The first week of spring certainly is cause for celebration and going for summery dishes that remind us that short sleeves and picnic days are just around the corner. Cool salads have always been my go-to hot weather lunches so I immediately thought of making a light crab salad which is at once luxurious (we are celebrating after all!) and easy to do, using ingredients widely available this time of year.
Avocado is a classic pairing with crab meat and the addition of cucumber makes for a very refreshing taste on top of adding a bit of texture to the smooth salad.
The key thing with crab is that you don’t want to overpower it as its subtle flavor can easily get lost. I’ve always preferred light, citrusy dressing over heavy mayo-based ones and you’ll see here that the tanginess of the lime is perfect for cutting through the rich and creamy meat.
This would make for a nice and classy starter, but I wholly embrace salads as main dishes when the nice weather comes and this one is a perfectly healthy and filling meal served alongside crusty ciabatta bread.
- a small, red chilli
- 2 thin spring onions
- 10cm piece cucumber
- 2 small avocados
- 300g crabmeat
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar or caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- a handful of cilantro leaves
- 4 slices ciabatta
- 1/2 lime
- a little olive oil
- Seed and very finely chop the chilli. Cut the spring onions into very fine slices and add to the chilli. Peel the cucumber, halve it, scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon, then dice the flesh into tiny cubes. Remove the flesh from the avocados and dice it finely. Toss the cucumber and avocado with the spring onions and chilli.
- Put the sugar in a small mixing bowl, add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Chop the cilantro leaves and stir into the dressing.
- Toast the slices of bread till crisp, rub with the cut side of the lime to release a little of the juice, then trickle over enough olive oil to saturate each one. Put the crabmeat in a mixing bowl with the cucumber and avocado mixture, pour over the dressing and toss very gently, using a fork to mix. Pile onto plates and serve with the lime toasts.
