This avocado crab salad is a little zesty, a little fancy, and ridiculously easy to throw together. With sweet crab, juicy Seville oranges, and a pop of fresh cilantro, this light, citrusy dish is both bright and delicious!
I adore avocados. I put them in anything and everything. Living in San Diego means I always have access to these precious beauties. I know I am spoiled.
We all enjoy avocados in a guacamole, but they are terrific in a number of other dishes. They add creaminess to my Mexican ceviche and add extra flavor in simple sandwiches, like an avocado BLT.
And today I am sharing how terrific they are in this avocado crab salad.
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Recipe highlights
- Refreshing: This recipe uses sour seville oranges instead of limes or lemons making the flavor bright and unique. You can serve it with tortilla chips to make a unique chunky salsa.
- Simple: If you are looking for a quick seafood salad, this recipe is fast and easy to whip up! Make a little for a small lunch, or make a lot to serve as an appetizer for a party.
- Flavor: Avocados have a mild nutty flavor that pair perfectly with a bit of sweet and sour from the seville oranges. I’m a big fan of cilantro as well as the crunch of red bell peppers and the sweetness of crab. Add a baguette and you have a light meal or delightful appetizer.
Reader’s Reviews
“Great recipe. We added some oranges to it as well and it hit the spot!” — Julie
Ingredients you need
- Crab: You can use real lump crab or artificial crab. Even cooked shrimp would be a great addition or substitute to this salad.
- Avocado: You can use any variety of avocado. I personally like haas, fuerte and reed avocados.
- Bell peppers: You can use the sweet red bell peppers or even orange ones. I used a combination of red and green.
- Seville orange: These are not as sweet as the regular variety of oranges. They are also not as tart as the sour ornamental oranges.
- Herbs: Fresh cilantro and green onions are used in this salad for the best flavor.
- Lime juice: I added this to balance the Seville orange flavor. You can also use lemon juice. If your oranges are very sour, you can probably skip this.
- Salt and pepper: Salt is added to take the edge from the sour. If you want more kick than just black pepper, you can add some diced jalapeño.
Step-by-step directions
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- Make the dressing. Whisk together the seville orange juice, lime juice, salt and pepper.
- Combine everything. Stir in crab, avocado, bell peppers, cilantro and green onions and coat everything with juices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Expert tips and recipe FAQs
And another favorite light lunch I enjoy all the time are my tuna egg salad lettuce cups and my poke bowl with quinoa. But I also like to serve it with, you guessed it, avocado, too! Fan of crab? Then you must try my hearty Shrimp and Crab Louie Salad (Louis Salad).
The bitter orange (aka Seville orange and narenj in farsi) is also used in many aspects of Persian cooking. We use it instead of lemons with our traditional nowruz meal of sabzi pollo ba mahi (dill rice with fish). We also make drinks with the bitter orange syrup (sharbat porteghal).
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Store any leftover salad in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 days. The avocados may start to brown and oxidize after 24 hours.
TO FREEZE: I do not recommend freezing any leftovers.
A seville orange is a sour orange. It has a subtle orange flavor, but is not sweet. Persians use sour oranges as they do with lemons and limes. Persian sour oranges, narenj, has a wonderful flavor to balance the sourness. You can use the juice and the zest for your baking recipes, salads, drinks or with anything you would use lemons.
Avocado Crab Salad with Seville Oranges
Ingredients
- 8 oz crab
- 1 avocado chopped
- ¼ cup chopped red bell pepper
- ¼ cup chopped green bell pepper
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- 1 green onion chopped
- Juice from 1 Seville Orange
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl whisk Seville orange juice, lime juice, salt and pepper.
- Stir in crab, avocado, bell peppers, cilantro and green onions and coat everything with juices.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
Great recipe. We added some oranges to it as well and it hit the spot!
Hi Julie,
So happy you liked the recipe. And love the addition of oranges. So fresh!
Laura
love your blog and cant wait to make this. im ordering your avocados right now!!!
This looks phenomenal, Laura. A must make for me!
I love the taste of crab (or any seafood) with avocado, but have never thought about adding oranges to the mix. Thanks for sharing this sounds amazing!! And thanks for being a part of the YBR. 🙂
This is an over-the top salad I will use often…love crab!
I don’t have a salad that features avocado as main ingredient (I sometimes put it on top, but that’s about it), so this is wonderful!!! Great to know it goes well with crab and oranges, and the best part is that this salad looks beautiful. I hope your son will recover from sickness soon. I had my daughter who’s sick home for a week. My productivity went down….and finally she’s back in school. I’m still worried if or when she’d bring another sickness. You need to take good care of yourself too!
The flu this year is really nasty. Hope your son gets well soon. Great looking salad, and really nice photos – you have such nice light. Good stuff all around – thanks.
What a scrumptious salad I can make in a month or so when our avocado season begins. Oh, we can get them throughout the year, but from about October > March they come from the N-ern hemisphere [California and Mexico methinks mostly], oft don’t travel well and cost an arm and a leg! Shall be looking forwards to this! And DO hope the whole house will be well soonest!!
Looks beautiful- Will definitely have to try this recipe.
Such a pretty salad! I’ve never tried Seville oranges but they sound perfect here!
What a gorgeous salad! I never thought of using the Seville oranges with the Fuerte avocados!
Wow – This looks soooo good! I wanted to check it out because I love the combination of Seville oranges and avocados, but I didn’t even realize the extra bonus that you mentioned my guac too! Thanks! And hope everyone in the house feels better soon.. xo
I have to have some of this. Right. now. Pinning your lovely photo and hoping for a healthy family pronto…