Crab Louie Salad

The Crab Louie salad, sometimes known as the King of Salads, was something that I was made aware of during a business trip to the San Francisco Bay area. Looking at room service, this salad was one of the few things I could eat, with the exception of the salad dressing. Over my 4 days in San Francisco, this was my main-stay for lunch.

Since then, I learned more about the dish, and how it has been around since the early 1900s and is believed to come from the Bay area (go figure). We attempted to buy Dungeness crab, but alas the crab had spoiled. The good news is we used canned crab meat and it was just as delicious—well, maybe not exactly, but still incredibly tasty and way easier (and cheaper) than the Dungeness crab. This is going to make you a good deal of salad dressing, so be prepared to love salads even more than normal for the next week.

Ingredients
Salad
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
1 hardboiled egg
1/4 C black olives
3 campari tomatoes, sliced
1/2 lb crab meat
1/2 avocado, sliced
6 spears asparagus (1/8 lb) blanched

Crab Louie Dressing
1 C homemade mayonnaise
1/2 C homemade ketchup
1/4 C black olives, minced
2 Tbsp chili sauce
1 Tbsp dill pickle relish
1 hard boiled egg, chopped

Method

First, prepare your salad dressing, by mixing all of the ingredients together in a bowl, and allow to rest. Ideally you might make this the night before for all the flavors to marry, but it’s not a requirement.

Prepare the other salad ingredients and toss into a bowl. Begin with a base of lettuce, and then add in olives, egg, tomatoes, avocado, crab meat, and asparagus.