Canned Tuna Laab

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Recipe Video

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The Best Thing You Can Do With a Can of Tuna

I eat a lot of canned tuna. It’s cheap, it’s high protein, and it’s one of the most versatile pantry staples you can keep on hand. But most people default to the same two or three preparations and never think beyond it.

This is not that.

Laab — sometimes spelled larb — is a Lao and Northern Thai minced meat salad built on fish sauce, lime juice, fresh herbs, shallots, and toasted rice powder. It’s bright, punchy, herbaceous, and deeply savory all at once. Traditionally made with minced pork, chicken, or duck, it turns out that flaked canned tuna is one of the best vehicles for this dressing you’ll ever find. The tuna absorbs the lime and fish sauce immediately, the herbs make it feel fresh and alive, and the toasted rice powder adds a nutty, slightly crunchy texture that ties the whole thing together.

The entire recipe comes together in under 15 minutes. 25 grams of protein. 150 calories. Served with sticky rice, it’s a complete meal that tastes like anything but a quick weeknight dinner.

This is one of my favorite things to make with a can of tuna and it’s not particularly close.

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What Is Laab?

Laab (ลาบ) is the national dish of Laos and one of the most beloved dishes in Northern Thai cuisine. At its core it is a minced meat salad dressed with:

• Fish sauce for salt and depth
• Lime juice for bright acidity
• Fresh herbs — mint, cilantro, culantro (sawtooth coriander) and scallion — for freshness and fragrance
• Shallots for a sharp, slightly sweet bite
• Toasted rice powder for nuttiness and texture
• Chili flakes for heat

What makes laab different from every other Southeast Asian salad is the toasted rice powder. Dry jasmine rice toasted in a pan and ground to a rough powder adds a roasted, nutty dimension that no other ingredient can replicate. It also acts as a light thickener, helping the dressing cling to the meat and giving every bite a slightly gritty, satisfying texture. It’s a small step that makes an enormous difference and is completely non-negotiable.

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Why Canned Tuna Works Here

Laab is traditionally made with minced meat that gets cooked and dressed while still warm, which helps it absorb the dressing quickly and deeply. Canned tuna skips the cooking entirely and goes straight to the dressing stage — and because flaked tuna is already broken down into small, irregular pieces, it absorbs the fish sauce and lime juice just as readily as freshly cooked minced meat.

The result is a laab that tastes lighter and brighter than the pork or chicken version, with the tuna providing a clean, neutral protein base that lets the herbs and dressing do all the talking. It’s also significantly faster, which is the whole point.

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Macros

• Calories: 150
• Protein: 25 g
• Cook time: Under 15 minutes

Add steamed sticky rice alongside and you have a complete, satisfying meal that still comes in well under 400 calories total.

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Canned Tuna Laab Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 can flaked tuna, 120 g, drained
• 2 tbsp jasmine rice, toasted and ground
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 stalk scallion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp culantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp mint leaves
• 3 tbsp shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 1 tsp chili flakes

To serve

• Extra culantro
• Lime wedges
• Steamed sticky rice

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Instructions

Step 1: Toast and Grind the Rice

In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the jasmine rice for 3–5 minutes, stirring constantly, until lightly golden and fragrant. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and grind to a rough powder. It doesn’t need to be fine — a coarse, uneven grind is part of the texture.

Don’t skip this step. The toasted rice powder is what separates a real laab from just a tuna salad.

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Step 2: Dress the Tuna

Drain the tuna and add it to a bowl. Add the scallion, culantro, mint, and shallots.

Season with fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, chili flakes, and toasted rice powder. Toss everything together and taste. Adjust the balance — more lime for acidity, more fish sauce for salt, more chili for heat — until it tastes bright, punchy, and well-seasoned.

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Step 3: Serve

Plate with extra culantro and lime wedges alongside. Serve with steamed sticky rice to make it a complete meal.

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Tips

• Toast the rice fresh every time. Pre-ground rice powder loses its fragrance quickly. Toasting and grinding to order takes 5 minutes and makes a significant difference to the final flavor.
• Taste and adjust aggressively. Laab should be a balance of salty, sour, sweet, and spicy. If it tastes flat, it needs more lime. If it tastes sharp, it needs a little more palm sugar. Keep adjusting until every element is in balance.
• Slice the shallots as thin as possible. Thick shallot pieces overpower every bite. Paper-thin slices integrate into the salad and add sweetness and bite without dominating.
• Serve immediately. Laab is best eaten fresh. The herbs wilt and the rice powder loses its texture the longer it sits. Make it, dress it, eat it.

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Serving Suggestions

Laab is traditionally served as part of a larger spread alongside sticky rice, raw vegetables, and other salads. For a quick weeknight meal, the tuna laab and sticky rice is complete on its own. For a more substantial spread, it pairs naturally with a simple cucumber salad, papaya salad, or any other bright, acidic dish that complements the lime-forward dressing.

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Final Thoughts

The best pantry meals don’t taste like pantry meals. This is one of them. A can of tuna, a handful of herbs, and 15 minutes is all it takes to put something on the table that tastes genuinely vibrant and intentional.

Once you make laab this way, the plain tuna sandwich starts to feel like a missed opportunity.

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