This delightful crab salad has fantastic flavors, even with all imitation crab meat. It is good as a seafood salad, sandwich, and even as an appetizer atop crackers.
By hand, pull apart the crab meat into small pieces and add to a medium sized bowl.
Prepare and add in the remaining ingredients. Combine well and serve or store in fridge, covered.
Notes
Ensure the real crab meat is cooked before using. The pre-packaged imitation crab meat usually comes that way. Can also be served as a sandwich or as an appetizer topper for crackers, toast triangles, or bagel chips.
Homemade Imitation Crab Salad for Sandwiches, Salad, or Appetizers
This simple recipe for crab salad sandwich is perfect also as the main salad or as an appetizer. It is one of those rare diverse recipes that has many forms for serving and doesn’t require heating up. Also, it’s flexible in some of its ingredients.
Variations of this Recipe for Crab Salad Sandwich
Crab Salad for Sandwiches
It’s easy to make this crab salad for sandwiches recipe. There are several ways you can make them as sandwiches. Here are some of them you may like:
Use regular hamburger buns.
Regular or homemade sandwich bread, white, wheat, or honey wheat
Toast the sandwich bread slices first. Then add a lettuce leaf as well for the sandwich.
Make some foldable sandwiches using Pita bread. As a twist, heat and butter the Pita bread and sprinkle lightly with garlic powder and a hint of salt.
A creative, flavorful way is to make a sandwich out of Texas Toast or Toasted Garlic Bread slices.
Another ingenious way is having it on a sub roll. You can sprinkle it with Old Bay seasoning for added spices. Then, add lettuce, tomato, and top with either some granulated parmesan cheese or 1-2 slices of provolone cheese. You won’t need onion as it has that in it already.
You can also check out this recipe for crab dip as another option or as an appetizer for this sandwich.
Ingredients for crab salad
separated shredded imitation crab meat
all ingredients before mixing for crab salad
crab salad for sandwiches ready
Imitation Crab Salad with Greek Yogurt
If you want it a bit healthier, skip the sour cream. You can replace it, as is shown in the ingredients listing, and make your imitation crab salad with Greek yogurt. And, to be more daring, try it with replacing the mayonnaise as well with Greek yogurt. I’ve made it with about 1 Tbsp of mayo and 1 Tbsp of sour cream, and then replaced the rest of those 2 amounts with Greek yogurt. However, to be fair, I used the full yogurt, instead of the low or non-fat kind.
Crab Salad Recipe with Real Crab Meat
Just as in our crab dip recipe, you can have a mixture between imitation and real or you can use all real. While the real deal comes in many forms, the popular one is real crab meat in the can. It might be labeled as “crab meat lump” in 6 oz cans. There are other types in cans and fresh but the canned lump is the most affordable usually. However, keep in mind that you might see “white crab meat” in cans cheaper than lump; those might be kind of mushy for your usage.
Food articles indicate that canned crab meat have already been pasteurized and cooked. We always recommend you review the can or ask your seafood department clerk for confirmation. Another option, if you’re at home, search the Internet for your canned brand of crab meat. Here’s an Amazon link for a variety of canned crab meat to give you an idea.
Lump Crab Salad Appetizer
The variations continue as you can use this also as a lump crab salad appetizer. Here are some of those ideas you can use to get started with. All of these are quick and easy to produce.
Crab Salad Triangles: Make some toast, butter the slices well, make the sandwiches, and cut them into 4 triangles.
Serve the crab salad atop bagel chips or crackers. Or, have a serving bowl out with the bagel chips and crackers on the side. Let everyone serve themselves for this delightful duo treat.
Roll the crab salad into large lettuce leaves and close them with toothpicks.
Crab Salad Cheddar Squares: Use regular sandwich bread and make sandwiches. Cut them into 4 squares. Add a modestly thick sharp cheddar slice in each square.
Crab Salad Easy Recipe – Easy Storage
This has been a tremendous list of various ideas for your adventure with this crab salad recipe for sandwiches. It’s remarkably easy to make the crab salad first. And then, you have the massive variety of options of what to do with it. It stores well in the fridge. The imitation crab salad will last about 3-5 days. If any real crab meat was used, you probably are looking at 2-3 days. If you’ve taken it out of the fridge frequently or have left it out a few times, the shelf life will shorten of course.
Can you freeze crab salad?
That’s a good, popular question. It’s usually not recommended for this kind of seafood salad but you can try it. First off, if you do freeze it, ensure it’s in a food storage bag or container designed for freezing. Otherwise, just double-bag it. For thawing it out, it’s best to do it in the fridge overnight. Because of its contents, leaving it out to thaw for a few hours can be a food safety issue for you. Also, trying to use the defrost cycle of a microwave isn’t good for this seafood salad.
