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.
Making for the 2nd time. Delicious
I’ve been making this for at least 35 + years. 2 things I’ve found. I use an equal amount of sour cream to mayo, i.e. 1/4 C Sour Cream/1/4 C Mayo, mixed together. I usually don’t use it all, I add it, stir, depending on the fluidity of the mix after each addition. I saw that tip about 3 years ago, and I tried and liked it, so did my friends. It’s “lighter” it seems. I also add finely diced red peppers. Your original picture shows red peppers, however, it’s not listed on the recipe.
Also, I never use Old Bay, or “spice combinations”, because of the preservatives. Old bay contains “basic” paprika, celery salt, more salt, pepper and fillers/preservatives. I prefer a smoked paprika of a higher grade, celery is already included, and unmeasured sodium is never good. I’m an Octogenarian, retired Dietitian and chef. I hope this helps. I love your site for recipes of quality. Thanks for sharing with all those who weren’t taught to cook/create like you and I. Blessings!!!
Sara I made this for my 2 grown children for Christmas dinner and we all loved it so much! Your recipe was so perfect that there was no need to change a thing. Thank goodness I doubled the recipe as by the time we had had our fill of it, we barely touched the roast and scalloped potatoes! Thank you so much for this recipe.
I made this seafood salad straight from the recipe and it was delicious. Another advantage to using the imitation crab meat is that it’s ready to eat right out of the package unlike crab meat from the market.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been craving a good seafood salad lately, and your recipe was just what I needed!! It was simple to make and absolutely wonderful. Will definitely be making again and again!
I love seafood and I want to make this dish for my family and friends thank you
Have made this salad twice now, the second time I not only added the required Old Bay Seasoning but also added the same amount of Lemon Pepper as well. This seasoning replaced the Salt and Pepper and added a little more “Zing” to it. Also you could easily make this a Low Carb salad by not using imitation Crab, believe it or not it’s fairly high in Carbs. Would add a few cans of Crab Meat. Made this delicious salad this morning and it’s extremely hot here right now, can’t wait to have this nice cold salad for Dinner tonight.
Perfect for a lunch or a hot summer supper. So versatile, simple and delicious!
Looked at several seafood before this one. Looks good. Making this today. Adding capers. Thanks!
I made this for a baby shower and everyone loved it. It is so tasty and I will be making it all the time now for special occasions. Thank you for sharing. So delish.
This is an excellent recipe for Seafood salad , I did add a half Pound of cooked cold Bay scallops to stretchs the
salad for an added guest I wasnt expecrting . It actually added more flavor to my salad .Keep this in mind if you need
to make the salad for extra guests you were not panned for. It worked out with lots of compliments, Lucy
I made this tonight and it is fire! This recipe is a keeper!
What is old bay seasoning? I have not seen this in Australia. What can I replace it with? (curie, mustard etc)
Any seafood seasoning will work, it’s essentially a blend of celery salt and paprika with a few other spices added in smaller quantities.
I just checked on the internet and apparently Woolworths do stock it (not sure where) but it is expensive at $17 for 350g. I am in Sydney, Australia.
This is a very nice recipe. Had to change up the size of the shrimp, but still very good. Will keep the sauce. Easy, flavorful and perfect for the seafood. Thank you for sharing.
Omg!!! This was so easy and absolutely delicious recipe!!! I will definitely make this again and again!!
The best, simplest and the most delicious seafood salad I’ve ever encountered on the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter). It’s a frequent Friday meal in our family. It looks always exactly like on the picture above. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
This salad is absolutely amazing. When I serve it I have copies of the recipe printed up to give to my guests, because I am always asked for the recipe. With the exception of using 1lb. of cooked frozen shrimp and also adding a 4oz. can of tiny shrimp, I follow this recipe exactly. There is plenty of dressing to cover the addition of the extra shrimp. Thank you for this fantastic seafood salad recipe.
I added some pasta shells and more Old Bay and Mayo mixture. I just eyeballed it. I used extra dry dill weed and more celery for texture. I really liked it, my picky family did, as well.
I add finely cut cabbage yummy
Can this seafood salad be FROZEN?
This recipe is not a good candidate for the freezer as it can become watery when thawed!
I love this recipe!! Very cool and refreshing…almost like being on vacation at the beach. The only things I did differently were adding chunks of lobster and some penne pasta!!