Seafood Pasta Salad is one of the best pasta salad recipes for summer. Loaded with flavor from the pasta, shrimp, imitation crab meat, celery, and onion. All are coated with a creamy dressing made from mayo and ranch salad dressing. This perfect summer dish will complement any main course.
Next, to my Potato, Macaroni, and Taco Salad, this seafood salad recipe is a favorite of my family and I'm sure it will become your family favorite as well.
My husband's family would get together for many holidays throughout the year, which meant potlucks. One of his sisters would bring this seafood pasta salad recipe and it was one of the first dishes to be gone, everyone loved it.
It's been a long time since we have had his sister's seafood pasta salad, so I decided to give it a try. This is my version of hubby's sister's seafood pasta salad I think you will enjoy this recipe.
How To Make Seafood Pasta Salad
In order to call this salad seafood, you will need some seafood so why not start with crab. I used imitation crabmeat for this salad, I think it holds up better than real crab meat.
But by all means, if you would like to try real crab meat I'm sure it would taste even better. You may also want to try our crab stuffed mushrooms if you like real crab meat.
For the shrimp I used cooked salad shrimp, it was an 8-ounce package that said 100-200 shrimp inside. I found this to be a good amount for this salad. Just make sure to use deveined shrimp or you will need to devein them.
I started making this salad by chopping the imitation crab meat up into chunks and placing the chunks into a large mixing bowl. Even though the shrimp is small I still chopped them up a bit. You will want to make sure everything is bite-sized that way you can get a little of everything in a bite.
While getting everything ready for the salad I had the radiatore noodles cooking on the stove according to the cooking process on the box. If you can't find radiatore noodles then rotini noodles will work.
Cook pasta in a large pot with a little olive oil so the noodles wouldn't stick together however, cook until you have tender pasta. If you are not a fan of olive oil then you could replace that with butter in the noodles.
Along with cutting up the crab and shrimp I also cut up celery, onion, and fresh parsley to go into this pasta salad. Bring more color to this seafood pasta by adding in some red bell pepper. Or change the white onion for a red onion.
When the pasta is all done cooking, drain all the water off. Having the noodles in the colander is the perfect time to run cold water over the noodles to help cool them down some. Or allow them to sit for a few minute in an ice bath.
Dressing Ingredients
Now, this is part of the creamy shrimp pasta salad that I'm not sure if it's the same as hubby's sister's or not, but I really like the flavor of this dressing.
In a small bowl, mix together with the mayonnaise and ranch dressing with a little sugar. Make sure that the sugar is dissolved completely.
For the mayo, I did use real mayo and not miracle whip. If you use miracle whip you might want to add more sugar to help tame down the miracle whip some.
With the dressing made, the pasta cooked, and all the goodies cut up. It's time to mix everything together in a large bowl, mixing until all ingredients are coated with this delicious creamy dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper or even sprinkle a bit of Old Bay seasoning on.
Once all the ingredients are mixed together store in ana airtight container or cover your bowl with plastic wrap. Place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it this amazing side dish recipe. This salad goes great with my Sloppy Joes or a good hamburger. Or allow this crab and shrimp pasta salad to stand on its own for a light and satisfying meal.
This crab and shrimp seafood pasta salad is a great potluck recipe for a long weekend at home. I like to make this recipe during the summer for long holiday weekends or to bring along to summer bbqs.
Having a large bowl of it in the fridge takes the guesswork out of what to have with what we will be grilling. Serve the leftovers the next day as an easy light and satisfying lunch.
Hope you enjoy this delicious salad that is loaded with imitation crab, shrimp, and pasta as much as we do.
More perfect side dish recipes that are a hit during the summer months.
Crab And Shrimp Seafood Pasta Salad
Seafood pasta salad is a deilcious and refreshing dish that is loaded with pasta, shrimp, imitation crabmeat. All mixed together in a creamy dressing that is made with mayo and ranch.
Ingredients
For the salad
- 8 Ounces Imitation Crab Meat Chopped up
- 8 Ounces Cooked Salad Shrimp Chopped up
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 16 Ounce Radiatore Noodle
- ½ Cup Celery Diced
- ⅓ Cup Onion Diced
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley Chopped
For the Dressing
- 1 Cup Mayo
- ½ Cup Ranch Dressing
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
Instructions
For the Salad
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Bring a pot of water to a full boil. To the pot of water add olive oil
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Cook pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta into a colander, run cold water over the pasta. Make sure all water is off the pasta.
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In a large bowl add the crab meat, shrimp, celery, onion, parsley and the cooked radiatore noodles. Mix everything together.
For the Dressing
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In a small bowl combine the sugar, mayo and ranch dressing.
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With the dressing made add it to the large bowl with the crab and goodies. Mix everything together really well
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Cover bowl and place in the refrigerator until salad is cool
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
The nutritional value may vary depending on the ingredients used.
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Cristina Alciati
I love pasta salads in the Summer. They can be very filling whilst helping you cool down after a warm day spent at work or running errands. This recipe sounds delicious. Being from the Mediterranean region I tend to use tuna, olives and tomatoes in my version of this but will try the shrimp and crab version next time. 🙂
Jennifer
The way you make your pasta salad sounds really good as well, I will have to try it. Thank you for stopping by
Megan
My husband would looooove this! He loves pasta salad, and could eat an entire package of imitation crab!
Jennifer
I'm the same way, I love pasta salad.
Danielle
This looks delicious! I am pinning for later. Thanks for sharing!
Jennifer
Yes, this is delicious! Thanks for stopping by and pinning this recipe.
Jena Leigh
This looks super delish! And yeah I dont like the taste of Miracle Whip or Kraft lol. *gag*. This is totally perfect for the summer too????
Jennifer
Yes, it is delicious. I think that the miracle whip would have changed the taste quite a bit that way the real mayo was the best option for this salad.