Crab Salad with celery and mayonnaise is a delicious and inexpensive way to enjoy the classic Seafood Salad we all grew up with.
This Salad Recipe is a classic deli favorite just like Classic Egg Salad, Classic Tuna Salad, or Classic Chicken Salad, but using delicious, tender seafood!
The flavor and childhood memories you have from being a kid are always so wonderful, and a Crab Salad Sandwich is a nostalgic favorite for many. This recipe combines imitation crab meat with a mixture of celery, mayonnaise, paprika, and dill to give you all those classic flavors you love from the sandwich shop, made fresh at home.
Sometimes it’s worth the extra effort to make nostalgic favorites, such as Pioneer Take-Out Fried Chicken, especially if you’ve moved away from your favorite places. Food is the ultimate in stirring up childhood memories.
It may sound a bit odd to mix seafood and mayonnaise, but it is a classic preparation you find in tuna salad, on lobster rolls and even chicken salad. Protein and mayonnaise are fast friends in these salads.
You’ll enjoy making this recipe to use in a crab salad sandwich! It is delicious on top of a bed of lettuce with added cherry tomatoes. However you find yourself enjoying the recipe, if you had it as a kid this will take you back to those memories. Serve this alongside an Easy Fruit Salad or Corn on the Cob for an excellent summer meal.
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Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe uses imitation crab meat, sometimes referred to as krab or krab meat. Don’t think that even though it isn’t actual crab meat that this isn’t still actual seafood. This is actually why many people refer to the salad as Seafood Salad.
Imitation Crab Salad (krab) is actually made with Surimi, a whitefish that is ground then binded with a starch to resemble a crab leg. Huffington Post wrote a great post about what exactly imitation crab (krab) is. It’s true that, nutritionally, you’re better served purchasing actual crab meat, but for the purposes of this classic seafood salad, this is the ingredients you will find when you go to your grocer’s seafood counter.
Make an amazing sandwich by adding it to a toasted hoagie roll with lettuce. Or add Crab Salad to 1 pound of cooled shaped pasta for a Seafood Pasta Salad, just double the ingredients outside of the crab meat to flavor the pasta as well, too. For a low carb presentation, add Crab Salad to a cored out vine ripe tomato.
More Easy Summer Salad Recipes
- Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad
- Easy Greek Pasta Salad
- Mexican Avocado BLT Pasta Salad
- 10 Minute Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
Tools used in the Making of This Crab Salad (Seafood Salad)
Mayonnaise: There are number of different brands, but this one is the most spot on flavor.
Spice Rack: You can use this spice rack to fill up the bottles with freshly purchased spices. It’s basically one of the most beautiful things in the kitchen and when you’re working with a large quantity of spices, not having to hunt and peck through your cupboards makes everything go at warp speed.
How to Store Crab Salad (Seafood Salad)
- Serve: It is best to keep this recipe cold in the refrigerator until serving, but at most do not leave at room temperature longer than 2 hours due to the mayonnaise.
- Store: Sealed in an airtight container, Crab Salad (Seafood Salad) will be good in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Freeze: Do not freeze recipes containing mayonnaise, as the texture will not be good once thawed. It is best to make a fresh batch of Seafood Salad before serving.
Ingredients
- 1 pound imitation crab , krab meat
- 1 shallot , minced (you can use red onion if you need)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup celery , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon dill
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl add all the ingredients together gently, stirring until well coated.
- Refrigerate for an hour before serving.
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Nutrition
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Added a sprinkle of PaYaa Cajun seasoning and thyme and left off the dill. It is over the top.
I used green onions instead of shallots and added chopped cucumber. very good
Delicious! ?I made this today and it was gone in 5 minutes,,my grandkids loved it!
Hello, I made this salad and it seemed to be less juicy than I like it. I added 1/2 C. Daisy Light Sour Cream and then I liked it much better. That is the only reason I gave it a 4 star rating. I will definitely be making this again with the Daisy Light Sour Cream.
I had all the ingredients and used a 1.25 lb package of imitation crab meat that I had as well. I added just a little bit of each ingredient to even it out. I took some hot dog buns that I also had on hand and removed the crust from each end carefully with a very sharp knife. Using a little bit of butter in a frying pan, I seared three sides of the bun. Using the finest leaves from the 50/50 salad mix that was in the refrigerator I lined the inside of the buns. I then packed each full of this crab awesomeness.
I just made this. I did not have any dill weed or paprika but I added some garlic instead and it is delicious!! I had organic smoked paprika and added that to the recipe and that took it up a notch delicious!!
I’m a sea food lover , my family and I had a restaurant that served a sandwich call a shrimp boat! Big hit ,
This recipe is very similar! We served ours in a warm pita bread with lettuce and arugula, yum
Just made this recipe… Yum!
My mom is allergic to dill. Is there anything you’d suggest as a substitute?
You could substitute tarragon for dill in equal measurements and it would give you a very similar flavor.
Would not change a thing ?. Just let it marinate in fridge as long as possible to let everything meld together…