Seafood salads make for a perfect appetizer or side dish because they’re light, refreshing, and packed with flavor. With their wonderful mix of leafy greens, colorful veggies, scrumptious seafood, and creamy dressing, they’re always a delight to have at the table. Plus, I think the use of seafood instead of other meats gives salads more character and personality! In fact, I don’t get why seafood isn’t used more often in lunch and dinner recipes. They’re a lot more nutritious than other meats, they cook quickly, and they’re delicious! So, if you’re looking to amp up your salad gaming, you know what to do. These seafood salad recipes are shrimp-ly the best!
1. Crab Salad (Seafood Salad)
Let’s get the show on the road with a delectable crab salad! Now, there are many different variations of crab salad, but in essence, it’s a combination of crabmeat, dressing, herbs, and seasoning. This one is an indulgent yet refreshing mix of imitation crabmeat, shallots, celery, paprika, and dill tied together by creamy mayo. This creamy salad makes a fantastic side dish, but it can also be used as a filling to bread and hoagie rolls.
2. Frutti di Mare Seafood Salad
Frutti di mare is an Italian seafood dish that brings together shrimp, calamari, clams, and scallops in one heck of a seafood feast! Seriously, if you call yourself a seafood lover, this salad is a must-try. All the sweet and briny gifts from the sea join forces here to give you one epic dish. Adding more color to the dish are bell peppers, tomatoes, chives, and celery. Tying the flavors together is a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
3. Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Shrimp, avocados, and lime juice join forces to bring you a ridiculously refreshing, colorful, flavorful, and nutritious salad. There aren’t enough words to describe how phenomenal this salad is. The combination of sweet shrimp, creamy avocados, and zesty lime dressing creates the perfect balance of flavors. A great source of protein, vegetables, and healthy fat, this salad is perfect for your keto diet. Plus, this salad is also surprisingly easy to make, and it’s ready in just 20 minutes!
4. Smoked Salmon, Avocado, and Arugula Salad
I’m totally obsessed with smoked salmon. I always try to incorporate it into my meals, and this salad is one way I do so. First of all, look how pretty it is! This is definitely one of those salads you’ll want to take hundreds of photos of before you dig in. More importantly, it’s outrageously delicious. Smoked salmon and avocados are a match made in heaven! Arugula and microgreens are added for roughage, pears for sweetness and crunch, and onion for extra oomph. Tied together with a champagne vinaigrette, this salad has the perfect sweet and salty flavor profile.
5. Smoked Trout Salad
This smoked trout salad is made with smoked trout (no surprises there), radishes, microgreens, and a creamy yogurt and horseradish dressing. You’ll love how the bold tastes of both the trout and peppery microgreens together create a powerhouse of flavors.
6. Avocado Smoked Salmon Salad with Dijon Honey Vinaigrette
Like I said, smoked salmon and avocados = the perfect pair. This salad is more proof. In this recipe, the delectable duo is joined by leafy greens, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, feta crumbles, and dill sprigs. This is one flavor and nutrition-packed bowl, for sure! Bringing the flavors together is a sweet, tangy, and creamy honey dijon mustard dressing.
7. Shrimp and Artichoke Green Salad with Lemony Vinaigrette
You’d be surprised at how addicting this salad is. Believe me, you’ll crave this dish for days on end! To say this salad is fully loaded is an understatement. It’s packed with sweet and savory Italian herb shrimp, greens, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. It also has red onion, toasted pine nuts, parmesan, and a lemon vinaigrette. This salad is the stuff of legends.
8. Fruity Grilled Shrimp Salad with Strawberry Lime Poppyseed Vinaigrette
In this next recipe, fruit, vegetables, and seafood unite to make an incredibly refreshing summer salad. The combination of grilled shrimp, tart goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, chopped-up fruit, and a strawberry poppyseed vinaigrette is just too good for words! What’s not to love? From the colors to the textural contrasts to the flavor combinations, this salad is beyond delicious.
9. Avocado Pesto Tuna Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Traditional tuna salad is made of canned tuna and mayo. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, this one’s so much better! Instead of mayo, a rich avocado pesto is used to moisten the tuna, and it’s sensational. The outstanding tuna salad is topped on a bed of greens, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, cranberries, feta, pistachios, and a balsamic vinaigrette.
