A blue bowl of crab salad with cucumber and tomato with a wooden spoon in it

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Let me start out by saying that store-bought crab salad can’t touch this. I am not a fan of deli-made crab salads with those giant chunks of celery and barely any crab. They are a no-go. After you’ve tried this homemade version, there’s no going back. It’s also super easy to make!

My friend Lyuda who is well known for her recipe: Shrimp and Mushrooms in a Garlic Bisque Sauce, shared this wonderful crab salad recipe with me. She invited us for dinner and served this up. We loved it!

It’s different from our first crab salad recipe in that it has more fresh ingredients. The flavor is wonderful. Surprisingly it tastes great the next day too. I was worried about the cucumber and tomatoes getting weird, but they didn’t. They stayed nice and crisp after refrigeration.

Ingredients for Crab Salad:

l lb (16 oz) package of Imitation crab meat, chopped/shredded up into small pieces
1 English One long cucumber, diced small
2 medium tomatoes, diced and drained of any excess juice
1/4 cup chopped Green onions, fresh or frozen
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1/2 cup mayo, or to taste (I’m keeping it healthier with a a vegenaise)

Crab Salad

How to Make Crab Salad:

1. Chop/shred crab into small pieces. You can chop with a knife or use a food processor and pulse in batches. Try to shred it apart a little for better coating with the dressing. P.S. Imitation crab meat is made of white fish.

I’ve loved this stuff since I was a kid and I can’t get over it (don’t judge me). I’d always ask my parents to buy it when we went grocery shopping together.

Crab Salad-2

2. Chop 2 medium tomatoes and drained them of any excess juice. It wouldn’t be a bad plan to seed them to keep the salad from getting too juicy the next day. Make small dice out of the cucumber. In a large bowl , combine chopped tomatoes, diced cucumbers, shredded crab and 1/4 cup diced green onion.

Crab Salad-3

3. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup mayo and 3 pressed cloves of garlic. Add the dressing to the crab salad to taste. You can add more mayo if you like a juicier salad. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

crab-salad

The flavor of this Crab Salad with Cucumber and Tomato is wonderful. Surprisingly it stays crisp and tastes great the next day too.

The flavor of this Crab Salad with Cucumber and Tomato is wonderful. Surprisingly it stays crisp and tastes great the next day too.

Natasha's Kitchen Cookbook

Crab Salad with Cucumber and Tomato Recipe

4.84 from 30 votes
Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients 

Servings: 6 -8
  • l lb, 16 oz package of Imitation crab meat, chopped/shredded up into small pieces
  • 1 English One long cucumber, diced small
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced and drained of any excess juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped Green onions, fresh or frozen
  • 3 cloves of garlic, pressed
  • 1/2 cup mayo, or to taste (I'm keeping it healthier with a a vegenaise)

Instructions

  • Chop/shred crab into small pieces. You can chop with a knife or use a food processor and pulse in batches. Try to shred it apart a little for better coating with the dressing. P.S. Imitation crab meat is made of white fish. I've loved this stuff since I was a kid and I can't get over it (don't judge me). I'd always ask my parents to buy it when we went grocery shopping together.
  • Chop 2 medium tomatoes and drained them of any excess juice. It wouldn't be a bad plan to seed them to keep the salad from getting too juicy the next day. Make small dice out of the cucumber. In a large bowl , combine chopped tomatoes, diced cucumbers, shredded crab and 1/4 cup diced green onion.
  • In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup mayo and 3 pressed cloves of garlic. Add the dressing to the crab salad to taste. You can add more mayo if you like a juicier salad. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Course: Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Crab Salad with Cucumber and Tomato
Skill Level: Easy
Cost to Make: $

Let me know how much you like it! 🙂

Natasha Kravchuk

Welcome to my kitchen! I am Natasha, the blogger behind Natasha's Kitchen (since 2009). My husband and I run this blog together and share only our best, family approved and tested recipes with YOU. Thanks for stopping by! We are so happy you're here.

