Crab Salad with Cucumber and Grapefruit
Lately I have noticed that I cook better food when I’m left with no options in the fridge!
Strange isn’t it?
Maybe it’s because I have to think twice as hard to come up with tasty flavor combinations and then hope they will go well together – just like in Chopped! 😉
When there is food in the house that’s about to go bad, I feel a sense of urgency to use them to avoid being wasteful. Especially if it’s from an animal or fish; throwing away meat of any kind is never allowed in my kitchen! This time I had an opened bag of crab meat that was quickly expiring so I decided to build a dish around it.
When I have leftover crab, my go-to dish has always been a Japanese sunomono salad. However this time I wanted to make something to pair with a spaghetti vongole.
A citrus based crab salad sounded like the perfect idea. Simplicity, freshness and light seasoning are at the base of many Italian dishes so this crab salad fits all the criteria.
Notice the addition of hot sauce in my lime dressing? My signature move, I think I’m slowly turning into Bobby Flay – everything tastes better with a little heat! The result is a refreshing and cooling crab salad that’s a little sweet and hot, crunchy and acidic.
I would have never thought of putting those ingredients together if I hadn’t been faced with an almost empty fridge.
But when I’m feeling lazy I go all the way lazy, which means I stay in my jammies all day and ignore the fact that I live less than a block away from the grocery store.
I guess some positive aspects can come out of laziness! I now adore this crab salad and make it once or twice a month. Sunomono isn’t my go-to option for crab anymore. 🙂
Crab Salad with Cucumber and Grapefruit
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 people 1x
- Category: Salads
- Cuisine: America
Description
Crab meat tossed in clean citrus flavors and accompanied by crunchy cucumbers.
Ingredients
- 1/2 English cucumber (sliced half seeds removed and sliced into thin strips)
- 6 ounces lump crab meat
- 1 large pink grapefruit (peeled, segmented and sliced in half.)
- For the Dresssing:
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon tabasco or other hot sauce (I use Frank’s Red Sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the dressing and set aside.
- Arrange the cucumbers, grapefruit and crab meat on a plate.
- Pour dressing over and serve cold.
Notes
This crab salad will keep refrigerated for 1 day.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 283
- Sugar: 3.1 g
- Sodium: 1185.3 mg
- Fat: 15.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 18.1 g
- Fiber: 0.4 g
- Protein: 21.4 g
- Cholesterol: 60.4 mg