10. Salmon & Chickpea Salad
This unique salad combines minced bell peppers, cucumbers, celery, and shallots with chickpeas and canned salmon. It’s definitely not your usual salad recipe, so if you’re looking for something new, this salad is a must-try. The mixins are great, but the dressing is equally amazing. It’s a beautiful blend of olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and a medley of spices. Yum!
11. Blackened Fish Mexican Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
The great thing about the summer is that you get an abundant supply of fresh vegetables. It’s the perfect time to make this salad! This is a beautiful mix of onions, tomatoes, corn, and jalapenos, with a piece of blackened grilled fish for the protein. Completing the ensemble is a delicious cilantro lime dressing. What a light and refreshing treat, indeed.
12. Shrimp Cobb Salad
Cobb salads are full of so many contrasting textures and delicious ingredients. This salad is a refreshing mix of tomatoes, avocado slices, red onion, sweet corn, and sweet and spicy cajun shrimp. The dressing is a simple cilantro lime dressing that brings together and enhances the flavors of the components wonderfully well. There’s nothing bland about this salad at all!
13. The Best Tuna Salad
This tuna salad is hands down, the best tuna salad I’ve ever had. Considering I’ve made a lot of tuna salads in the past, this says a lot. With a perfect ratio of canned tuna, mayonnaise, celery, red onion, pickles, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, this tuna salad is purely phenomenal. To me, the best way to tell if a tuna salad is good is if you can eat it on its own with a spoon. It means the salad isn’t too bland, but not overly rich, either. With this salad, you can do exactly that.
14. Canned Mackerel Salad Recipe (Easy Keto Meal)
I’m not a huge fan of canned mackerel, but this salad recipe has definitely made me one. This mix of mackerel flakes, lettuce, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, avocado, and olives is colorful and flavorful beyond belief. I also love how it uses the same oil from the canned mackerel to make the dressing. Mix the oil with balsamic and apple cider vinegars, soy sauce, and hummus, and voila!
15. Lobster Salad
While budget-friendly meals are awesome, it’s also fun to indulge in fancy dishes from time to time. This next salad recipe is super ideal for when you’re in the mood for something sophisticated. Sweet and tender lobster meat is tossed with celery, chives, and a mayo-lemon dressing. It’s insanely delicious! Stuff this inside a hotdog bun or hoagie for the most mouthwatering lobster roll!
16. Portuguese Octopus Salad (Salada de Polvo)
Salada de Polvo is a traditional dish in Portugal that combines octopus meat, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and cilantro. The salad is drizzled with a simple olive oil and lime juice vinaigrette and seasoned with salt and pepper. Delicious. Pro-tip. Be careful when cooking octopus. It’s a very finicky meat. Over-cook it for just a few seconds and it’ll be tough and rubbery!
17. Shrimp and Calamari Salad
This shrimp and calamari salad combines two of my favorite shellfish on earth. Sweet and snappy shrimp plus tender and chewy squid rings unite to make this refreshing and tasty dish! Honestly, with just those two ingredients alone, this dish is already delicious. But what takes it to a whole new level is the dressing. A mix of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, celery, olives, parsley, and spices, the dressing is tart, savory, and earthy. It complements beautifully with the sweetness and briny-ness of the seafood.
18. Salmon Cobb Salad Recipe
Take the humble cobb salad and turn it into a stunning, special occasion-worthy dish with this recipe! Trust salmon to transform a simple dish into something extra classy. This salad is a gorgeous combo of romaine lettuce, corn kernels, red onion, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and cherry tomatoes. The mix-ins alone tell you how awesome it is! The salad is dressed with a refreshing cilantro lime dressing to tie the flavors together. All that gloriousness is topped with a rich, fatty, and perfectly seasoned pan-seared salmon fillet.
19. Seafood Salad (Imitation Crab and Shrimp in a Creamy Dill Dressing)
Shrimp and imitation crabmeat are tossed with vegetables and a creamy dill dressing. Besides the mayo and dill, the dressing is also seasoned with lemon juice and Old bay seasoning, giving it that wonderful punch of flavor. You’ll love how the varying levels of sweetness from the shrimp and crabmeat complement the creamy, spicy, and earthy dressing.
20. Best Seafood Pasta Salad
Pasta salads are such a treat! I love the combination of hearty pasta and vegetables. It makes any leafy salad extra tasty and filling. This salad is like the macaroni salad with hard-boiled eggs we all know and love, and then some. Besides the usual elements, this salad also features veggies, crabmeat, and shrimp as well. My heart! Click on a star to rate it!
Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 1 No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.
Share on social media: Let us improve this post!
