This crab salad is a blend of imitation crab, vegetables and herbs, all tossed in a simple creamy dressing. A quick and easy salad that’s perfect served over lettuce, with crackers, or in a sandwich.
I’m always looking for new lunch options, some of my favorites include bagel dogs, a chicken club sandwich, rainbow veggie pinwheels and Greek pasta salad. This crab salad can be made in less than 10 minutes, is packed with protein and is totally delicious! You can never have too many salad recipes!
I’m always tempted to pick up those ready made salads at my local deli counter, but doing that on a regular basis can add up really quickly! This crab salad is a copy of the seafood salad my grocery store makes. It’s inexpensive to make and tastes even better than the store bought version.
Table of Contents
Crab Salad Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need imitation crab meat or real crab, celery, red onion, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, mayonnaise and fresh dill.
How Do You Make Crab Salad?
Place your crab, celery, red onion, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, salt, pepper, mayo and dill in a bowl. Stir everything gently until it well combined. Garnish with additional fresh dill. Serve immediately, or place the salad in the refrigerator for later use.
Tips For Crab Salad
- I use imitation crab flakes because they’re already cut into bite sized pieces. You can also buy the stick-style imitation crab and slice it yourself. I make this recipe with imitation crab because it’s easy to find and inexpensive, but real crab meat is also great.
- I highly recommend using fresh dill, the flavor is superior to dried dill. If you need to use dried dill, you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of dried for fresh.
- You can use low fat mayonnaise if desired to save a few calories.
- This salad can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Quick Tip
I recommend making sure your red onion is finely chopped so that you don’t get large pieces in each bite. You can also use sliced green onions instead of red onion for a milder flavor.
Flavor Variations
This salad is delicious as-is, but you can add other ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
- Protein: You can use other types of seafood in this salad. Sometimes I use half crab, half shrimp for a seafood salad. Or go all out with lobster for a luxurious lobster salad.
- Vegetables: You can absolutely add more finely diced veggies to the mix such as scallions, cucumber, bell peppers, jalapeno, or even some fresh corn kernels.
- Seasonings: Feel free to add other seasonings to the salad. Some great options include swapping out the Old Bay for Cajun seasoning, or adding spices such as garlic powder, onion powder or smoked paprika. You can also add fresh parsley, Dijon mustard, hot sauce, cayenne pepper or sriracha.
Recipe FAQs
Crab salad is often made with imitation crab, because it’s inexpensive, available year round, and can be found in almost every grocery store. Imitation crab is made of mild white fish, typically Alaskan Pollock, which is blended with other ingredients to form a product that looks and tastes similar to real crab. You can use real crab in your crab salad if you prefer, but it’s definitely easier to go with imitation crab.
Crab salad is made with fresh crab or imitation crab, finely diced veggies and herbs in a mayonnaise and lemon based dressing.
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Ways To Serve Crab Salad
You can eat this salad as-is, or serve it in a variety of different presentations.
- Lettuce Wraps: Spoon your crab into a butter lettuce cup.
- Crackers: Serve your salad with a side of buttery crackers.
- Crab Salad Sandwiches: Add your crab to a toasted roll along with some green leaf lettuce.
- Avocado: Spoon your crab into an avocado half.
- Crab Pasta Salad: Add 8 ounces of cooked short pasta to make a pasta salad.
- Cucumber: Spoon onto cucumber slices for an easy party snack.
- Puff Pastry: Fill up cooked puff pastry shells with the salad.
Once you try this crab salad, you’ll be hooked. It’s so much fresher tasting than the deli version and the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to serve a crowd!
More Great Salad Recipes
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Chickpea Salad with Avocado
11 mins
Black Bean and Corn Salad
11 mins
Creamy Cucumber Salad
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Crab Salad Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Crab Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound imitation crab meat flaked style, or sticks cut into slices
- 1/2 cup celery finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons red onion finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh dill chopped, plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Stir gently to combine.
- Serve immediately, or cover and chill for up to 2 days.
- Sprinkle with additional chopped dill for garnish if desired.
Notes
- I use imitation crab flakes because they’re already cut into bite sized pieces. You can also buy the stick-style imitation crab and slice it yourself. Of course you can substitute in fresh crab if you have access to it!
- I highly recommend using fresh dill, the flavor is superior to dried dill. If you need to use dried dill, you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of dried for fresh.
- You can use low fat mayonnaise if desired.
Delicious and easy, tastes right…made it twice now.
First time making a crab salad and it was delicious! Thank you for the recipe! 😊
Can I use yellow onion if I don’t have red onion?
Yes but I’d use half the amount as yellow onion has a stronger flavor than red onion.
I added chopped bell peppers and shrimp
Very good, especially the next day! No matter how you choose to eat it, by itself, on crackers or as a sandwich, it’s delicious.
What to serve with it
I serve this salad with crackers, over lettuce or as a sandwich!
I made this last week just like recipe and it was fantastic. My Husband loved it. I am making it again this week with only one change to recipe. I am adding chopped small cooked shrimp.. This is the best go to snack with crackers. Thank you so much for great recipe
Cannot wait to make this recipe. Have been looking for an easy, delicious 😋, “go to” for this one for years now, and this sounds like just the ticket.
My only question is this…do you think it would hold up at all to being vacuum sealed and frozen? I live alone and not sure if I could eat it all within 2 days. I certainly wouldn’t want to waste it, but I have several autoimmune diseases so don’t get out to parties, etc. hardly at all to make something like this. So I’d probably just be making it for myself. Thank you 😊.
I’d just cut the recipe in half, I don’t think it would freeze well!
Have always loved this … especially in the warmer weather🤗
Excellent!!
Everybody loved it!
And it’s fast and easy
I did add sliced black olives…worked really well and added color
Very delicious. I did add a little grated sharp cheese and sliced mini pickles! Thank you.
I think fresh dill would have made a huge difference.
I will need to come back to this website so that I can make some of these salad recipes that they have on here.They actually made me hungry.
Thank you
I was lucky enough to have a pound of fresh Chesapeake crab! Made the recipe without the Old Bay ( I didn’t have any) Used about a tablespoon and a half of fresh lemon juice and lots of fresh dill. Simply amazing – my guests devoured it.
Adored this crab salad, it was so fresh and delish!