Seafood Pasta Salad

A complete meal on one plate if you just add some greens, this seafood macaroni salad is perfect to prep ahead of time and enjoy as a workday lunch or an easy weeknight dinner—basically anytime you want a seafood-rich meal that’s packed with flavor.

Assuming your shrimp is precooked and your eggs already hard-boiled, you can make this dish in less than 20 minutes. It’s also easy to scale it up and serve it to a crowd. Once you’ve made this seafood pasta salad recipe as laid out below, why not try your own variations, swapping in other seafoods or different noodles?

Ingredients for Seafood Pasta Salad

• Elbow macaroni: You’ll want 3 cups of uncooked elbow macaroni for this recipe, which is about 10 ounces of pasta.
• Shrimp: Your shrimp should be peeled and deveined, rinsed and drained, and most important, pre-cooked! That can be by you, or you can use prepared shrimp.
• Crabmeat: The crabmeat needs to be drained and flaked. And yes, imitation crabmeat can be used here, if need be.
• Celery: The celery should be sliced thin so it spreads itself out around the recipe.
• Onion: Finely chopped onion releases flavor and aroma into this rich dish, so take the time to chop it well, or even use a food processor.
• Eggs: You want three or four coarsely chopped hard-boiled eggs to create this protein-rich dish.
• Mayonnaise: Both a flavoring agent itself and a vehicle for transporting other ingredients around the dish, mayo is one thing to not skimp on.
• Pickle relish or sweet pickles: Whether you’re using store-bought sweet pickle relish or chopping sweet pickles yourself, you’ll want to use 3 tablespoons of the stuff.
• Mustard: A German mustard or a classic yellow mustard work well here, though a Dijon is also acceptable, as are other mustards, within reason.
• Vinegar: A little vinegar goes a long way, so try to keep it to 1 tablespoon, without adding extra.
• Paprika: When you see hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise joining a recipe, it’s a logical conclusion that paprika is along for the ride as well.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the pasta and prep the rest

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Cook the macaroni per the package directions. Meanwhile, chop the onion and celery, dice the eggs and portion everything out.

Step 2: Combine the salad components

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One the pasta has cooked, drain it, let it cool and place it in a large bowl. Add the shrimp, crabmeat, celery, onion and eggs to the bowl, tossing everything to combine, then set the bowl aside.

Step 3: Mix the dressing

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In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, pickle relish, mustard, vinegar and paprika, and stir them well to combine.

Step 4: Dress the seafood salad

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Add the dressing to the ingredients in the large bowl, and toss lightly to combine and coat the noodles and seafood, adding salt and pepper to taste. Cover the bowl and chill it in the fridge till you’re ready to eat.

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Seafood Pasta Salad Variations

• Skip the pickles: If there is one ingredient you can leave out of this recipe (and some people strongly prefer to), it’s the pickles. Leave them out, and everything will still taste great.
• Try other seafoods: You can make this dish with scallops, mussels, clams or whatever seafood you like the most—though not fish, of course, as that will throw off the flavor. For a truly fancy salad, try lobster.
• Make it vegetarian: Granted, you’ll have to drop the seafood part of the name, but leaving out shrimp and crab and instead adding in lightly cooked tofu is a great recipe for a vegetarian-friendly meal. Consider adding a dash of Old Bay seasoning to compensate for the lack of the seafood taste.

How to Store Seafood Pasta Salad

You can store this pasta salad with seafood in an airtight container in the fridge for two days, but it’s really best to not keep it for longer than that, as some pretty off-putting odors will start to develop. And don’t freeze it; even though the ingredients would be technically safe for several months, the taste and consistency will be entirely unpleasant when it’s thawed.

Seafood Pasta Salad Tips

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How long does this seafood pasta salad need to chill?

Make sure to let the dish chill in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes before serving it, though an entire hour is better, to ensure it’s cool through and through. And a multi-hour rest is fine too, though same-day enjoyment is best.

What should I serve with seafood pasta salad?

Embrace the salad part of the name and serve this dish over a bed of fresh greens. Chopped romaine lettuce or thin strips of raw kale are a great choice, as heartier greens like this have a crunch that satisfies when contrasted with the soft eggs and seafood.

What is the best way to hard-boil eggs for this recipe?

You want the eggs entirely cooked, with the yolks set, but not too hard or rubbery. We recommend bringing the eggs to room temperature, then adding them to a pot of water at a rolling boil and cooking for 10 minutes. Then chill the eggs as fast as you can with cold water or an ice bath.