World's Best Seafood Pasta Salad Recipe (Made with Imitation Seafood) - Philly Jay Cooking (2024)

This salad here is to die for, just like my Tuna Macaroni, Southern Potato, and Creamy Spaghetti Seafood salad recipes! If you love seafood salad and looking for a new way to make it, you must try this recipe! It’s made with Miracle Whip, chopped veggies, and a variety ofseafood we all love.

I’m so excited to share this delicious seafood pasta salad recipe with you guys!!! Those of you who follow me on social media might remember the seafood salad video I did a few years ago.

Well, since then, I’ve grown a lot as a cook, so I decided to revise and make a few changes to it. One of the main changes I made is omitting the egg – I just don’t think it belongs in a seafood salad, so I removed it so you could taste the seafood more.

A family summer tradition

My aunt Angie made seafood salad every time the family threw a Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day cookout – And I think I might love it more now than I did back then. Lol!

You’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t try this recipe, so give it a shot and let me know what you think! I don’t think you’ll regret it!

Shout out to Lorretta, my taste tester!

My aunt Lorretta, who is my taste tester, tried the salad while I was creating the recipe and damn near caught the holy ghost!! Lmbo!

She jumped and shouted for joy like she won the darn lottery after trying it! It was then that I knew I put my foot in it! She always helps me take my recipes to the next level.

She’s just like me in that she has a knack for finding the right combination of ingredients to perfect a dish. When I added that sugar and old bay to the salad, she said, “Jay, that’s it, don’t make any more changes. You nailed it!”!!

Whenever I get done creating a recipe, I always feel like it could be better. Sometimes I’ll do too much by adding more of this or that, and I need people like her to tell me when enough’s enough. Lol!

But when I saw her reaction, I had to taste it again. Let’s say we both were jumping around like we caught the holy ghost that night!! Lmbo! It was that good. Just try it for yourself if you think I’m exaggerating.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Pasta: Medium Pasta Shells
• Seafood add-ins: Shrimp, Lump Crab Meat, Chunk Style Imitation Lobster Meat
• Vegetable add-ins: Red Onions and Celery
• Seasonings: Salt, Old Bay, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, Sugar, Paprika, and Parsley
• Condiments: Mayo, Miracle Whip, Mustard, and Sweet Relish
• Other:Vegetable oil

Common questions about pasta

Okay, so first, let me get into the pasta because there are a few things you need to know.

About the Seafood and alternatives

• Shrimp: I also added some shrimp to this salad. Shrimp and crab are an absolute must when making any seafood salad.

  Shrimp and crab are probably seafood lovers’ favorite kinds of seafood, so yeah, I had to add shrimp. It’s not a seafood salad without shrimp, is it?!

  You can use small salad-size shrimp if you like. Whatever size you get, just stick with the same amounts.

• Crab: For this recipe, I used Bumblebee canned lump crab meat, but feel free to use fresh crab meat straight from the crab if you like

  Just make sure you stick with the same amount which is 6 ounces.

• Lobster: I also used imitation lobster meat. Seafood can be very expensive, and imitation lobster is cheaper.

  But if you’re not on a budget, you can definitely use real fresh lobster meat. I used chunk-style imitation lobster meat, by the way.

About the vegetables

• Red onions: Ok, so in this recipe, I only use two vegetables: red onions and celery. I like to use red onions because of their color—it makes the salad look pretty! Lol.

  Most importantly, I like using red onions because they have a mild flavor and are perfect for salads. They aren’t too sweet or too acidic, which is why I prefer red onions over other onions.

• Celery: I add celery to all my salads, it just makes every salad taste better and I loooove the flavor of celery. If you dont have any you can use celery seeds, or celery salt.

  I don’t care what I have on hand, if I don’t have celery I’ll use some seeds or celery salt just to add a little of that flavor to the salad.

About the seasonings and spices

Let me talk just a little bit about the seasonings and spices, if that’s what you want to call the “SUGAR”, what they bring to the salad, and why I like to use them.

• Sugar: Seafood salad is supposed to be a little sweet so that’s why I add sugar to it, simple!
• Old Bay: I love Old Bay, and it’s often used to season seafood like shrimp, crab, and lobster so it’s definitely what I would call seafood seasoning.

  And what better time to use it than when making seafood salad? It definitely enhances the seafood flavor, so it’s a must when making seafood salad.

• Garlic and onion powder: I add just small amounts of both and they just add more flavor to the salad. I felt the salad was missing something one day and I decided to add a little of both.

  It gave the salad exactly what it needed so I’ve been putting both in my seafood salad ever since.

• Black pepper: You just gotta add a little pepper to ya salad… just to add a lil heat to it… pepper just makes everything better. Not much of an explanation is needed. Lol!
• Paprika and parsley: You just use these for decoration purposes. I’ll talk more about these 2 ingredients later.

Salt to taste

Now when it comes to the salt, I’ve received plenty of comments from my subscribers saying that the salad was either too salty or didn’t have enough salt.

When it comes to people’s taste buds, salt is the one seasoning that you’ll find the most people disagreeing about in terms of how much should be used…

So If you are one of those people who either like your food well seasoned or are very particular about how much salt you use, SALT TO TASTE.

