The PERFECT, dietary friendly, Whole30 Tuna Melt with creamy, dreamy tuna stuffed into a sweet + crunchy bell pepper topped with melty, gooey cashew cheese sauce. WOWZA!

Have you ever had one of those days where you looked in the fridge + there were like zero ingredients that equated to a meal? That happens here a lot, ha, usually towards the end of the grocery week! I’m quite happy to chuck stuff into a pan + call it dinner, but I can only eat canned tuna so many ways, you know? Which is where this happy little experiment comes in. Some messing around in the kitchen resulted in pantry based dish that I could eat again + again + again. Bring on the Whole30 Tuna Melt!

How can a Tuna Melt be Whole30?

If you’re wondering how the heck to make a mayo/cheese/bread based meal into a Whole30 compliant option, I just have to say: “oh ye of little faith.” With a little ingenuity, it’s really possible to make almost any meal allergen friendly! I label this as a Whole30 Tuna Melt, specifically, because the Whole30 label encompasses so many allergens.

gluten free
grain free
dairy free
legume free
sugar free
alcohol free

But you definitely don’t HAVE to be a Whole30 eater to enjoy this meal. It really is bomb, no matter your dietary preferences!

Dietary Friendly Swaps

To make the Whole30 swaps, we’ve substituted a pepper for the bread, which adds the most amazing sweetness + maintains that bit of crunch – kind of like toasted bread…but not. Switching out a traditional mayo, made from inflammatory refined vegetable oils, is really simple. Just choose one made with olive oil or avocado oil! Done! I like to make sure mine is sugar free too, but that’s totally up to you. (Unless you really are on a Whole30, then sugar is a for sure no-no!)

And lastly, the CHEESE – perhaps the most important part of the Whole30 Tuna Melt. You really can’t have the traditional, comfort classic without a blanket of melty cheese sauce all over the top of these melts. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! We’re using my tried + true, sauce bestie – cashew cheese. I know you might be skeptical that this can work, but TRUST ME. It’s so simple to make + tastes divine on literally everything.

Putting these Tuna Melts Together

The actual process of making this meal is so simple. It can be thrown together in less than 20 minutes. We’re going to bake the peppers a bit to soften them while we mix together the tuna salad + then blend up our cheese sauce. The instructions below are incredibly simple + really easy. I promise you can do this!

Once the peppers have baked, simply stuff with the tuna + top with the cheese sauce! There’s an optional step to broil the tops a bit, but that can totally be skipped if you’re really in a time pinch. That’s it – REALLY!

You can totally make these peppers in advance (not that you’d need to, since they’re so quick!) – I speak from experience. After testing + retesting these, I ate on them all week for quick lunches + all it took was a little blast in the microwave or oven to give them a bit of new life. They’re SO, SO good on top of some salad for a little bit of crunch.

Finding quick, easy, inexpensive meals can be hard. I know that. Which is why I really am so excited about coming up with options like these that can be thrown together in a moment’s notice + still allow you to eat the way that you really want to.

I’d love for you to give these a try + to let me know down below if you love them as much as I do! Leaving a rating and/or is a quick, free way to support me as a content creator + it really helps other people find my recipes too!

You can also tag me on instagram. Seeing your recreations of my food gives me more joy than I can possibly explain! Thank you so much for trusting me with your tummies!

p.s. if you need a few other comfort classic options, here are some of my favs:

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