Delicious Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad To Die For (With Video)

Delicious Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad made with creamy Italian dressing, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and seafood. And, it’s the perfect salad for summer holiday cookouts, parties, picnics, and family gatherings at the park.

This salad is a family favorite and always one of the first things to go at family cookouts. LMBO!! So that’s how you know it’s good! And if you’re anything like me and are a seafood and pasta addict, this Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad recipe is for you! 

The best part is that this Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad recipe is very simple and extremely easy to make! Read below for more on this unique one-of-a-kind seafood salad recipe.

Aunt Janet and Nydia’s Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad

My aunt Janet and my older cousin Nydia would always bring creamy spaghetti seafood salad to every family function. They were the ones who made it best, and it was always their creamy spaghetti seafood salad that I looked forward to eating the most. Lol!

I don’t think they had an actual recipe for it, but they always made it the same way. Nydia used creamy Italian dressing and my aunt Janet put Zesty Italian dressing in her salad, very similar to my Zesty Italian Pasta Salad Recipe.

This recipe is very similar to theirs, but I tweaked it and put my own spin on it. I always recreate my family’s recipes and make slight modifications to make them MINE. Lol! Let me tell yall how good this salad is though!

It’s so good that whenever they would make this and bring it to family functions, it’s one of the first things to go. Lol! Nydia would bring 2 large, deep lasagna-size pans of salad, and my aunt Janet did the same.

The anti-white club

Some people don’t like white or light-colored condiments like Mayo and Creamy Italian dressing. I’ve met quite a few people who, for whatever reason, didn’t like mayo, white gravy, Ranch, Blue cheese, or anything “WHITE” on their food.

I don’t know what that’s about, but people like that exist! Lol! And so, the family always devoured Aunt Janet’s salad first. The creamy one wouldn’t last long either, but my Aunt Janet’s zesty italian salad would always be the first to go.

After about an hour of being placed on the table, more than half of the salad would be GONE! My family doesn’t play when it comes to food! We’re all foodies and love to eat, and a good chilled salad during a summer cookout is a MUST for us!

Recipe ingredients:

Here are all the ingredients needed for this recipe. Feel free to customize the recipe to your liking because at the end of the day you’ll be eating this. So if there are ingredients you dont particularly care for and want to replace or substitute with something else, that’s fine. 

• Thin Spaghetti: The spaghetti doesn’t have to be thin but I prefer using thin spaghetti for this recipe. Spaghetti is the main ingredient here.
• Vegetable oil: I use just a little and this is just to keep the spaghetti from sticking. I dont usually add oil to my pasta water unless it’s a long type of pasta that has a propencty to stick like spaghetti fettuccine and lasagna.
• Shrimp: I use large, deveined cooked shrimp, but if I can’t find any, I’ll buy some salad-size shrimp. I never leave the shrimp whole and end up chopping them up anyway so the size doesn’t matter much.
• Crab: In this salad, I use leg-style imitation crab meat because it gives the salad color. I like the bright orange color of the imitation crab meat and I love the taste as well. Real crab meat is definitely an option just stick with the same amount.
• Lobster: I use chunk-style imitation lobster meat but just like with the crab, you can use real lobster meat. My cousin Nydia always used real seafood and would sometimes use every seafood known to man. LMBO!
• Red onions: I use red onions mainly for it’s color. If yall know me yall know I think how food looks is as important as how it taste. Red onions also aren’t very pungent and have a neutral flavor, which is perfect for salads.
• Grape tomatoes: The grape tomatoes were my choice because of their deep red color and because they are super juicy and sweeter than traditional tomatoes. The salad wasn’t nearly as good to me when I used regular tomatoes.
• Cucumbers: I just love cucumbers, and other than Italian and tossed salad, I don’t use them for much else. When I was experimenting with this recipe, I threw them in last, and when I realized how well it went with the salad, I added it to the recipe.
• Creamy Italian Dressing: I love Ken’s and WishBone brand’s because I like white creamy mayo based creamy Italian dressing. I’ll elaborate on this more later.
• Seasonings: The Celery salt is a game changer with the celery flavor it adds. Garlic powder adds depth of flavor, red pepper flakes add a hint of heat, black pepper makes everything taste better, and parsley flakes flavor from the celery salt is a game changer, just like Old Bay which enhances the seafood flavor.

