Last summer I was with my sisters at a restaurant on the Seattle water front  that served the most amazing Crab Louie- wow, how beautiful! I hadn’t seen or had that salad in so long. The Crab Louie is a west-coast favorite made with fresh Dungeness Crab. I grew up in Washington State, but  I’ve lived in Texas so long I forgot all about this amazing dish.  What a shame because this is one beautiful and one delicious salad.  I decided I needed to make them this year for fresh and cool summer suppers.

There are probably as many versions of this salad as there are cooks – but the essentials are fresh crab, hard cooked eggs and tomatoes.  I added asparagus, cucumbers, radishes and avocado because they are my favorites.  It’s all served on a bed of lettuce with a salad dressing similar to Thousand Island.   I like Drew’s Thousand Island if you want to keep things simple – if you use a purchased dressing, this salad is worth the splurge for a really good one.

This Crab Louie Salad is fresh, cool, and delicious on hot summer days.

Crab Louie

Ingredients

Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Salad

3/4 pound asparagus
two 6-ounce romaine hearts, chopped or use mixed greens
0ne 6-ounce seedless cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into spears
4 large radishes, thinly sliced
4 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 avacado, diced
1 pound crabmeat, preferably Dungeness
2 lemons, cut into wedges for serving

Directions

In a bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the ketchup, relish, lemon juice, garlic, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, paprika and chili powder and season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

In a medium saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the asparagus until just tender, 3 minutes. Drain and cool.

Arrange the lettuce, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes, eggs, avocado, and asparagus on a large platter or on individual plates. Top with large chunks of the crabmeat and serve with lemon wedges and dressing on the side.

Recipe adapted from Food and Wine, serves 4-6