Crab Louie salad
I have a camera full of recent salad photos including one I garnished with sweet spring viola flowers. We’ll see how far I get with sharing, this is a start!
Crab Louie is a vintage West Coast recipe. It was a favorite of my husband’s irrepressible auntie and I have fond memories of her introducing it to us many years ago. She used to treat us to dinner in Seattle, pontificating, ever-present cigarette in hand, over her plate of Louie salad. The salad would be a dinner plate heaped with Thousand Island-dressed iceberg lettuce topped with with crab, hard-boiled egg, and tomatoes.
Old-school it may be, but updated to a lightly dressed, slightly greener variety of lettuce, Crab Louie can be quite healthy. I picked up a 1# tub of pre-cooked Dungeness crab from Costco (from Pacific Seafood) which made the recipe pretty easy. If I’d had chili sauce it would have been even easier, but lacking that I made my own substitute from ketchup and a few spices (I could have added other ingredients like Worcester sauce or garlic as well if I’d been inclined).
I used this Shrimp Louie recipe of Ethan Stowell’s from the Seattle Times for reference, as well as this Crab Louie recipe by Larry Stone.
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- juice of 1½ lemons (about 4 Tbsp.)
- 2-3 Tbsp. chili sauce OR substitute equal amount of ketchup plus large pinch (about ⅛ tsp.) each chili powder, onion powder or flake, dry mustard (as I did)
- 1 # (approx.) romaine lettuce, hearts or small heads ('gems') preferred, washed, chopped cross-wise into ¾" strips
- juice of ½ lemon (approx 1½ Tbsp.)
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- flaked sea salt such as Maldon
- 1 bunch asparagus, cooked and chopped (a sliced raw avocado is a good substitute)
- 6 oz. (about) small tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, sliced or halved
- 1 med. cucumber, peeled and cut into short spears or half-moons
- 1 lb. pre-cooked shredded Dungeness crab meat
- Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, and chili sauce or ketchup plus spices, whisk together.
- Pour into three tiny bowls/sauce dishes.
- Place dishes on one corner of dinner plates.
- Boil asparagus for two minutes.
- Drain, rinse with cold water, chop into short pieces.
- Chop tomatoes into wedges, or if cherry tomatoes, halves.
- Peel cucumber, cut into short spears or half-moons.
- Wash and dry lettuce. Chop crosswise into ¾" strips.
- Place in large bowl.
- Dress with lemon juice, olive oil, and flaked salt.
- Arrange portions on one side of dinner plates.
- Arrange vegetables around the lettuce.
- Top with crab meat.
- Serve.
Related Posts:
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