Weekend Cooking: Seafood Pita

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  It is a fun way to share food related books, events, or recipes.

Last weekend my friend Amy and I went to St Joseph Minnesota for the Tour Of Saints.  It’s a beautiful town and a great ride.  After the ride we stopped at a little restaurant called Bo Diddley’s.  This is pretty much a tiny small town stop, nothing exciting but we were a mess from riding in the heat for 50 miles and were not looking to impress anyone with our sweaty bike gear, so it worked for us.  😛

Once inside the menu was sparse.  After riding in the humidity that had heat advisories out across the state, a burger and fries sounded way too heavy.  I wanted nothing fried.  Finally we both settled on the seafood pita.

When our food arrived I was pleasantly surprised.  It was served in a little square wicker basket that held the pita upright and wide-mouthed.  Inside the pita was chunks of imitation crab in a light mayo coating, shredded iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced tomato and onion.  That’s it.  Simple and refreshing.  My friend Amy, who is a whiz at cooking identified the spice in the seafood mix as dill. 

I liked this so much I made it as a mid-week supper, and packed it twice for my lunch as well.  It’s funny, I could not remember the last time I bought iceberg lettuce being pretty much a Romaine or Spinach leaf salad person.  Yet, Iceberg lettuce is exactly what makes this salad awesome.

Here is how I made mine:

head of iceberg lettuce

two tomatoes

a package of imitation crab (I bought the sticks as I thought the chunks were too big)

one onion

fresh cilantro

light mayo

salt and pepper

whole wheat pita (optional)

Using a sharp knife, slice the lettuce into this strips, as much as you need for your salad(s).  I used about half the head to make salads for Al and I for dinner.  Arrange the lettuce in the individual salad bowls.  Slice tomato thinly as well and put desired amount of tomato over the lettuce in the bowls.  Take the onion slicing thin strips, enough to put on top of the tomatoes in the salad bowls.

Take the imitation crab and cut into small bite size pieces and place in a small serving bowl.  chop the cilantro (to taste) into small pieces and add to seafood.  Generously sprinkle dill into the crab, cilantro bowl as well.  Put enough light mayo in the bowl to coat the seafood and mix well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Take the seafood combo and put generous amounts on top of each salad.  Serve!

*You can also make the seafood combination ahead of time and keep cold in refrigerator until time to serve. 

I did not use the pita in my recipe, but if you wanted to just replace the salad bowl with a pita 🙂

20 thoughts on “Weekend Cooking: Seafood Pita”

  1. This sounds nice and refreshing. I was OK with the recipe until you got to the cilantro. Unfortunately, I am one of those people to whom cilantro tastes like soap. I’ll have to try it without the cilantro on one of our hot days.

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  2. This look like a perfect topping for a salad on a nice hot summer day! I am going to the store this afternoon and will be picking up some “fake” crab as my kids call it, to try this. I am thinking dh might even like this one! Thanks for sharing it.

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  4. Oh man this looks good. And you didn’t have to heat up the kitchen! Score one for summer. I love cilantro, so I’d be using it.

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  5. This is a perfect summer meal. My husband, sadly, is allergic to any shellfish so I think this immitation crab would be great! It sounds like the bike ride was enjoyable!

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  6. Love cilantro, now if I just like imitation crab or real crab for that matter. I love all kinds of seafood except for crab and lobster. Give me shrimp, squid, octopus, muscles, oysers, clams, or any kind of fish that swims (except catfish) and I’m in heaven. Give me crab or lobster, and I’ll pout for 18 days 5 hours 16 minutes and 48 seconds.

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