This Spanish Seafood Salad is loaded with shrimp, crab, octopus, fresh veggies & olives. Seafood fans will love it’s fresh, bright, bold flavor!
Shrimp. Crab (yes,even the imitation stuff). Octopus. These are a few of my favorite things. I love seafood salad, but not so much when it’s drowned in mayo.
I skip the mayo and add olive oil & fresh veggies to this Spanish Seafood Salad. It’s got such fresh & bright flavor – you’ll end up wondering who decided to dump mayo on such magnificent ingredients in the first place!
This Seafood Salad is simple enough to make and involves minimal cooking. Actually, if you’d like, you can avoid all cooking by buying precooked shrimp. This salad does involve a little dicing and chopping prep time – but it’s all worth it.
The ingredients are simple enough – shrimp, crab meat, octopus (yes, octopus – trust me – it’s wonderful) tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olives, garlic & olive oil. These simple ingredients turn into something glorious when combined.
Oh, and I’ll say it again – this a seafood salad WITHOUT mayo. Thank goodness for that!
Now, let’s talk about octopus for a minute. Yes, there’s octopus in this salad. I love the taste & texture the octopus gives this salad. Although most people would never guess it’s in there – I’ve tried making this salad without octopus and definitely missed it. I use canned octopus for this salad, but go ahead and use fresh if you prefer. Squid works just as well and seems to be easier to find these days. The canned variety is cooked and ready to go with a little chopping. I usually find it in the ethnic or Spanish section in my grocery store.
This recipe can easily be halved if not feeding a crowd. You can also make this a day ahead, but I prefer to add the tomatoes a few hours before serving.
I serve this salad with an assortment of accompaniments. It’s great eaten all alone, with a squirt of lime, with a few slices of avocado, in fresh flour tortillas, with tortilla chips, with pasta, over rice, over a simple lettuce salad – it’s all wonderful!
Hope you enjoy! Thanks so much for stopping by ♥
-Amanda-
Spanish Seafood Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pound shrimp cooked & peeled (cut in half if you'd like)
- 1 1/2 pound imitation crab meat use the real stuff if you'd like
- 4 – 4 oz. cans octopus OR squid, drained I use Goya brand
- 1 1/4 cup green stuffed pimento olives halved (approx 5 1/2 oz jar)
- 1 large crisp green pepper diced
- 2 medium ripe tomatoes diced
- 1 medium sweet onion finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt to taste
Instructions
- Add cooked & peeled shrimp to large mixing bowl.
- Chop half of “crab” meat, by hand and flake the other half. Add to mixing bowl.
- Chop larger chunks of octopus. Add to bowl, mix all seafood together.
- Add halved olives, diced green peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, hot sauce and salt. Mix well.
- Cover bowl & let salad sit for a few hours in fridge to blend flavors.
- Serve cold. This salad is wonderful by itself or with lime, avocado, salad, pasta, rice, tortilla chips, fresh flour tortillas, crackers (etc)
- Enjoy!
Adriana Martin
This seafood salad looks like the perfect snack for game time. Love the use of the product too. Thanks for your participation on this shop ~ client
Amanda
Thanks so much Adriana 🙂
Bob Stearns
Why would you use fake crab and lobster meat?
Amanda
Hi Bob 🙂
You could certainly use real crab & lobster if you’d like. I’m on a budget, so I reserve crab & lobster for lighter & simpler dishes that are all about the seafood. I feel the delicate flavor of real crab/lobster almost gets lost in the bold flavors of this salad.
Hope this helps! Thanks for stopping by!
Wendy
I’m loving this salad. Thanks for sharing.
Kelly Lynns Sweets and Treats
Seafood salad heaven!! Love the shrimp and crab in this and all the yummy flavors 🙂
P~
Oh, yum!!! I could eat that entire huge bowl! P~