Common questions about spaghetti

• What brand of spaghetti do you use?  I’ve found that there isn’t much of a difference between store brands and named brand Spaghetti. I’ve used everything from Barilla, Mueller’s, and Ronzoni to De Cecco and San Giorgio, which I was always told was the very best.
• Do you have to use thin spaghetti? Sorta, but that’s just preference-based. I prefer thin spaghetti but that doesn’t matter much as long as it’s not bloated from being overcooked. Speaking of overcooked pasta.
• Should you boil spaghetti with oil? I don’t because it’s not really necessary. Once you add the spaghetti to a big mixing bowl, add in the dressing, and ingredients and start stirring everything in. If there is any spaghetti sticking together, by the time you’re done stirring everything together, it will definitely come apart.
• Why do you add salt to pasta water? I add salt to the pasta water for flavor and it limits the starch. The salad tastes better when the pasta has flavor. It enhances the overall deliciousness of the salad.
• When is the spaghetti done? Whenever you’re boiling pasta, no matter which kind, you want to cook it until it’s al dente. Which means cooked til tender but firm. You don’t want it to be soggy, bloated, and limp!
• Should you rinse the spaghetti once it’s done? I do this just to stop the cooking process because with it still being very hot straight out of the pot, if you leave the spaghetti in a colander, the heat will basically continue cooking it. So I always lightly rinse the Spaghetti with cool water using my kitchen faucet sprayer

Creamy Italian dressing!

I want to address the differences between the brands because it’s important to purchase the brand that’s right for you! I’m then going to show you how to make homemade Creamy Italian dressing the right way if that’s the route you want to take!!

• Ken’s and Wishbone: Most of us who are fans of creamy Italian dressing like it because of the creaminess, so if that’s you, Ken’s and Wish-Bone brands would be the best choice. These are the standard brands, anyway.
• Grey and tangy: Some brands of creamy Italian dressing look greyish like they barely have any mayo in them. They taste more like original and zesty Italian dressing. Although it’s a creamy Italian dressing, you can tell that not much mayo was used.

How to make homemade creamy Italian dressing?

A few of my subscribers told me they couldn’t find any creamy Italian dressing at their local supermarkets. I live in Philadelphia, and even I noticed there weren’t many markets that carried it. 

I eventually lucked up and found one that did, but most of them sold just the original and Zesty kind. So if you’re unable to find a store that carries creamy Italian dressing, check Amazon. You might have more luck finding it there.

You can also make it yourself, which isn’t hard AT ALL! When you DIY, you can customize it to YOUR LIKING! My cousin Nydia preferred making it this way as well, if I remember correctly.

1. Start off by adding about 1/2 cup of dressing to a small mixing bowl.
2. Then stir in about a tablespoon of mayo using a fork or whisk, until it’s well combined.
3. Give it a taste and continue adding more mayo until it reaches your desired color and taste.

How to make creamy spaghetti seafood salad

Ok, so… I’m usually consistent with the way I combine the ingredients when preparing salad. But with this salad, because we’re using spaghetti, it’s better to combine the pasta and dressing first.

I usually add the pasta to the mixing bowl, stir in the seasonings and vegetables, and add in the condiments. But with Spaghetti, I like to make sure it’s fully saturated in the dressing first before adding anything else.

I like to do this because stirring seasonings into dry sticky spaghetti is a little challenging. Loosening it up with dressing first makes stirring everything in much easier.

1. Fill a large pot with cool water, add in the oil and salt, then place over high heat.
2. After 10 minutes, or once the water comes to a boil, break the spaghetti in half, add it to the water, and boil for 12 minutes. Once done chill and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, peel and chop up the shrimp.
4. Shred the imitation crab meat and chop the lobster meat into small pieces.
5. Chop the onions into small pieces, chop the tomatoes in half, then peel and dice the cucumbers.
6. Place the spaghetti in a big mixing bowl, add in the salad dressing, and seasonings, then fold well.
7. Add in the chopped seafood and vegetables and fold well.
   
8. Garnish the salad with parsley flakes, cover with plastic wrap, and set in the refrigerator to chill.
   

Delicious Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad 2019 Video

Tips for best results:

• Make the salad ahead of time: I would make this salad ahead of time because when you give the ingredients time to marry, it results in a better tasting salad and is much better than right after you make it. Plus salad is always better slightly chilled.
• Break spaghetti in half: The reason I like to break the spaghetti in half is that makes it easier to eat, and stir when combining all the ingredients. Another thing, spaghetti is LONG, so when you add it to rolling boiling water, it leans on the top edge of the pot and the ends tend to darken and burn. You dont want that so breaking them in half will ensure all the spaghetti fits in the pot before it softens.

Serving suggestions:

Below are a few things I personally enjoy eating this salad with. This taste good with any meat really, but these couple below are my recommendations and favorite meats to eat it with that Im sure you’ll love as well.

• Fried chicken: Something about the crispy fried chicken and creamy Italian dressing combo makes this the perfect union. So if you’re looking for a main dish to serve this with, FRIED CHICKEN will work every time.
• Seared steak: This Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad would go great alongside a nice juicy pan-seared savory steak. That combo sounds great and I haven’t even had these together before.
• Grilled BBQ meat: This Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad is one of those salads you take to a summer cookout, so you know it tastes well with anything grilled, like BBQ chicken or ribs. That combo is guaranteed to give your taste buds a foodgasm. 

