Salads make a perfect meal year-round, but especially during Å·ÃÀÊÓƵ. Served at room temperature, there’s no rush to get them to the table hot, and they can be enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
Seafood, with its light flavours and array of colours, is perfect for warm or cold salads, as entrées, light meals, or barbecue side dishes.
Tips for making seafood salads:
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For a substantial salad, start by choosing a carbohydrate: boiled potatoes, pasta, rice, couscous, cracked wheat or other grains. This could be determined by what leftovers you have on hand.
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Add any seafood you like, although it’s usually best to keep flavours simple and stay with just one variety.
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Next, add one or more vegetables, soft salad leaves or crisp greens, such as asparagus.
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Fresh herbs lift flavour and aroma; flat-leaf parsley, chervil, dill and coriander are all suitable, green onions add a bit of heat.
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The dressing can be vinaigrette-based (oil plus citrus or vinegar) or creamy and mayonnaise-based. Either way be sure to add it at the last moment so leaves and vegetables don’t wilt, and stir it through gently so as not to break up the seafood.
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Seek inspiration from simple classic salads such as coleslaw, tabouli, Waldorf or Caesar, using them as a base to create your own seafood creations.
Here are a few of our favourite seafood salads:
Prawn Cocktail
Recipe Here
This iconic 1970's and 80's dinner party entrée is back with a vengeance. And why not? Made with fresh ingredients, it’s a deliciously simple dish that deserves to stay in fashion.
It traditionally consists of prawns in a cocktail sauce on a bed of iceberg lettuce. Marie-Rose, the classic cocktail sauce, is mayonnaise tinted pale pink with tomato ketchup (never the thinner, more acidic tomato sauce) and lifted with a little lemon juice and chilli (in the form of Tabasco or cayenne pepper). You can use already cooked prawns, but you’ll find they’re much more tender when freshly boiled.
Salade Niçoise
Recipe Here
This famous salad, from the city of Nice in southern France, is traditionally associated with canned tuna, for which the Mediterranean is famous. It was however originally a cold vegetable salad, tuna being a later addition. Our modern adaptation is different again, replacing canned tuna with fresh!
Spicy Barbecued Cuttlefish with Cherry Tomato & Sprout Salad
Recipe Here
Cuttlefish may not be your first thought when you think of a seafood salad, but its firm texture is perfect when contrasted with fresh, crispy greens.
This spicy salad makes a great entrée, light spring dinner, or side dish for a barbecue. The cuttlefish can also be marinated for several hours before cooking, making it easy to prepare in advance.
Crab & Green Mango Salad
Recipe Here
There is nothing wrong with purchasing pre-picked crab meat, as long as it's Australian. In fact, it's a great thing to keep in the freezer to add a decadent touch to any pasta or salad.
This Asian-inspired recipe is delicious, fresh, and crunchy. Top tip: Asian grocery stores sell vegetable shredders (that look a bit like a potato peeler) and are great for creating long thin shreds of green mango, green papaya, and other firm fruits or vegetables.
Redclaw & Soba Noodle Salad
Recipe Here
Redclaw are a freshwater shellfish that are farmed in aquaculture ponds in Queensland, making them a very sustainable crustacean choice. When purchasing them, look for brightly coloured, firm, intact, lustrous shells, without any discolouration, and a pleasant fresh sea smell.
Soba – a thin Japanese buckwheat noodle often served chilled with a dipping sauce – is the base for this simple salad, which has a very classy appearance and flavour. You could even make double the dressing in this recipe and dip the noodles into the extra as you eat them.
