Crab Pasta Salad

If you’re a seafood lover, this crab pasta salad recipe might be just the summer side dish you’re looking for. It’s bright and colorful, and it feels luxurious, but it’s still quick and easy to assemble.

Properly speaking it’s an imitation crab pasta salad, because the faux-crab product is much more budget-friendly than the real thing when you’re serving 10 (though if you have the option, real crab is an obvious upgrade). Either way, it’s sure to be a hit at your next summer get-together.

Ingredients for Crab Pasta Salad

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

• Tricolor spiral pasta: Spiral pasta (fusilli or rotini) is a good choice for pasta salads because its ridges hold lots of dressing. Colorful pastas make the salad prettier, as well.
• Imitation crab meat: Imitation crab meat is inexpensive and usually sustainably produced. It makes for a good salad but won’t break your budget.
• Celery: Celery gives the salad a pleasantly juicy crunch and brings out the flavor of the other ingredients.
• Green pepper: Green bell peppers bring color to the salad, along with a distinctively fresh flavor and crunch.
• Onion: Onion gives the salad a savory, pungent note that plays nicely with the sweetness of the imitation crab.
• Reduced-fat mayonnaise: Mayo is one of the most common dressing ingredients in pasta salads. The reduced-fat version makes this salad lighter than many others.
• Reduced-fat ranch dressing: Ranch dressing complements the creamy neutrality of the mayonnaise, adding flavors and thinning the mayo to a more dressing-like consistency.
• Dill weed: Dill is a natural complement to seafood, so it plays nicely with the faux crab.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the pasta

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on its package. Once it’s al dente, drain it and rinse it thoroughly in cold water.

Step 2: Prepare the salad

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Toss the drained pasta with the crab and vegetables until they’re well mixed. Combine the remaining ingredients to make the dressing. Pour it over the pasta mixture and toss until the salad is evenly coated with dressing. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least two hours before serving.

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Crab Pasta Salad Variations

• Go full-fat: Pasta salads are naturally sturdy and filling. This crab meat pasta salad aims to be lighter, with the use of reduced-fat dressing ingredients and imitation crab (which has less fat, sodium and cholesterol than the real thing). Swapping these out for full-fat versions and real crab changes the focus, turning this salad into a deluxe, elevated side dish.
• Change up the vegetables: Aside from the onions and celery, which are there more as flavorings, this salad isn’t heavy on vegetables. If you want more, or just don’t care for green bell peppers, consider bright, fresh-tasting options like fresh peas (shelled or edible-pod), edamame, cucumbers or sweeter, more colorful red and yellow peppers. Capers or olives add color to the salad as well, and their pungently briny flavors emphasize the “sea” in “seafood.”
• Bring on the herbs: A sprinkle of dried dill weed is the suggested garnish here, but fresh herbs can elevate your salad to a whole other level. Using fresh dill is the first obvious upgrade, but fennel fronds, tarragon, chives, parsley and many others would also work in this salad. If your garden is in full swing, or if you have herbs left over from other recipes, smell and taste a few and see which ones you personally find good with the salad. Mince or chop them, and add them in.

How to Store Crab Pasta Salad

If you have leftovers from this recipe (it’s a big batch), you can refrigerate them in a covered bowl or food-safe container with a tight-fitting lid. Covering the salad with a piece of parchment or a flexible food wrap pressed right to its surface helps maintain its fresh appearance by keeping the dry refrigerator air away.

Can I make this crab pasta salad ahead of time?

Preparing this salad a day ahead, instead of refrigerating it for the specified two hours, gives additional time for the flavors to develop (it’s a good thing!). Making it any further ahead is problematic, though you can certainly cook and cool the pasta three or four days ahead, if you wish. With that done in advance the salad comes together in just moments, so it’s a good time saver.

How long will crab pasta salad keep?

A useful rule with any kind of leftovers is that they’ll last as long as their most perishable ingredient. In this case, the processed imitation crab should hold up well for three or four days in the fridge, as long as you haven’t left it sitting out at room temperature for too long during the original meal (two hours is the limit for food safety). If you’ve customized the salad with add-ins or substitutions, you’ll need to take those into account as well. Real crab, for example, is only good for a day or two. If you need help with that, we have a useful guide to how long leftovers keep.

Crab Pasta Salad Tips

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Can I use a different kind of pasta?

Sure! The tricolor rotini bring some color to the salad, and their ridges hold the dressing nicely, but you can switch them out for any other kind of pasta you like. Plain old elbow macaroni works just fine, but so do thinner fusilli, or prettier shapes like bowties, shells or orecchiette. To make the salad more filling, and a meal in its own right, you could even go to a filled pasta like ricotta-filled tortellini.

I’m not a fan of imitation crab, would this work with other seafoods?

It does, absolutely. Real crab is the obvious replacement, but don’t stop there. You could elevate the salad by using lobster (canned or frozen lobster meat can sometimes be a relatively good value), smoked salmon or even homemade ceviche instead. Seared scallops or big flakes of grilled fish would also work beautifully. In a pinch you could even use canned seafood, from chunky pieces of canned salmon to smoked oysters.

It’s a nice salad, how can I make it look fancier?

Pasta salads are usually served family-style from a big bowl, for your guests to help themselves, but there’s no reason you can’t dress it up a little as a plated side dish. Start by placing a cup-shaped outer leaf of butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce (or even Belgian endive) on each plate, then top it with a neat scoop of the salad and sprinkle it with the dill weed. For added appeal, topping or surrounding each portion with shreds of the imitation crab, chopped fresh dill or a few capers would do the trick. A few very thin half-moon lemon slices are also a can’t-miss option with any salad containing seafood.