Once it’s thawed out from the fridge, you’ll discover the texture is not near as good as it was when made. However, if you used a salad dressing instead of mayonnaise, you’ll find it will taste better than if you had frozen actual mayonnaise. A final note on freezing and then thawing it out is this. Plan on the thawed day to be the final one for consumption.
These recipes are the kind that we like. We reviewed several dozen and didn’t need to just put up a long, mindless list. We reviewed about 50 or more, and these are our favorites. These are not tedious recipes. They are using popular ingredients and are very flavorful.
At the very bottom of this article, there are some interesting educational things to learn about Salmon.
So, here’s our list, and come back every now and then, as we may update it.
Many will choose items such as these. You can try cooked vegetables like asparagus, corn, or even tomatoes. Or you can try cooked sides such as rice variations, bake potatoes, or macaroni and cheese. And, for raw veggies, you can try some salads or individual items like sliced tomatoes. Of all those items, here are some of them as recipes below.
Other than Recipe Ideas for Salmon, what are some interesting facts about Salmon?
1) Salmon are considered a health food, as they are high in protein, vitamin D, & Omega-3 fatty acids. 2) Salmon are born in fresh water, migrate to salt water, and return to fresh water to spawn. 3) Even though there are about 1,500 to 10,000 eggs in a female, only about 0 to 10 will survive to adulthood. 4) Salmon live 2 to 7 years. 5) The largest salmon can achieve a little under 5 feet long and around 125 pounds. The pink salmon grow to about max of 30 inches and 12 pounds.
Rinse the salmon filets in cold water. Press with paper towels to remove excess water.
Cook salmon in microwave for about 2½ minutes. Or, pan fry, if desired to cook it that way. Then, set aside to cool.
Add all Patties Ingredients (except hot salmon) to mixing bowl. Then, if salmon has cooled enough to handle, break it apart and add to the same bowl. Remove most skin to discard, where possible.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly by hand. Add a very small layer of oil to frying pan and heat to medium.
When pan is hot, form the salmon patties (about 2-3 inches diameter) and add to pan. Cook each side about 5-7 minutes. Reduce heat a little below medium if needed.
This method of how to make salmon patties from fresh salmon, aka “how to prepare salmon croquettes”, is unique in saving time. First focus is to get the fresh salmon cooked. It’s done the quickest via microwave. And, it cools down to handle it if done in the order of the steps shown. Most other recipes will have extra steps in cooking the salmon, cooking the onions, and so on. Many recipes were tested and this one is the absolute fastest and still has an extremely high level of naturally seasoned flavors.
Salmon Burgers Fresh Salmon
These are also known as salmon burgers fresh salmon patties and they go extremely well with this dill tartar sauce. No matter what you may call them, the key is basically to get the salmon cooked, make the patties, and cook them about like you would a burger. They can be served on a plate as a main course with vegetables or other sides. Or, they can be served on a bun like a burger, using condiments like tartar sauce or ketchup. And then, have such sides like fries, tater tots, or onion rings.
What’s the Quickest Way to Cook Salmon?
To fry them in a pan. Here’s the quickest pan frying recipe for fresh salmon that adds just a spice and a little oil. The method applied is the absolute fastest and still has a lot of flavor. It’s basically how to prepare salmon croquettes.
Can salmon patties be frozen?
Yes, if stored properly, for about 3 months. Use “patty papers” to keep them separated so you can pull them apart to remove only what you want to reheat. Store them in sandwich bags and then again in a larger food storage bag.
Patty Papers are for keeping salmon croquettes (patties), burger patties, and other individual serving items easier to separate while frozen. This makes it great for portioning out and reducing food waste.
Salmon Patties Fresh Salmon
Fresh salmon. Click here to read about its health benefits.
Related Dishes to this Salmon Recipe
You can have an appetizer dish such as this recipe for crab dip. Or, you can see the alternative items below.
Rinse off the salmon filets. Press some paper towels on salmon to absorb excess water away.
Coat salmon with olive oil.
Rub the Mrs. Dash seasonings onto the skinless side of oiled salmon.
Heat frying pan to medium-high with a thin film of oil. Add salmon (seasoned side down) and immediately reduce heat to medium-low. It will initially sear and continue to cook modestly for about 5-7 minutes each side.
To ensure doneness, cover if desired, after turning.
Notes
The skin side will remove easily, if desired, after turning.The spices will create a darkened (blackened) appearance.
The most popular method of cooking salmon is pan fried. This pan seared salmon recipe shows the absolute fastest way. It’s oiled, seasoned with Mrs. Dash (fast), and cooked initially a bit hot and reduced to cook slower, after becoming seared.
Easy Salmon Recipe on Stove
While this is an easy salmon recipe on the stove, you can also accompany it by making one of our very easy homemade tartar sauce recipes.
This fried fish recipe is the best method of southern country cooking. It uses easy, common ingredients with a well-organized method to cook up quickly. Can be tilapia, flounder, catfish, trout, whiting, or other preferred filet.
