Macheesmo

I should actually call this my award winning Easy Crab and Avocado Salad.

Let me explain. Every year Betsy and I haul off to North Carolina to spend a week with her family on the beach. It’s always a great time and one thing we do when we are there is eat really well. There aren’t a lot of restaurants in the area so we make big family dinners and feed 20-30 people each night. There are many excellent cooks in Betsy’s family so it’s always good eats.

The last night of the trip we have a “leftovers” night where everyone pulls out stuff from fridges and comes together to eat whatever is left from the week of good dinners. This could be everything from spaghetti and meatballs, to ceviche, to braised pork tacos.

This year we ordered crabs for lunch one day and I was a bit out of practice with my crab picking. So I took a few of the leftover crabs and worked on my picking skills. I made a really simple salad out of the leftover crab (this very salad) and it somehow became the most talked about dish of the week and was casually awarded best dish of the week by a few of the foodies in the group.

One person described it as Disturbingly Delicious… I think because something this good shouldn’t be this easy to make.

Of course, the salad isn’t quite as good with packaged crab, but it’s still a great light salad. Perfect for summer!

Crab & Avocado Salad

by Nick

Serves:

Serves 4-6.

Prep Time:

15 mins

Total Time:

15 mins

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Print Recipe

This salad is so light and delicious. It’s a perfect appetizer for summer and super easy to toss together. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/2 cup red onion, diced

1 cup tomatoes, diced

1 cup cucumber, diced

1/2 lime

Handful cilantro

2 avocados

6 oz. crab (lump crab works best)

Kosher Salt

Old Bay (optional)

Show Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together diced onion, tomatoes, cucumber, lime, and cilantro. Season with lime and salt.
2. Stir in ripe avocados.
3. Finally, stir in flaked crab (lump crab works best but any is fine). Season to taste with old bay and salt.
4. Serve immediately or chill and serve within the same day.

Crab and Avocado Salad

The first time I made this salad I literally just made it based on stuff I had in our fridge. It was simple flavors which is good because crab is a light flavor and you can easily overpower it.

This salad is all about balance so try to keep the ingredients in proportion. If you add too much onion, it’ll have too much bite. Too much acid from the lime will wash out the flavors.

Maybe most importantly, add the ingredients to your bowl in order of delicateness. So the crab should be the very last thing and the avocado should be the second-to-last thing. If you overmix those things in, you’ll end up with some kind of strange crab guacamole.

Just barely fold in the crab at the end. Lump crab meat works best but anything will do. I don’t personally recommend imitation crab for this dish because the flavor is too strong. Real crab has a much lighter flavor.

Season it simply with salt and maybe a pinch of Old Bay if that’s your thing. It doesn’t need it though in my opinion.

You could serve this on flatbreads to make it more of a meal, but honestly it’s just great as a light appetizer or side dish.

Try this award winning Crab and Avocado salad ASAP!