Read more posts by Natasha

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Recipe Rating




Comments

  • Elle @ (Eat.Style.Play)
    March 22, 2014

    Looks really good! I’m gonna try with Shrimp and Crabmeat for this week!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      March 22, 2014

      Oooh nice! That sounds like a good combo but I haven’t tried it before. Let me know how you like it 🙂

      Reply

  • teresita
    February 21, 2014

    I make this salad but i have never used tomatoes… one if my favorite

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      February 21, 2014

      The tomatoes are a nice addition. 🙂

      Reply

  • Galya
    January 23, 2014

    Thank you it is very good. Made it and loved it:)

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      January 23, 2014

      Thanks for the great review! I’m so happy you loved it 🙂

      Reply

  • Lee S.
    December 28, 2013

    Hello, Natasha

    I work at local Austin Meat/Seafood market and was looking for a recipe that was as you said, [a recipe that] “store-bought crab salad can’t touch….”. On that point my idea is to make small batch (2 lbs), with fresh produce, to sell it out of our seafood case.

    If you don’t mind me using your recipe shoot me an email, I think its perfect!

    Let me know,
    Thanks

    Lee.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 28, 2013

      That would be fine 🙂 thanks for asking 🙂

      Reply

  • Yelena K
    December 24, 2013

    Just curious what knife brand do you use? I noticed a knife (couldn’t see the brand) in one of pictures and since i’m sure you do a lot of chopping I’d ask. 🙂

    Thanks

    Reply

      • Yelena K
        December 26, 2013

        I knew it! I had a choice between Henckels and Palm and I ended up going with the Palm brand.. Oh well.

        Reply

        • Natasha
          natashaskitchen
          December 26, 2013

          I haven’t tried the Palm brand. Do you love them?

          Reply

          • Yelena K
            January 1, 2014

            I Haven’t used them enough to give them a rating especially because I grew up with Cutco knives. But I think one of the paring knives is a little dull :-/

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            January 1, 2014

            How did you like the Cutco?

          • Yelena K
            January 4, 2014

            Cutco knives were pretty good. We’ve had them for over 10 years. Really expensive though.

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            January 5, 2014

            What’s the best place to buy them?

          • Yelena K
            January 8, 2014

            Im really not sure. My cousin used to work for that company as a sales person, thats how we got ours.

      • Irina
        May 2, 2014

        I just bought two Henckels 4″ paring knives and I love them! This size of a knife you can do practically everything with it. Will be ordering more soon!

        Reply

  • Olga
    December 12, 2013

    Crab salad is a big hit with our family, especially my brothers and brother in laws:). We make it for every party. I’m pretty sure it’ll be on the menu this Christmas as well. We’ll have to try your version too.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 12, 2013

      I hope you love it if you try it. Most of our family loves crab salad too except my Mom who stays away from shellfish. But I sure do love the stuff! 🙂

      Reply

  • Irene
    December 8, 2013

    I made this yesterday along with the Pomegranate cake. It was really good! I’m not a big fan of Crab meat but I didn’t mind it in the salad because the rest of the ingredients balanced it out, and the mayo made it nice and creamy. And my family liked it so it’s definitely a keeper!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 8, 2013

      That’s awesome! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂

      Reply

  • Nelya
    December 6, 2013

    Natasha,
    Where did you buy Vegenaise? I think Ive tried every mayo thats organic/non gmo and can’t seem to find one that tastes good.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 6, 2013

      Fred Meyer 🙂

      Reply

  • Edyta
    December 4, 2013

    I love your blog, your recipes are wonderful. I’m from Poland and many polish and ukrainian dishes are very similar. Thumbs up!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 4, 2013

      Edyta, thank you for your sweet comment :). I agree, there are many similarities in Polish/Ukrainian dishes.

      Reply

  • Mira P
    December 3, 2013

    Can I use regular mayonnaise ?? Does vegenaise taste much different ??

