or afraid of calories.  

However, avocados in the whole form are packed with nutrients and fiber, and they are in season this month, so I try to get them into my diet wherever possible, plus, let’s face it you can save over 1000 calories by subbing out some of the mayo with avocado.  I usually think it’s creamy enough as is, but Mr. Hungry likes a bit more creaminess so that I may add some avocado oil mayo to his portion.    

For my tortillas, I LOVE to use brown rice tortillas from Trader Joe’s.  However, some of you commented on my recent grocery haul from TJ’s that you didn’t know what to do with those tortillas. 

I get it. The tortillas are not soft and pliable. They are best used to make quesadillas but not for recipes that require rolling like wraps and burritos.  I just like them because they have certain crispiness to them when pan-fried, almost like phyllo dough, that’s so good to me.  However, feel free to use your favorite whole grain wrap.  Whatever works.  

I also love a good sharp cheddar as my cheese.  I love how the sharp, bitter flavor contrasts the tuna, but Mr. Hungry wanted to tell you that he is team smoked gouda all the way.  The choice of cheese is also really up to you, and this recipe is SUPER flexible. I’ve even made it with pepper jack, and it was delicious!

You can use sliced or shredded. Whatever you have in your fridge, it’s really up to you! 

Just crisp up your tortilla on each side, and when it’s crispy and melty in the middle, they are ready!  Super easy, right?  I told you, it’s a “non-recipe” recipe.  

And since I eat canned tuna pretty frequently, and I always get questions about tuna and mercury, I’ll just say that I tend to buy skipjack tuna since it’s the lowest mercury of type of tuna (solid white albacore being the highest.) Plus, it’s a cheaper variety to buy wild-caught than solid white albacore.  I hope that helps!

If you are looking for more creative ways to use canned tuna check out my healthy recipes using canned tuna round up.  Or if you are looking for something more traditional, you may want to try my healthy tuna casserole recipe!

Let me know if you try this one!  Tag me on Instagram (@hungryhobbyRD) and follow along for behind the scenes and daily non-sense.  

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