
Many picky eaters have come around to enjoying sushi. There is a sushi roll for everyone out there, from vegans to meat lovers to seafood fans. There are so many ways to prepare sushi with a wide variety of ingredients, so all taste buds can be satisfied with this little rolled delight.
One of the most loved sushi rolls features a spicy and creamy crab salad. Recreate it at home with this delightful Easy Imitation Crab Sushi Salad, made with Japanese Kewpie mayo, Sriracha, and tons of crunchy veggies. This delicious salad hits all of the sweet, savory, spicy, and sour notes one would expect from an authentic crab sushi salad.
In traditional crab salad, cooked crab meat is mixed with spicy mayo sauce and rolled into seaweed with rice. If you are skilled in making at-home sushi, feel free to use this recipe for that. If you have no idea how to roll sushi, no problem! This recipe has all of the flavors of crab sushi without any of the hard work.
If you have freshly cooked crab from leftovers, you can certainly use that here. You can also do this if you are not thrilled with imitation crab meat’s flavor or texture. The freshly cooked crab does not slice as well as imitation, so the salad may appear less uniform if you use fresh crab meat.
Typically, crab salad is tossed in a sauce of mayonnaise and Sriracha, often referred to as spicy mayo. This crab salad recipe features high-quality Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and Sriracha along with a few additional flavors. Lemon juice, soy sauce, and sugar offer balance to the sauce. Be sure to not add any additional salt before tasting for seasoning, as soy sauce is plenty salty!
The optional but necessary topping over the salad is Japanese Furikake seasoning. The seasoning mainly consists of dried seaweed, sesame seeds, and dried fish, making it perfect for this salad. The flecks of green from the seaweed add to the whole sushi salad experience.
Make this salad for a healthy lunch, snack, or light dinner. It is a great way to introduce younger children to sushi flavors before spending tons of money at a restaurant. Easy Imitation Crab Sushi Salad is a fabulous dish that is good for you and ready in under 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk together the Kewpie mayonnaise, Sriracha, lemon juice, soy sauce, granulated sugar, and pepper. Make sure the sauce is well combined.
Julienne all of your imitation crab, carrot, English cucumber, and mango to be similar in size. The strips should be very thin and uniform.
In a small dry saucepan over medium-low heat, lightly toast the panko until it is deeper in color, about 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. If your sesame seeds are not yet toasted, repeat this step with the sesame seeds and allow them to slightly cool as well.
Toss the sauce, imitation crab, vegetables, and mango together in a bowl. Add the toasted panko and sesame seeds and toss again.
Spoon into a serving bowl and top with the Japanese Furikake seasoning for garnish. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days.