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 3, 2013

      Yes! Absolutely! It tastes pretty much the same 🙂

      Reply

  • Vera
    December 3, 2013

    I make similar salad with crab and tomatoes but I don’t add cucumbers to it. I read it in a Russian cook book and it’s really good 🙂 I’ll try these version too thank you so much for sharing recipes with us ❤

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 3, 2013

      Was there anything else different in yours? I’ll need to make one of those one of these days; a Russian cookbook 😉

      Reply

      • Vera
        December 16, 2013

        yes we also add dill and black pepper 🙂 btw I made this salad today and we loved it 😉 thank you very much. my fiancé kept telling me don’t forget to add this to your recipe book =D

        Reply

        • Natasha
          natashaskitchen
          December 16, 2013

          Ha! that’s awesome. Congrats on the engagement! 🙂

          Reply

  • Anet
    December 2, 2013

    Omg! How funny, today is the first time I bought crab meat (imitation). Was wondering how to make crab salad. You are amazing. It feels like you read my mind. Lol

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 3, 2013

      I’m not a mind reader, but that reminds me of a funny story. I work in telemetry and when I first got my job as an RN my sister (who is my hair stylist) told people that I was in Telepathy (mind reading) instead of telemetry. lol.

      Reply

      • Anet
        December 3, 2013

        Lol. I love all your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing them with all of us.

        Reply

  • Mom's Dish
    December 2, 2013

    Natasha, thanks for sharing this recipe. This looks like a good salad, I want to try this recipe for our coming up family Christmas 🙂

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 3, 2013

      I hope you love it!! I’ll be scouring your site and the rest of my foodie favorites in preparation for my upcoming holiday parties 🙂

      Reply

      • Mom's Dish
        December 3, 2013

        I have noticed :::))))

        Reply

  • Natalie
    December 2, 2013

    Do you think I could use a real crab meat in this salad?
    Though I like that fake stuff so much, I still buy these “palochki” for myself to snack on.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      I think it might work but I haven’t tested it with the real stuff to see the taste difference. If anything, I bet it would taste even better 😉 I can’t get past the imitation crab meat. I just cant stop. oh well. lol

      Reply

  • Iryna
    December 2, 2013

    Thank you for “enlightened” version of this salad!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      Anytime 🙂 It does feel lighter on the gut lol.

      Reply

  • Amanda
    December 2, 2013

    I love your blue bowl! Where did you get it? I’m always on the lookout for food styling props! 🙂

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      It’s from Home Goods a.k.a. TJ max 🙂 I bought it at “home goods” on our trip to Sacramento.

      Reply

  • Julia@Vikalinka
    December 2, 2013

    Mmm, so light and refreshing. My husband calls it “Russian Salad”, although to be fair anything with mayo he calls Russian salad. 🙂 I make mine with canned corn and dill but would love to try this version. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      Oh goodness corn and dill do sound amazing! My other crab salad is made with corn. So true, anything with mayo is Russian salad. What is it with us and mayo? I’m not complaining 😉

      Reply

  • Vera
    December 2, 2013

    Just recipe sounds so yummy. Can’t wait to come home from work and make it today. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      You’re welcome. I hope you love it! 🙂

      Reply

  • Julia
    December 2, 2013

    This looks really good, Natasha! I make your other crab salad quite often 🙂 What did your friend serve this with? Does it go as a dinner side salad or more like for lunch with a sandwich?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      She served it like a dinner side salad, but you could serve it for lunch with a sandwich. She served it with rice and that shrimp and mushrooms in a bisque sauce recipe that I have linked at the top of this post. It was super yummy! 🙂

      Reply

  • Tatyana v
    December 2, 2013

    Thanks for posting this recipe! I like crab salads very much so this new version is appreciated…

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 2, 2013

      I’m a major fan too! It was my favorite salad growing up 🙂

      Reply

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