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.
Delicious, refreshing and easy to prepare!
I used some green onions instead of red onions. Still delicious!
I made the seafood salad for dinner last night, and it was an instant hit with my wife and me. I made two major changes. I purchased cooked shrimp instead of raw shrimp, so I skipped cooking it with lemon and drying it. I also substituted white onion for red onion. The dinner was completed with blueberry muffins and a glass of white wine.
Thank you for your talent and posts!
Delicious!!
I have enjoyed your recipes the crab salad and the rest. I’m going to make it for Sunday dinner.
FABULOUS RECIPE!!!
Very good skimp salad ever
Sara, This recipe has to be the best seafood salad I have ever made. The whole family enjoyed it. Thanks for publishing it so others can appreciate your recipe also.
Really lovely salad; easy to make. The last time I bought some at the store I had to look for any shrimp.. So now that I have this recipe it really is the LAST time I will buy it.
Thanks. Love your site and recipes.
Excellent salad would recommend it for a party, everyone was delighted. Only our salad she substituted hard boiled eggs for the crab. It was fantastic, with the eggs (4 eggs/ 1x) servicing.
My favorite. My go to…
I truely love this recipe as well as my family. We have it every outing,family gatherings, parties. We don’t care if it’s winter or summer it’s a wonderful dish
Just made this and it tastes so good!!
Waiting for hubby to try it hes gonna love it!!
absolutely delicious……………………….putting in “favorites”” on my phone because i know everyone in my family is going to want the recipe.
If you buy frozen raw shrimp, is it best to thaw first or can you boil it right from frozen?
I would thaw them first!
I am making this for 48 guests. Do I need 12 lemons quartered to put in the raw Shrimp and boil for 1-2 minutes? Can this Seafood salad be served on croissant s?
It’s probably fine to use less lemon, the cook time shouldn’t change as long as your pot is large enough to hold all the shrimp. It would be great on a croissant!
Wow! It was awesome. Such great flavor. No time at all to throw together. First time making this, so I made a small amount. I will definitely double the recipe next time! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Omg!!!! Y’all cannot imagine the praises I got over this seafood salad! This has to be the best seafood salad recipe ever. The he flavor was so powerful and it was the hit of our 4th of July party.
Best hands down. Unbeatable recipe and thank you for sharing!
Making again
Delicious, thank you.
Can I use Real crab and fresh shrimp?
Yes that’s fine!
Of course you can use real crab, she actually states as much in the story. As for fresh shrimp, that is already in the ingredients list and the story includes a statement about using precooked though fresh is recommended. I know that reading recipe stories can be quite monotonous but you may miss something you might wish you’d seen.
She had already answered