Creamy seafood macaroni made with elbow pasta and loaded with shrimp, and crab!
I love easy pasta salad recipes, and apparently so do a lot of my subscribers. I have been getting a ton of recipe request for easy macaroni salad recipes. Although I have a couple macaroni salad recipes uploaded, such as my creamy macaroni salad, and my summer pasta salad – I still decided to upload a new and very simple macaroni salad recipe. This time I’m making Seafood Macaroni Salad!
For my seafood macaroni salad I use large elbow macaroni pasta, and I add lots of shrimp and crab. I actually use imitation crab meat for this easy pasta salad for several reasons. The first reason is because it’s less expensive than regular crab. The second reason is because I LOVE imitation crab. If you’d like to use real crab meat, you can.
Other than the seafood mentioned, I also use a combination of celery, onion, and sliced black olives. The dressing for this salad is a combination of mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, and seasonings. I like a lot of dressing in my salad, but if you don’t you can use less!
Once everything is done, I usually cover up my seafood macaroni pasta salad, and place it in the refrigerator until it’s nice and cold. If you can, try making this pasta salad a day before. That way the flavors can marry each other overnight. The outcome is amazing!
Check out my video tutorial for this easy Seafood Macaroni Salad!
Seafood Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups dry elbow macaroni pasta large or small will work
- 1 lb cooked shrimp shells removed
- 1 lb imitation crab meat
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/3 cup diced celery
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 tsp cajun seasoning
- 1 tsp old bay seasoning
- 1 tbsp parsley flakes
- 1 tsp salt for boiling the pasta
Instructions
- Boil the pasta in lightly salted water( boil in a medium sized pot, with 1 tsp of salt), until it's al dente.
- Drain the pasta once done, and rinse it under cold water to stop the cooking process.
- In a large bowl combine the mayonnaise, mustard, and lemon juice. Mix until well combined.
- Now sprinkle in the cajun seasoning, and old bay seasoning. Mix well.
- Add in the minced garlic.
- Add in the seafood, and toss or stir in the bowl until it's covered with the dressing.
- Add in the onions, celery, and olives.
- Next add in the elbow macaroni pasta, and fold all of the ingredients.
- Sprinkle in the dried parsley flakes and fold the ingredients.
- Cover the pasta, and refrigerate until it's nice and cold.
- Serve and enjoy!
Love all the flavors of this pasta salad. Definitely will be making this soon! Pinned. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mary!
Hey cuz, girl I love your crab pasta salad. I Made it for the family, and they asked me to make it all the time..thank you so much and God bless you and your family.. Much love
Thanks for the great recipes. Instead of using less dressing, I added a can of tuna and it worked perfectly. Maybe even adding smoked salmon would taste good.
Sounds good! XOXO
So. I made this salad and. Its the best macaroni salad. I have ever had. Like in all my 34 years on earth. And it went over so well with my picky 9 year old loved it. Rosie you are the bomb.com. keep the great recipes coming.
Hi Burgundy! Yesss!!! I love it too!! I have a few more macaroni salad recipes coming up that are just as amazing. Stay Tuned!
Hey Rosie! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe. It will now be my go-to recipe for seafood pasta salad.
I tried this recipe on this past weekend and it was a HIT!!!! It didn’t last a full day! My boys said it was the best seafood salad they ever had! I love trying your recipes.
Hi Maria! I’m so glad that you and the boys loved the recipe!!! XOXO
I just made the macaroni seafood salad, and it is delish! Thanks for sharing your wonderful food creations!
Hi, can I use real crab meat?
Absolutely
Can I use Italian dressing instead of mayo
That would definitely change the recipe.
Hi Rosie,
You are an amazing cook! Keep up the GREAT work! This recipe was such a hit at my family gathering. Everyone is requesting it now! Keep the recipes coming!
~Tamika
Hi Tamika!! Yay!!! So glad that everyone liked the recipe.
Does the Cajun seasoning make it spicy? My hubby doesn’t do hot. Thx
Yes, it does add a tiny bit of heat. You can use seasoning salt instead 🙂
Brought this to a potluck and everyone loved it! This is the first recipe of yours I’ve made. I’ll definitely be trying more!
YAY!! Glad that you like the recipe! XOXO
Can you make it with dijon mustard or would it taste better with yellow mustard?
I prefer yellow. It depends on your preference 🙂
Just looking and found you,so I’m going to try your recipe’s,Chief’s my name and cooking is my game my mom taught me as much as she can about cooking,also my dad too my mom is Native American Indian Chippewa and Ottawa and my Dad is Mexican and Apache between them both they help me to start from scratch,so now I do all the cooking in my family …
Awesome! Happy holidays.
Hi Rosie, what kind of mayo do you use for this seafood salad??
I used best foods mayonnaise.
Hello Rosie, How much minced garlic did you use in this recipe ( I didn’t see it listed in the ingredients)? THANK YOU for sharing your recipes. I have tried many of them and ALL of them turned out GREAT!!!
Hi there. I tsp of minced garlic! 🙂
Hi I was looking for a different recipe to make for my family and I came across your seafood salad i hope everyone enjoy tomorrow super bowl Sunday and also a dedication to my brother who passed away last super bowl Sunday.
Okay I hope you respond Rosie
Hi Julie, Sorry for your loss.
Thank You Rosie. Everyone enjoyed the seafood salad thanks and please send me more delicious recipes
Hi Julie. Please subscribe to my mailing list to receive recipes.
Hi Rosie I applied to your website and I look forward to more of your amazing recipes thank you again and god bless you and your family
Scrumptious recipe chock full of seafood, delicious vegetables and flavorful dressing. This would work so well for potlucks or picnics. I love your blog.
Thanks Valerie!
Do you have to add the olives
Nope. If you don’t like olives, leave them out.
I made this recipe for the second time today for dinner. I love it so much! The flavors are amazing!!! All of the recipes I have tried from you have come out amazing. Not sure what next one I plan to try!!! Thanks so much!!
Hey Rosie!
I love all your recipes! I wanted to make this for Thanksgiving and was wondering if I could make this the night before or would it get too soggy?
You can definitely make it the day before 🙂
Made this tonight. Delicious! Thank you for posting this!! This will be my go to for seafood salad from now on!
OMG! Rosie this seafood salad was excellent! you REALLY know how to season your foods that bring out the best, taseful favors. This will be my seafood/mac salad recipe from now on. I love your other recipies as well.
i’ll repeat you really know how to season food expertly and you are an superb cook and please continue to share your recipes. Thank you so much!
You posted this on Facebook recently and I made it yesterday. What a success!!! Very delicious. I added imitation lobster meat to it, and it was AWESOME. Thank you so much for posting this on FB!!!
Was looking for non crab cake recipe to use with imitation crab meat leftover from yesterday’s sushi and this was DELICIOUS! Didn’t have shrimp, so used one salmon filet. Didn’t have celery, so used a carrot. Dressing is a knockout! Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is right on time just seen you post it on Facebook! I’ve been craving a crab salad so I can imagine the macaroni and shrimp is going to add to it!
Hi Rosie, I made this seafood salad for my clergy group meeting, and they flipped out! There was none left! Now they want it every time we meet! Thanks so much! Your recipes are the bomb!
You Go DEE!!! Thanks so much for trying my recipe!! XOXO