Name: Japanese Crab Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 100 g cucumber, unpeeled; 100 g daikon radish, peeled; salt; 150 g imitation crab meat (or real crab meat); 2 tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise, or more to taste; pinch of salt; freshly grated black pepper; soy sauce (optional)

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Japanese crab salad, called kani sarada (カニサラダ), is a very popular dish from Japan. You will find it served in many Japanese restaurants inside and outside of the country. It is refreshing and so tasty. It is also very easy to make and comes together in just fifteen minutes.

A shell-shaped dish of Japanese crab salad on a beaded, teal cloth napkin.

Kani sarada is made with Japanese mayonnaise, which has a wonderful, silky texture and rich flavour. I think Japanese salad makes a great appetizer in the summer time since it is such a cool and refreshing way to start a meal.

For the colder months I recommend that you try Japanese persimmon tofu salad, another wonderful Japanese appetizer.

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Ingredients
Instructions
Substitutions
Equipment
Storage
📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Crab meat - imitation crab or real crab meat
Cucumber - I used mini cucumbers
Daikon - a Japanese white radish
Japanese mayonnaise - Unlike American mayonnaise, which uses whole eggs, this mayonnaise uses only egg yolks to give it a delightful rich and custardy mouth feel. It also uses a beautiful blend of vinegars (such as rice, apple cider, red wine, and distilled) rather than just white vinegar.
Salt
Freshly grated black pepper

See the recipe card below for quantities.

Japanese mayonnaise

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Instructions

Julienne the cucumber (unpeeled) and daikon (peeled) into a bowl. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, then set the bowl in the refrigerator for ten minutes.

Julienned cucumber and daikon in a bowl.

Loosen/shred your crab meat. If you are using imitation crab in stick form, cut it into pieces first. Put it into a mixing bowl.

Shredded imitation crab on a cutting board.

When the time is up, remove the vegetable bowl from the fridge and fill the bowl with cold water to soak for a couple of minutes. Use your hands to squeeze the vegetables tightly to remove water and transfer them into the mixing bowl with the crab meat.

Add in Japanese mayonnaise, salt, and pepper to taste.

The ingredients assembled in a mixing bowl.

Mix everything together well.

Separate the salad into individual serving dishes. If desired, drizzle the salad with just a touch of soy sauce. It tastes great with or without.

Substitutions

If you aren't able to find any daikon radish, you can replace it in this recipe with more cucumber. But if you can get your hands on some, it adds a delicious element to this dish so I recommend using it.

I used imitation crab meat for this recipe. Take it up a notch with real, lump crab meat. Or, you could use canned crab meat in a pinch, as well.

I do not recommend that you substitute Japanese mayonnaise with American mayonnaise in this recipe. It will not taste the same at all.

Equipment

To julienne the vegetables in this recipe, I used my Japanese mandoline equipped with its julienne attachment blade. It makes this step so quick and easy to do!

Japanese mandoline

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Storage

I recommend enjoying your Japanese crab salad within a day or two. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

📖 Recipe