Seafood Salad Sandwich

Consider this the knock off version of a lobster roll. We’re taking lump crab meat and roasted shrimp, mixing it into a savory dressing, then stuffing the delicious salad into toasted brioche rolls. I always thought lobster tasted like crab but felt like shrimp, so this is the perfect salad to trick your tastebuds while simultaneously making them extremely happy.

So, let’s get to it!

Let’s start with our base dressing. I knew I wanted to use both crab and shrimp in this salad. So, I took flavor inspiration from 2 of my favorite crab and shrimp recipes: crab cakes and shrimp salad. I wanted to go the creamy route with the salad, so we’re going to use mayo as our base. Then, we’re going to add minced shallot and minced celery which are components that I stole from my shrimp salad. These veggies add a nice crunch to an otherwise softer textured salad.

For the crab cake inspired ingredients, I added some dijon mustard, fresh lemon juice, and minced parsley. These tangy elements do a great job of balancing out some of the richness of our seafood and cutting any heaviness from the mayo.

But, other than the seafood, the real star of the show is Old Bay. It’s no secret how I feel about Old Bay. We practically use it in 1 of 3 recipes around here. And, that’s for good reason. On top of being an 18 for the price of 1 seasoning blend thanks to the 18 herbs and spices in the mix, it adds that perfect amount of savory flavor to our seafood salad. Now if you taste this dressing on its own before you mix in the seafood, it’s going to taste aggressive. You’re going to think it’s too salty or too spicy. But, TRUST ME. Once you get the crab mixed in, it’s going to soak up all that delicious flavor and mellow out nicely.

Like I said earlier, we’re going to use an equal mix of crab and shrimp for this salad. I always recommend buying fresh lump crab meat as opposed to canned crab if you can, because the taste doesn’t even compare. As far as the shrimp, we’re simply going to sprinkle it with more Old Bay, let it roast in the oven for about 10 mins, let it cool, and chop it up. That’s it! Even better, if you have some leftover steamed shrimp (like from this recipe here), that would work perfectly in this salad too.

From there, we mix everything together pretty gently so that we don’t destroy the crab. Then, we’ll let it chill in the fridge for a bit so all of those flavors can marry together. And then, we eat! We’re going all in with seafood salad and brioche buns…that’s it. We don’t even need any garnishes to fill out the sandwich. You can add lettuce and tomato if you really want to, but it’s not necessary at all.

These sammies…WOW. The seafood is slightly sweet and truly succulent. The dressing is the perfect balance of tangy and savory. The bite of shallot adds a nice sharpness, while the bite of celery adds nice crunchy texture. Then, you have that toasted bun that’s naturally buttery. And, the whole situation is a seafood lover’s dream.

This is the perfect plan B when you don’t want to break the bank on a lobster roll. And, it’s the perfect plan A if you just want something extra delicious.

Ok, everyone. Should we do a warm butter based version of seafood salad next? Let me know what you think!

In the meantime, enjoy! And, let’s eat!