Layered Tuna Salad (Mimosa Salad)

This beautiful layered tuna salad makes a real statement and is perfect for special occasions. It’s called the Mimosa Salad and is made with potatoes, carrots and eggs. All these ingredients are so simple, but the presentation makes it really special.

Mimosa Salad, a Layered Tuna Salad with potatoes, carrots and eggs

Mimosa salad was a staple for holiday meals in the former USSR. Growing up in Belarus, hearty salads like Olivie or Shuba (Fur Coat Salad) were a must to make for birthdays, holidays and weddings. Mimosa or Mimoza salad, has nothing to do with the mimosa drink, but was named this way in honor of the yellow flowers on a mimosa tree.

A layered salad takes very simple ingredients and transforms them into something so much more special. It looks so much more elevated and upscale, but is really quite easy to create. Even though these ingredients are hearty, grating most of the ingredients on the small holes of a box grater gives them a really cloud-like and much more fluffier texture. This salad would look and taste very different if you just chop everything up and mix them with mayonnaise.

Layered salads are great because you can make them in advance, but they also look stunning too. Garnish them with some fresh herbs and I even made some cute carrot flowers to make it every prettier. Not only is the Mimosa salad a statement piece for special occasions, but it tastes great, so I often make it for meal prep to enjoy for lunches throughout the week.

Ingredients:

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the printable recipe with measurements.

canned tuna
- My favorite tuna to use is yellowfin tuna packed in oil. You can also use canned tuna packed in water as well.
- Instead of the tuna, you can also use canned or cooked salmon or even sardines.
- If you’re not a fan of tuna or seafood, another great option is to use chicken. Canned chicken, rotisserie chicken or cooked chicken can be used too and it works really well.
potatoes
- I love the color and flavor of gold/yellow potatoes, but any type of potatoes will work for this recipe.
carrots
hard boiled eggs
- How to cook hard boiled eggs (stovetop recipe)
- Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
salt, ground black pepper
mayonnaise
fresh herbs, like parsley or dill, to use as a garnish

How To Make Mimosa Salad (a layered tuna salad)

First, cook the potatoes and carrots.
- Place the carrots and potatoes in a pot, cover with water so that it barely covers the vegetables. Season with salt.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook just until the vegetables are cooked through and can can be easily pierced with a paring knife. Don’t over cook the vegetables!
- Drain the water. When they are cool enough to handle, peel them.
Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs. Cool the eggs, peel them and separate the eggs whites from the egg yolks.
Drain the tuna and mash it with a fork. Mix the tuna with about 1/4 cup of mayonnaise and add some ground black pepper. (You can also add some other herbs and spices, if you’d like, such as red pepper flakes, mustard, dry or fresh herbs, etc.)
Finally, assemble the salad. Place a springform pan on a cake stand or any serving dish that you want to use.
Grate the potatoes on the medium holes of a box grater, and spread them out evenly as the base layer of the salad.
Drizzle some mayonnaise over the potatoes.
- Place the mayonnaise in a ziptop bag and snip off a tiny hole in one of the corners. Drizzle about 1/4 cup of mayo over the potatoes. (Use more or less mayo depending on how much potatoes you used.)
Spread the tuna over the potatoes.
Next, grate the carrots on the medium holes of the box grater as well. Drizzle with the same amount of mayonnaise as the potatoes.
Use the medium holes of the box grater to grate the egg whites. Drizzle with mayonnaise and for this layer, go over the drizzled mayonnaise with a spoon to spread it out.
Lastly, spread out the egg yolks over the egg whites as the final layer of the salad.
- Mash up the egg yolks with a fork in a small bowl, or press them through a fine mesh sieve.
- Sprinkle on top of the salad.
Keep the salad refrigerated until you are ready to serve. Remove the springform pan and enjoy.

How to make Mimosa salad tutorial, a layered tuna salad

Serving the Mimosa Salad

Salads like this one are so great for holidays and special occasions because you can make them in advance. You can make this salad 1-2 days ahead of time, then simply take it out of the refrigerator, remove the springform pan and it’s ready to be enjoyed.

I usually cook extra carrots and make some very simple carrot flowers and place them on top as a garnish, along with some fresh herbs, like parsley or dill.

Layered tuna salad (Mimosa salad)
in a springform pan

To make the carrot flowers, cut the cooked carrots into slices and cut out some petals using a paring knife. You can even use tiny cookie cutters to make the flowers too.

Use a serving spoon to serve portions of the salad or you can even cut it into wedges.

Helpful Tips

Different Options for Assembling the Salad:

– You can use an 8 or 10 inch springform pan to make 1 large salad or use 2 6 inch springform pans to make 2 salads.
– We often used shallow plates to assemble the salad, in which case I would make 2 salads too.
– You can also assemble the salad in a glass pyrex dish of some sort.

Flavor Variations:

Instead of the tuna, you can use several other things to create other delicious options of this salad.
– Canned salmon or cooked salmon (mix with mayo)
– Canned or cooked chicken (mix with mayo)
– sardines (I love this option, simply mash it up, no mayo needed)
– smoked salmon (finely chop up the salmon and spread out over the potatoes instead of the tuna)

Use the fine holes of the box grater instead of the large holes.

This really makes all the difference in creating the individual layers of the salad and also to keep it so fluffy and cloud-like, not dense and heavy.

Drizzling the mayo on top is much easier than spreading it on with a spoon. It also helps to keep the texture of the salad light and fluffy, instead of dense and compact.

It works so well for this salad.

Meal Prep Options:

– As I already mentioned, make the entire salad 1-2 days in advance.
– You can also cook the potatoes, carrots and eggs a few days in advance.