This seafood salad is a blend of imitation crab and shrimp in a creamy dill dressing with fresh vegetables. An easy high protein lunch option that takes just minutes to make!
I love a good salad for lunch, I often whip up a quick orzo salad, ramen noodle salad, or this irresistible seafood salad. This salad can be served in so many different ways and it always gets rave reviews.
I love a good seafood salad, and it’s actually so easy to make at home! I used to stop by my grocery store deli to pick some up, but now I just whip up a batch in minutes whenever the craving strikes.
How do you make seafood salad?
The base of this salad is shrimp and imitation crab meat. The seafood is combined with celery, red onion, fresh dill, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice and mayonnaise. Everything gets tossed together to make an ultra creamy and flavorful salad.
What is imitation crab?
Seafood 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 seafood salad if you prefer, but it’s definitely easier to go with imitation crab.
Tips for seafood 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 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.
- I like to use small salad sized shrimp so that they’re bite sized, look for shrimp that are 51-60 count per pound.
- It’s best to use raw shrimp which are then briefly boiled and cooled in an ice bath. This will give your shrimp the best flavor and texture. You can use pre-cooked shrimp in a pinch.
- 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.
- This seafood salad can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.
- You can use any combination of seafood that you like in this salad, just be sure that the total weight is one pound of seafood. Other great options include bay scallops or diced lobster meat.
WAYS TO SERVE SEAFOOD SALAD
You can eat this seafood salad as-is, or serve it in a variety of different presentations.
- Lettuce: Spoon your salad into a butter lettuce cup.
- Crackers: Serve your salad with a side of buttery crackers.
- Sandwich: Add your seafood to a toasted and buttered roll along with some green leaf lettuce.
- Avocado: Spoon your seafood into an avocado half.
- Pasta: 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.
- Tomato: Hollow out a tomato and fill it with seafood salad.
No matter how you serve your crab and shrimp salad, it’s sure to be a hit! I always get requests for the recipe when I serve this salad at events, people go crazy over it!
More great salad recipes
Seafood Salad Video
Seafood Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces imitation crab meat flaked style or sticks cut into slices
- 8 ounces raw shrimp I use 51-60 count for this recipe
- 1 lemon quartered
- 1/2 cup celery finely diced
- 3 tablespoons red onion minced
- 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
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the quartered lemon.
- Add the shrimp to the pot and cook for 1-2 minutes or until pink and opaque. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.
- Drain the shrimp then pat dry.
- Place the shrimp, imitation crab, celery, red onion, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, salt, pepper, mayonnaise and dill in a bowl. Toss gently to coat.
- Garnish with additional fresh dill and serve, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Lee says
I want to make this for a larger family event, How many ounces is each serving using your original recipe? Thank you.
Sara says
It should be about a cup per serving, just increase the number of servings in the recipe card and the ingredients will automatically recalculate!
Barbie DeGain says
This is super yummy !
I used white wine vinegar for part of the lemon juice because I didn’t have enough lemon on hand and I also
Used half of a box 8oz of. seashell pasta shells and made a lil bit more dressing than the recipe asked and it is so fantastic!!
Tracey Bonner says
This is one of the simplest recipes I’ve ever used. The taste was sure worth waiting for. Not as expensive as I thought it was. The family just loves it. Thank you so much for sharing. I will certainly be making this many times over again.
Molly says
Love it! Made this for lunch today and was enough fir my husband and me with a serving leftover. Used large cooked shrimp because it’s what we had on hand. Just thawed it under running water since it didn’t need to be cooked. Did a quick diy by adding in some of the spices that go into bay seasoning, since I did not have that. And used dried dill instead of fresh. This was so yummy!! My husband said it made him wish we were in Florida. I could see this also being pretty good with cucumber or subbing cucumber in lieu of celery if you didn’t have celery on hand. I could also see it being good with sriracha Mayo for the sriracha lover. It’s a nice day but not super warm here – in the summertime this would be extra refreshing. 5 stars from us.
Molly says
Also, I thought about skipping the bay seasoning since we didn’t have any. But I could tell it made a huge difference in flavor profile. I would say if you don’t have any on hand, it’s worth it to just add in any of the spices for it that you do have (paprika, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, allspice, I forget the rest, but you can Google it) 🙂
Cathy D says
I used larger shrimp and cut them into smaller pieces along with the imitation crab. I also used Duke’s Mayo – it’s more savory than regular mayo. This salad is absolutely wonderful! Thanks for sharing
John Rogers says
Very nice recipe, thank you for sharing
Kerri says
Can lime be used instead of lemon? I have everything but lemons.
Sara says
That should be fine!
Karen Myors says
What is Old Bay Dressing? Come from Oz.
Sara says
It’s a powdered seasoning blend it should be with the herbs and spices!
Marnie S Varga says
I loved this recipe!! I used fresh crabmeat. I made this twice in one week. I shared the recipe with my mom and she is a huge fan too!! This is a keeper!
Helen Singleton says
My family and I love this recipe. I’ve even tripled it! It goes so fast!
Donna Davidson says
I have got to try this, i love seafood and this looks so good.
velmaree velmareehill says
I’m making this today for the 4th we are not cooking out to hot..
RD says
Am waiting to make this recipe for our 4th of July Dinner
Marilyn Lewis says
I made this recipe the only change is I used real crab and added real lobster and jumbo shrimp cut up it was delicious. I will make it again.
Shante says
Hello, I’m making this seafood salad today I’m also using real crab lump meat. I’d like to know how long can it keep in the refrigerator before I make a large amount. Thanks for your response.
Sara says
It stays good in the fridge for 2 days!
Lisa says
Just made this, as written, and it’s sooo good. I did, however, use already cooked shrimp (I’m lazy.) Ingredients and measurements were on spot. 🙂
Casey W. says
My husband and I love this salad! (We’re still trying to convince our preschoolers…) I use pre-cooked, x-small shrimp to skip the cooking step, and I substituted chopped green pepper along with celery seed when I didn’t have celery on hand. We’ve enjoyed the salad on toasted buns and also in a tortilla wrap. Thanks for the recipe!
Pc says
I take celery seeds in a coffee/spice grinder; alot of people especially Kids don’t like the seeds, can get under dentures. They become more potent when grinded
Celia says
I love this salad. When I make it I substitute plain yogurt for part of the mayonnaise. Sometimes I also add angel hair pasta.
Barbara Crawford says
Thanks
I can’t wait to try it
Rev Frances Hutson says
Me neither, my mouth is watering as I write this
Denise says
I have been making this salad for years. I got tired of paying the high price at the deli counter. I do tweak mine a bit. I use a mix of half sour cream and half mayo. I think it Lightens the heavier mayo flavor. I also use different types of imitation crab for different textures in the salad. The leg style will shred apart and the chunk will give you an almost lobster like consistency, if you can’t find the imitation lobster. I can rarely find them anymore.
B.G. says
I thought about using half sour cream, but l was afraid it would separate and be watery in the bottom of the bowl does that occur?
Sara says
Sour cream should be fine!