Storage

• How to store the salad? To preserve and keep the salad fresh for as long as possible, keep it tightly covered with plastic wrap in a serving bowl or in a Tupperware bowl, and make sure it’s tightly sealed and stays in the coolest part of the refrigerator. 
• Can this salad be stored in the freezer? I personally dont recommend freezing salad although some freezes better than others. ISalad is meant to be eaten when you make it not stored for days and weeks at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can people allergic to seafood eat this? Likely not. This is because imitation crab typically contains 2% or less of king crab meat (shellfish) and artificial extracts of crab and lobster. I believe this may negatively affect someone allergic to seafood.
• Why is the salad soupy? So in this recipe, we’ll be using a whole 16oz bottle of creamy Italian dressing. So if after you’re done combining everything, it looks soupy, that’s a good thing!! It will stiffen significantly overnight as it chills in the frig… it won’t be so soupy after you give the ingredients time to marry and let the spaghetti absorb everything.
• How long does creamy spaghetti seafood salad last? 3 days is the golden rule… so I’d stick with that. Salad is not meant to be stored for long periods of time. When I make some, it doesn’t even last for 3 days, it rarely makes it through the 2nd day!
• How to double or triple this recipe? I would simple double or triple the amount of each ingredient. You would probably need to add a little more water to the pot for the spaghetti and a little more salt to flavor the spaghetti but other than that, everything else can simply be doubled or tripled.

Equipment

Here are the cooking utensils you’ll need for this recipe. Make sure you have as many as possible. That’ll make it easier to prepare this recipe. If you dont have them they can be purchased with a simple click on the links below.

• Large pot: Have a large pot to boil the spaghetti.
• Colander: Make sure you have a colander to drain the spaghetti.
• Large Serving Bowl: We’ll be using this to combine the salad and to serve the salad out of.
• Potato Peeler: Potato peelers make it easy to peel the cucumber skin.
• Knife: A knife is for chopping the seafood and vegetables
• Big Spoon: Use a big spoon to combine the salad and serve.
• Measuring Cups: Measuring cups are great for accurately measuring the amount of vegetables and dressing you’re using.
• Measuring Spoons: Use measuring spoons to measure seasoning accurately. 

Alright, I’m done boring y’all for now! This creamy seafood pasta salad recipe is the BOMB.COM, y’all; trust me on that! So please give this recipe a shot!!! Make sure to leave a comment below, letting everyone know how it was for you.

Also, share it on social media with family and friends; don’t be stingy. Sharing helps me on these Google Streets. Haha! And make sure to subscribe to get notified whenever I post a new recipe. Thank you, and God bless!

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

Delicious Creamy Spaghetti Seafood Salad To Die For (With Video)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 6 reviews

• Author: PhillyboyJay
• Prep Time: 30 Mins
• Cook Time: 10 Mins
• Total Time: 40 Mins
• Yield: 4-6
• Category: Salads
• Method: American
• Cuisine: American

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

---

Description

Creamy spaghetti seafood salad made with creamy Italian dressing, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and seafood. The perfect salad for a summer cookout.

---

Ingredients

• 8 oz Thin Spaghetti Pasta
• 1 Cup Extra Small Deveined Cooked Shrimp, coarsely chopped
• 4 oz Leg Style Imitation Crab Meat, coarsely chopped
• 4 oz Chunk Style Imitation Lobster, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 Cup Cucumbers, diced
• 1/4 cup Red Onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Grape Tomatoes, sliced
• 2 Qts Water + 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
• 16 oz Creamy Italian Dressing
• 2 Tsps Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 Tsps Celery Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/8 or 1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/8 Tsp Black Pepper
• Parsley Flakes (For decoration purposes)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

Instructions

1. Fill a large pot with cool water, add in the oil and salt, then place over high heat.
2. After 10 minutes, or once the water comes to a boil, break the spaghetti in half, add it to the water, and boil for 12 minutes.
   (Once done, strain and set aside to chill.)
3. Meanwhile, peel and chop up the shrimp.
4. Shred the imitation crab meat and chop the lobster meat into small pieces.
5. Chop the onions into small pieces, chop the tomatoes in half, and dice the cucumbers.
6. Place the spaghetti in a big mixing bowl, add in the salad dressing, and seasonings, then fold well.
7. Then add in the chopped vegetables and fold well.
8. Garnish the salad with parsley flakes, cover with plastic wrap, and set in the refrigerator to chill.

Notes

• For best results, prepare the night before. This gives all the ingredients time to marry.

---

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 4-6