That means, use as much as you want until you’re satisfied with the taste and don’t use the amount listed. I’ll recommend adding the salt last little by little until it’s how you like it, especially if you’re salt-sensitive.

About the condiments

• Mayo and Miracle Whip: Ok, why do I use Miracle Whip, you might ask. Miracle Whip gives the salad a special taste. It adds a combination of tanginess and sweetness.

  Mayo, as much as I love it, is bland, and so adding Miracle Whip just kind of gives the salad some umph and adds more flavor to it.

• Mustard: Mustard adds a little color and a hint of tanginess from the vinegar in it. You know I’m big on balance, and because this salad is slightly sweet, a little tang is needed.
• Sweet relish: Relish gives the salad a slight hint of pickle flavor and also adds a mild sweetness, but I use sweet relish in almost all my salads for its unique and much-needed flavor.

More on the Miracle Whip

Whenever I use both Mayo and Miracle Whip in a salad I like to stick with a 50/50 ratio. That’s given me the best results…

Listen, I’m honestly not much of a Miracle Whip fan to begin so I don’t want to use too much of it. I think the taste can be overwhelming and using too much will ruin the salad FOR ME!!

If there is a time, which there have been, where I didn’t have enough Miracle Whip, I was perfectly fine with using a 70 Mayo/30 MW ratio.

If I couldn’t use equal amounts and had to use more of one, I would definitely choose the option of using more mayo than miracle whip. Let me quickly talk about what made me start using MIRACLE WHIP…

Aunt Angie’s seafood salad

One of my favorite aunts, Angie, passed away a few years ago. She would always bring seafood salad to family cookouts and I spent years trying to copy her recipe but could never get mine to taste as good as hers.

She would always make seafood salad but I decided to add pasta to it since I love both pasta and seafood so much.Now as I always say, I’m a Mayo guy, Hellmann’s to be exact!

I was NEVER A FAN of Miracle Whip as I stated earlier… just the thought of it would turn my stomach that’s how much I disliked it.

But when I found out that’s what she put in her salad to make it taste so good, I couldn’t help but try it myself. Let’s just say… I’ve been putting it in my seafood salad ever since.

However, even to this day, Hellmann’s Mayo is my first option when it comes to sandwiches and anything that requires mayo.

I keep a bottle of Miracle Whip in the frig for when I make potato and seafood salad – those are the ONLY THINGS I use it for.

Now when I add it to my salads I do what my Nana Alice always did, and that’s use a 50/50 combination of Miracle Whip and Mayo.

I never, and WILL NEVER, just use Miracle Whip by itself to make salad. LMBBO! I am however ok just using Mayo to make salad.

How to make the seafood pasta salad

1. Ok so what we’re going to do first to kick this recipe off is boil the pasta shells. Preheat the water over high heat. Once it comes to a boil add in the pasta shells and cook until tender.

2. While the pasta boils, you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone and start chopping the vegetables and seafood into small pieces. If you like them big do you but whenever I make salad, I chop the add-ins into very small pieces.

3. Once the pasta is done I rinse and sit it aside to chill then add it to the mixing bowl with the chopped vegetables and seafood.

4. Then I add in all the seasonings (except the paprika and parsley) and fold well.

5.Next, add in the condiments and fold well again!

6. Garnish the salad with paprika or parsley or both.

7. Wrap the salad tightly with plastic wrap then sit in the refrigerator to chill.

World’s Best Seafood Pasta Salad Recipe 2019 Video

My Nana and garnishing salads

I had to write about this because it was quite funny to me. One of my supporters asked me recently under one of my salad videos if you have to add paprika and parsley and why I always add it at the end.

Im assuming they’re young and new to cooking. But if you’re wondering, as stated above and in the recipe card, it’s solely for decoration purposes and to beautify the salad.

Listen, My Nana Alice Mae and my Grandma Viola Taylor loved decorating salads when put placing sliced eggs over them or garnishing them with paprika and parsley and a fancy way.

But my NANA took is VERY SERIOUSLY! Placing salad in the refrigerator without first garnishing it with paprika or parsley was INSULTING TO HER, and I MEAN THAT!

Try making salad in front of her and sitting it in the frig without first giving it some color and you might get cussed out!!! LMBBO!

I don’t even think she’d make salad if she didn’t have paprika or parsley and I find myself acting like she does the older I get. LMBO!!! I mean, who wants to eat white pale boring looking salad?

I don’t even like eating mashed potatoes if there’s no parsley flakes on em. She would, like me, check for paprika and parsley before even entertaining the idea of making salad.

Making salad without paprika was like a woman going to a party with makeup to her! LMBBO!! So yea, this is why I always garnish my salads.

I feel like she’s standing beside me watching everytime I get ready to garnish it making sure I don’t forget too.

Frequently asked questions

Listen guys, yall are going to really enjoy this seafood pasta salad!! Whenever I make this for a get together, party, or family cookout it’s one of the first things to go which is why I’m so pumped to share the recipe with you all.

On my Facebook page, I asked you guys what salad recipes you wanted me to do for the holidays, and seafood pasta salad was the most requested.

So IT’S ALL DONE NOW… HERE YOU HAVE IT!! Make sure you leave a comment below letting us all know if you liked it; that helps a lot.

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

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