Deli-Style Crab Salad

Avoid the overhead prices and prepare this Deli-Style Crab Salad at home! You can use real crab meat or keep it budget-friendly with imitation. Tossed with a dressing comprised of mayonnaise, lemon juice and fresh dill, this salad packs a flavour punch!

Have you ever purchased any pre-made salads from those deli counters at a grocery store or sandwich shop? They’re so quick and convenient! And, in most cases, those salads are very delicious too. I can find only one problem with them and that’s the price. When did 100 grams of prepared seafood salad become fifteen dollars? I say save your hard-earned cash and make your own at home for a fraction of the cost. Like in the case of this Deli-Style Crab Salad – most of the ingredients you will have on hand already, so if you’re like me, all you need to buy is crab and fresh dill!

If you’re preparing this salad in the summertime, you might be growing fresh dill and green onions in a herb garden or even on your window sill. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a herb garden, and not everyone has the desire for one either. So, with that said, you might also need to purchase green onions!

WITH THE OCEAN AT OUR FINGERTIPS…

Crab is one of those things that you might think I had a lot of while growing up. Newfoundlanders have the ocean right at their fingertips, and seafood is readily available. But, my family didn’t eat fish as often as some other Newfoundland families. And, when it came to shellfish of any kind, that wasn’t happening at all! I’m making up for all of that lost time with recipes like these Deli-Style Crab Salad!

I remember eating lobster only once as a kid. Friends of my parents had cooked lobsters and invited us to dinner. I think I enjoyed cracking open the shell more than I did eating the meat! Crab was a little different. I remember eating that a few times. Once, my mother even let us cook it in the house! You see if she didn’t like something, then we didn’t get to have it.

And, just like lobster and crab, other shellfish such as shrimp, mussels, clams, etc., were all foreign. My mother would not cook them, because she didn’t like those types of seafood, so we grew up not having them. Maybe that’s why I’m in my 40s and just starting to appreciate shellfish. I can eat lobster, crab, and shrimp, but I’d have to be near death to eat mussels.

IMITATION CRAB

Every time I share a recipe with imitation crab as the star or one of the contributing ingredients, I click on the publish button and wait for the mean comments to fire my way. There is some serious hate out there for imitation crab! The great thing about imitation crab is that it fits into almost every budget. But, if you’re rich and can afford real crab, be my guest! I’d rather save real crab for a seafood boil and use imitation in recipes like these Deli-Style Crab Salad.

There is nothing wrong with imitation crab. There, I’ve said it! I have been buying imitation crab for almost twenty years. Would I prefer real crab meat? Of course, I would! But, I’m far from rich, and I live nowhere near an ocean. Depending on where you live, crab meat can be very expensive. And, to be honest, imitation crab is quite good!

You might need to try a few brands to find the right imitation crab for you. I’ve tried a few that I didn’t care for too much at all. Sometimes, they can be too salty, and sometimes, they can taste like nothing. I mean that! In the past, I have purchased imitation crab that had absolutely zero flavours. So, before you give up on it, try a few brands first.

My favourite brand, SeaQuest, is luckily the most recognizable and easily found imitation crab. Here in Ontario, it’s available in almost every grocery store. From my experience, flaked imitation crab tastes better than stick imitation crab. If you’re new to imitation crab, start with flaked crab first. It always has a better flavour and texture.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Crab – Actually, it’s imitation crab! I love it and I’m not ashamed to say so! You can 100% use real cooked crab meat here if you wish.
• Mayonnaise – You can save some calories by using low-fat mayonnaise here.
• Lemon Juice – Use freshly squeezed lemon juice for best results.
• Old Bay Seasoning – In my opinion, all seafood tastes great with this seasoning blend!
• Ground Black Pepper
• Green Onions – The delicate onion flavour is a must in this salad. If you don’t have green onions, you can use fresh chives as well.
• Fresh Dill – You must use fresh dill in this recipe! Dried dill is much stronger and even though it tastes good, it will not have a freshness to it.

HOW TO MAKE A DELI-STYLE CRAB SALAD

Measure the mayonnaise, lemon juice, old bay seasoning, and ground black pepper into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk well to combine. Add in the crab meat, chopped dill, and chopped green onions. Toss well to incorporate into the sauce mixture. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before serving.

OLD BAY SEASONING

Here’s a bit of trivia for you. Did you know that Old Bay Seasoning was developed by a German immigrant to Maryland, US, in 1939? Fresh crab was so popular to the area that local bars used to cook them up and give them to their patrons for free – kinda like some bars nowadays with bowls of peanuts. Well, to encourage patrons to buy more drinks at the bar, the seasoning blend was invented by Gustav Brunn with excess amounts of salt; the more seasoned crab patrons ate, the thirstier they became!

The seasoning mix includes mustard, paprika, celery salt, bay leaf, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, mace, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, and ginger. The seasoning is mostly used to season crab and shrimp, but it can also be used in chowders and stews.

DRIED DILL IS NOT THE SAME AS FRESH DILL

If you don’t have any fresh dill on hand but still want to make this Deli-Style Crab Salad, you can. Let me go on record right here and right now. Substituting dried dill will give you dill flavour, but it’s just not quite as good as fresh dill. The fresh dill makes this salad so extraordinary.

So, if you need to substitute fresh dill for dried dill, it’s easy to do. For this particular recipe, you need to use two tablespoons of chopped fresh dill. That would be equal to one to two teaspoons of dried dill. If you already have dried dill in your spice rack, I understand. But, if you need to buy dill, it might surprise you to learn that a bunch of fresh dill is cheaper than a packet or jar of dried dill!

MORE IMITATION CRAB RECIPES

If you have read this far, you might have guessed that I’m a big fan of imitation crab. I have no issues whatsoever with real crabs, mind you! But, if I’m going to spend a lot of money on crab meat, I’m not going to mask the flavour of it with lots of ingredients, like you might find in a salad recipe, for example. Nope, my real crab meat is going to taste super fresh on its own with just a little bit of melted butter or a seafood boil dipping sauce.

I have a few other imitation crab recipes here if you’re interested! In no particular order of preference, one of my favourites are Crab Rangoon Egg Rolls. These are my go-to recipes. Every single time I make these, everyone loves them and asks me to make them again and again. They’re certainly one of my specialties! Much like this salad, my Crab and Potato Salad is super fresh and filling too. I like to make this one in the summertime and serve it with grilled steak.

The last imitation crab recipe that I shared got rave reviews from readers. If you like going out for sushi, you just might have had Japanese Kani Salad. This homemade version is so delicious and easy to make. I don’t like sushi at all, but I love a good kani salad!

STORING AND REFRIGERATION

Although this salad can be served immediately, for optimum flavour, chill the salad first. It’s important to let the salad chill in the fridge for at least one hour, but you can refrigerate it for up to 12 hours. This will allow the ingredients time to hang out and get to know each other! The vegetables and imitation crab meat will marry and all of the flavours will be exchanged and absorbed.

Once the salad is ready to serve, toss it again before piling it into bread rolls just to freshen everything up. The salad does tend to settle a little bit. You can safely store this salad in your fridge for up to three days. Be sure to keep the salad covered at all times.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!