Near the waters of Maine, clean picnic benches set against even cleaner clapboard houses are meant for the “From Away-ers”, eating crab and lobster in any way, shape, and form. For locals in Downeast Maine, faced with an expensive seasonal bounty, you might come across this (imitation) Crab Salad. A simple delight of a salad that has all of the creaminess and herbaceousness of a crab salad, just minus the gut-wrenching price tag of crab.
This cold salad is seasonless. If you can find imitation crab, you can whip up this recipe. Cut-up imitation crab is tossed in a herby, peppery dressing and chilled before being served in buttery rolls.
Imitation crab gets a lot of bad smack talk, but it is still fish. The most commonly used fish for imitation crab is Alaskan pollock, which is the same fish used in your frozen fish sticks or your drive-thru’s fried seafood patty. While the sodium and vitamins vary between real crab and pollock-based imitation crab, the texture in cold recipes like salads gives you an affordable taste of the real stuff.
This salad has a no-fuss prep that comes together at lightning speed. A mix of mayonnaise, vinegar, lemon, black pepper, scallions, and parsley is the base. Some versions of this salad can be more complex with chopped celery, shallots, and white wine vinegar, but this is the simplest ready-to-make version.
After whisking the dressing, gently fold the chopped-up imitation crab into the dressing. Don’t be too forceful, or else you’ll break apart the pieces.
It’s best to serve this salad chilled, so give it at least two hours in the fridge before serving.
Sandwiched between a split buttery bun, this Crab Salad has all of the flavors of a coastal summer vacation without the tourist price tag and extra fees. The creaminess of the mayonnaise is countered by the parsley and the chopped scallion to create a fresh balance.
This Crab Salad tastes amazing on top of a bed of lettuce or mixed with pasta to make a pasta salad. It’s such a versatile salad that it’s bound to make it to the table, regardless of the season.
