I absolutely adore Kani Salad! This juicy Japanese salad is prepared with only a few vegetables & delicious crab meat.
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It tastes great, and it's super easy to prepare Kani salad from scratch at home. I can't stop eating it at times. 🙂
Learn how to make Kani salad with the step-by-step instructions further below.
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Salads are great during summer with other main dishes as a side.
Therefore, salads turn out to be on the very lighter side, without any proteins.
Yet, I do adore a good salad with a protein such as chicken, shrimp, or egg.
Occasionally I prepare a salad and, over the course of the day, I just open the fridge and have a few bites.
This is why I need a protein in my food.
Kani salad is one of those salads, which I tend to make and keep in the fridge to enjoy the rest of the day or I make it when I have visitors.
The easy to remember word "Kani" means crab in Japanese.
Most probably if you are a sushi fan or a general Japanese food fan like me, you will have come across this tasteful salad.
Kani salad is easy to like if you are into seafood, creamy salad and/or crab meat in general.
It's a good compromise, you have a light salad but with a protein, and it will tempt you to have more after each bite.
Therefore, the crab salad makes a filling lunch or a refreshing side salad with other main dishes.
In fact, I have enjoyed Kani salad with western dishes too such as Schnitzel, Quiche Lorraine and Parchment baked Salmon.
🥒 Ingredients
The main ingredients for a Kani salad include colorful match-stick-cut carrots, fresh cucumber, and crunchy lettuce.
For the Cucumber try to get the cucumber that isn't too bitter.
If the cucumber is bitter you need to peel it.
For the Carrot... If you can get the red juicy carrots, those would be perfect for this salad!
I couldn't get them so I had to use regular carrots
For the Lettuce try to get a crunchy variety such as Ice Berg salad.
I used the normal green lettuce for this Kani salad because the iceberg salad wasn't in season.
The dressing is usually made with Japanese mayonnaise, which is sour and sweet and not like the regular tube mayonnaise.
For the dressing, I usually just mix some lemon juice to the mayonnaise and I add salt and pepper.
Of course, there are different versions of Kani salads out there and I must admit that over time I started to prepare my own variation of Kani salad.
I like to add a splash of color to my food and especially salads.
So, I also add corn to my Kani salad because I like that little juicy crunch and flavor of corn in the crab salad.
Adding corn to Kani salad just makes the salad all the richer in flavor and color.
If you can't get fresh crab meat, just as I don't, then you can use Surimi or worst case canned crab meat or crab lumps.
I don't get too often fresh crab meat but I always have some surimi crab sticks in my freezer, so I use surimi sticks for my kani salad.
The imitation crab sticks are flavor intense and easy to handle with this salad.
You will love surimi is you are into easy to handle seafood.
Surimi makes a good inexpensive source of Protein, which is just another good reason for you to use this versatile ingredient in your food preparation.
I have another surimi crab salad but with Curry Mayo Dressing.
If you get fresh crab meat, then please by all means just go ahead and use fresh crab meat for this kani salad.
Always use fresh quality crab meat over other options if possible!
The Kani Salad dressing is a mayo-lemon juice dressing.
Yet, you can also switch the mayo dressing and use a yum yum sauce as a kani salad dressing to pimp your kani salad!
Similar to the Kani Salad:
Dear reader, what do you like to add to your kani salad?
📖 Recipe
Kani Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 1 ounces Cucumber
- 1 ounces Carrot
- 0,5 ounces Lettuce Leaves
- 4 Tablespoon Sweet Corn
- 3-4 Crab meat sticks *see Notes
For the Dressing:
- 2 ½ Tablespoons Mayonnaise
- Juice of one Lemon
- Salt
- Black Pepper Ground
to Garnish:
- Panko Crumbs optional
Instructions
- Peel the cucumber and carrot and then grate through a rough grater or use your peeler to peel thin slices of cucumber and carrot. Place into a salad bowl
- Cut your lettuce into thin strips lengthwise and add to the salad bowl together with the corn.
- Cut your Surimi crab sticks lengthwise into thin strips too and add them to the salad bowl.
- To make the dressing mix the regular mayo with lime juice salt and pepper.
- Serve the salad cooled. Top with some panko crumbs if you want and pour the salad dressing over the salad.
Notes
- Kani Salad is made with crab meat and vegetables.
- The salad is usually topped with Japanese mayonnaise. I like to use regular mayonnaise mixed with lime juice salt and pepper.
- If you get fresh crab meat, use that to make kani salad or use canned crab lumps. I tend to use surimi crab sticks, as fresh crab meat is rather difficult to find in the market.
- My kani salad is with corn, which is a great addition and change of the regular ol' kani salad which you know from your sushi place.
- Try to use a crunchy lettuce variation for this salad to add some bite to it. You can add panko crumbs as a garnish to add little crunch.
- I forgot to add the panko to my salad bowl in the picture.
Gotto know another salad through this post.Lovely pics 🙂
This is a gorgeous salad...I can't wait to give it a try.
I adore my serving of mixed greens with chicken, prawn or fish! This crab serving of mixed greens sounds great as well.
wow.. this crab salad sounds awesome and easy to make as well... as you said, the name "kani salad" is easy to remember.
I haven't eaten a crab salad. Your version sounds delicious with full of veggies and crab. I would love to dig in.
I've never heard of this type of salad before, but it looks amazing, and that crab totally makes me want to eat it!
Never hear of Kani salad before but looks like a refreshing and yummy option for the summer. Creative way to use all the ingredients involved.
That looks so colorful! We love salads and you are right about adding proteins to make it more filling!
What a great way to incorporate surimi into a salad! So creative, and I bet delicious.
This looks soooo good! I have a weird obsession with surimi sticks so this is right down my alley! I hope I find some Japanese Mayo at my local grocery store! Thanks for the great recipe! Cheers, Kiki
I love crab salad and I love creamy salad dressing. I usually have salad for dinner and I love trying new types of these for fun.
Salads are a given in our house. We eat them at lunch and at dinner. I'm always looking for inspiration on salads. This sounds delicious and your ingredients make such a pretty combination. It sure is perking up my tastebuds.
Surimi sticks I have so this salad I can make ha! I always get a little scared when it comes to crab because I'm not very used to eating it! I love the sound of this salad though so will give it a go!
I happen to LOVE seafood and creamy dressings. This looks awesome, and would be the perfect summer meal with a nice glass of white wine.
That looks delicious and light. In Canada, they can't call surimi crab because it is made from pollock and flavoured like crab. It infuriates me when restaurants here says it is crab but serves surimi, even though I love the texture and flavour of surimi. You are right, it is an inexpensive protein here too.
I love my salad with chicken, prawn or fish! This crab salad sounds wonderful too.
This salad sounds delicious! I am a huge crab fan but have never had some of the ingredients for the dressing!
One of many variety of salads that one can try.
This looks like a lovely flavourful salad, I love your use of crab sticks! Here in the UK we like to dip them into seafood/marie rose sauce. I too love a salad with protein in, I've had loads of fish ones recently.
I often have the salad for lunch and definitely add proteins, otherwise, I will be hungry again in 1 hour. This Kuni salad is a good idea and your reccomandation are useful
I love crab as well, and with Japanese mayo this recipe looks awesome.