Deliciously Different Crab Salad Idea

I came up with the following flavor combination for crab pasta salad yesterday, and it was delicious!

click on photo to enlarge it

Ingredients

• ½ cup dry whole-wheat pasta - I used about ¾ cup penne pasta, although I think ½ cup of corkscrew or bowtie pasta would have been a better choice  

• 8 oz. flaked crab - I used Louis Kemp crab delights

• ½ sliced green onion - I used about ½ of the onion, including the greens

• ½ cup crunch: chopped celery, cucumber, or bell pepper - I used chopped green pepper because I already had one cut

• equal amounts of low fat mayo and nonfat yogurt - I used just under ½ cup each

• sliver of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• ½ cup chopped tomatoes - I halved or quartered Sunset produce sweet grape size tomatoes, since I had an open package

• fresh cilantro and parsley, optional
• fresh lemon juice from a lemon wedge

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse in cool water, drain again, and place in a serving bowl. Add flaked crab, green onion, and whatever crunch vegetable you have chosen. Stir to combine.

this photo shows the minced ginger on top
because I decided to add the ginger along
with a few more tomatoes and chopped
peppers after mixing everything together 

Mix mayo, yogurt, and minced ginger. Stir into pasta crab mixture. Gently fold in sliced tomatoes and top with fresh cilantro and parsley, if desired. I only had dried herbs, and I added in a sprinkle of both parsley and cilantro.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve. I made this a couple of hours ahead of time. When I took it out of the fridge, the pasta had soaked up some of the sauce and it looked dry, so I squeezed the juice from a lemon wedge (less than ¼ of a lemon), and stirred it in before serving--it was the perfect refresher that the salad needed!