Seafood Pasta Salad – CopyKat Recipes

April 6, 2023

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Are you within the temper for a creamy chilly pasta salad with a seafood twist? Look no additional than this scrumptious and straightforward seafood pasta salad recipe. Made with imitation crab meat and a medley of colourful veggies, this pasta salad is the proper dish for a weeknight meal. The tangy dressing is made with a mix of bitter cream, milk, and ranch dressing, including a zesty kick to each chunk.

Overhead view of seafood pasta salad on a black plate.

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What Makes This Seafood Pasta Salad So Good?

Seafood pasta salads will be iffy. Putting the proper stability between the sauce, seafood, and pasta isn’t all the time simple. However this seafood salad recipe with pasta will get it proper.

The creamy bitter cream and ranch sauce is simply tart sufficient to carry out the slight brininess of the imitation crab, and the veggies add a crunch that contrasts fantastically with the superbly cooked pasta. Make this Seafood Pasta Salad recipe as gentle lunch or serve it as a part of dinner.

Why This Seafood Salad Is Excellent for a Pot Luck Dinner

That is the sort of dish that, when it reveals up on the desk at a potluck, you’d higher take an additional massive serving to as a result of there isn’t going to be any left once you return for seconds. When you present up with this salad, your mates shall be impressed. And there’s no purpose to inform them how fast, simple, and cheap it’s to make sufficient to feed a crowd!

Seafood Pasta Salad Elements

For this pasta salad, you’ll want:

Penne pasta
Bitter cream
Ranch dressing
Entire milk
Imitation crab meat
White onion
Inexperienced bell pepper
Celery

Seafood pasta salad ingredients on a tray.

Imitation crabmeat is a typical ingredient in Japanese cooking, and you will discover it at most Asian grocery shops or on-line. It’s made out of fish pureed with different substances after which fashioned to resemble the actual factor.

You should utilize different pasta as a substitute of penne. Macaroni, rotini, or ziti are nice selections.

Learn how to Make This Seafood Salad With Pasta

To cook dinner the pasta:

Boil the pasta in closely salted water in accordance with the bundle directions. Don’t neglect chilly temperatures mute flavors. Which means you will have extra salt than regular.
Prepare dinner the pasta for a few minute longer than you’ll in the event you had been making sizzling pasta. You’re on the lookout for one thing a little bit extra tender than al dente.
Pour the pasta right into a colander and rinse below chilly operating water to chill instantly.
Toss the pasta within the colander over the sink to take away as a lot water as potential. Permit the pasta to empty nicely.

To complete the seafood salad with pasta:

Mix the bitter cream, ranch dressing, and milk in a big mixing bowl. Stir nicely.

Seafood pasta salad dressing ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Cowl the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it within the fridge for a minimum of two hours to permit the flavors to meld.
Simply earlier than you take away the sauce from the fridge, lower the imitation crab meat into chunk measurement items. Chop the white onion, inexperienced peppers, and a couple of stalks celery into small items. Mix them with the pasta in a big bowl.

Seafood pasta salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Take away the well-chilled sauce from the fridge. Add the remainder of the sauce substances to the blending bowl.
Add the sauce to the pasta combination and stir to mix.
Cowl the bowl with plastic wrap and chill it for a minimum of two extra hours earlier than serving.
Garnish with paprika or herbs – recent dill or parsley.

What to Serve With Imitation Crab Pasta Salad

This recipe could also be for a Seafood Pasta Salad with out mayonnaise, however it’s nonetheless extraordinarily decadent. Pairing the pasta salad with sides that may lower a number of the richness of the sauce work very well. Listed here are a number of options:

Garlic bread brings numerous crunchy texture to the meal and the sturdy and intense taste of garlic.
A Greek or Caesar salad will add extra recent greens and assist increase the acidity of the seafood pasta salad.
Coleslaw, however not the type with mayo. The very best kind of coleslaw to pair with seafood salad accommodates shredded cabbage and carrots tossed with oil and vinegar!

Recipe Variations

This seafood salad makes use of imitation crab as a result of it’s tasty and straightforward to work with however be at liberty to make use of the actual factor. After all, it’s also possible to use different cooked seafood, similar to peeled shrimp and even lobster!

Learn how to Retailer Pasta With Seafood Salad

Put leftovers in an hermetic container and maintain them within the fridge. Don’t freeze.

How Lengthy Will It Final

It is best to end any further seafood salad pasta inside two to 3 days after making it. It’s not suitable for eating any seafood that has warmed to room temperature.

Closeup of seafood pasta salad on a black plate.

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Try extra of my simple pasta recipes and the very best salad recipes on CopyKat!