A light refreshing calamari salad made with squid, fresh lemon, celery, red onion, roasted peppers, garlic and parsley.
Calamari Salad with Lemon and Parsley
This chilled calamari salad is a wonderful appetizer or light lunch. This comes together pretty quick, let it marinade overnight for the best flavor. If you want a shrimp salad, try my Zesty Lime Shrimp Salad or Creamy Shrimp and Celery Salad.
Chilled Calamari Salad is great in the summer for picnics, boating or when you want something chilled. And it’s also great for the holidays or Christmas to serve as an appetizer. It’s low-carb, whole30 and gluten-free.
Squid doesn’t take long to cook, if you overcook it it gets rubbery so be sure to keep a close eye on it and have an ice bath ready before you cook it. If you buy your squid cleaned, this takes minutes to make and is easier than you think.
How To Make Calamari Salad
Start with fresh or frozen squid. If frozen let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Slice into rings keeping the legs whole.
Prepare an ice bath and cook the squid in boiling water about 45 to 60 seconds, then transfer to the ice bath. Meanwhile chop your veggies, add the lemon, vinegar and olive oil and toss everything together. Chill overnight.
Variations:
Some variations you can try…
- Make a mixed seafood salad by adding cooked shrimp, crab, mussels, scungilli or a combination of all.
- Add cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives or hot cherry pepper.
- Cilantro and lime instead of lemon and parsley would give this more of a Latin flair
Refrigerate up to 4 days. Double or triple the recipe for a larger crowd.
Chilled Calamari Salad with Lemon and Parsley
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup red onion, minced
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped
- 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced (no stems)
- 1 clove garlic, sliced
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 lemons
- 1 1/4 tsp red wine vinegar
- salt and fresh pepper to taste
- 1 lb fresh squid, tube and tentacles cleaned
Instructions
- Rinse squid and slice tubes into 1/2 inch rings.
- Leave the tentacles whole and set aside.
- Prepare a bowl of water with ice.
- In a medium bowl combine onion, garlic, celery, red peppers, parsley, olive oil lemon juice, vinegar, salt and fresh pepper.
- Bring a medium pot filled with water and a pinch of salt to a boil.
- Add calamari all at once and cook until tender yet cooked, (I test it by tasting a ring) about 45 - 60 seconds.
- Quickly drain when cooked and add to the ice bath until cool, 4 - 5 minutes.
- Combine squid with the salad and toss well.
- Taste for salt and add additional seasoning and lemon juice if needed.
- Cover and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight for best results.
This salad is perfect! It was amazing. The first time I made it, I deep fried half of the calamari and mad this with the other half. This time I used the entire pound. Only thing different is I added the tenticles after cutting in half. This is a real winner! Thank you for sharing.
Love calamari
The Calories and Fat Macros don’t make sense for 2TBS of Olive oil (or even 2tsp). With 2 TBS, as directed, the fat grams I’m getting are 8.5ish and Cal are ~190 with 4 servings per recipe
Made this today. Pros: perfect texture on the squid. Great way to serve a seafood that’s often fried at home. Loved the textures and technique. Cons: I think this was missing a seasoning. We let our marinate for about 6 hours and it just felt like it needed “something.” Added some Aleppo pepper, more salt, and more red wine vinegar and will see if its better tomorrow.
Yum! I made this with cilantro and lime. Wonderful for a tropical picnic in Puerto Rico!
This was great! My kids loved it, too.
Would I be able to add cut up lobster, scallops, and shrimp to this dish and if so should I just alter the other ingredients to match how many pounds of fish I’m using? thanks
Yes and yes. 🙂
Wonderful recipe! one variation is to use octopus and try a bulb of fennel instead of the celery.. It .always one of the Christmas eve fishes.
Oh MY GOSH – I just clicked on the WW personal points and it took me right to my account for tracking! Gina you are the BEST!!!!!
This salad looks amazing – never cooked with calamari – will give it a try!
🙂
Instead of parsley, we use fresh dill. Delicious!
This is a very fresh and delicious appetizer. May I suggest that you substitute “Italian parsley,” for regular parsley. It has a milder, more subtle flavor. But I do like this recipe very much. Thanks for sharing!
Amazing recipe!! I added olives, It turned out really good and a winner of my picky husband and daughters. This is a keeper. Thanks for another great recipe Gina!!
I love this recipe. I just made it for lunch today.
Can I add scungilli to this recipe? –
Sure
I made this today using a bag of mixed frozen seafood from Trader Joe's (contained shrimp, calamari, and bay scallops). It was delicious and so refreshing since it's so hot out. Would also be nice with some orzo and avocado.
Oh my word.
I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, and "fish salad" was something you'd often find at some delis. Squid, salad shrimp, maybe some mussels. And sadly, also, fake crab meat. What's sad about the fake crab? I developed a wheat allergy and I can't eat any of the salad if it's got fake crab in it.
This tastes JUST like the stuff I used to buy. I even added some salad shrimp – wonderful.
You DO want to buy your squid already cleaned. Not for this recipe, but recently I bought "uncleaned" squid and I am not squirmish about a lot of food things, but yeah… that was gross. If you can only find pre-cut rings, those would work great. If you're not a lemon fan, switch out the lemon for more vinegar or some white balsamic, etc. If you like fried calamari… do not fear this recipe. 60 seconds, ice bath, and then into the dressing… the squid will turn out perfect.
If and when do you add the tentacles? I don't see them mentioned in the recipe except to set aside but I see them in the picture.
With the rings.
Could you use imitation crab meat instead of the squid?
Sure
Come on Gina, Tell them if they want to add imitation crab meat to go eat at McDonalds!
I agree with jimbo…..stick with Mickey d’s
This is great.Can't make enough. Added a tablespoon of Olive oil to offset acid in vinagar but as is is best I've ever ate. Tip. Use a pasta cooker to dip raw calamari boiling water for only 1 minute then bathe in ice water. It comes out tender. cooked it an extra 20 seconds the first time and you can tell it was getting tough.
I love this recipe. thank you
Linette….bring water to a boil,drop in squid,time 1 minute and take them out.they cook extremely fast.
Great
I prefer using cilantro rather than the parsley. Great flavor. Thanks.
1/4 cup parsley, add the garlic with the onions. This really marinates best overnight if you want to make this for a crowd, you can double it and make it the night before.
How much parsley? There are no units 🙂
I prefer to buy it cleaned already, then I just rinse it, cut it and cook it.
Do you have any tips for buying squid? My husband and I love calamari, and I'd love to try this recipe out! Thanks! P.S. Love your blog!
Buy it at a high end butcher and you should get the "a" grade used for restautants cheaper vendors use the bait box kind. Even if prev. frozen it is good. Try to find a source from Monterery, Ca. The best!
I should add this is better then next day! Had the rest today, the flavors really get in to the calamari.
Growing up in the upper Midwestern US, thousands of miles from a sea or ocean, I would have never dreamt of eating cold squid, but I've grown and this looks tasty, especially inthe hot weather
This looks simple, healthy and refreshing. I love dishes like this. They are perfect for summer:)
This sounds WONDERFUL! Perfect for Houston summers; I can't wait to make this.
I do not care much for squid and I am not sure I can get it here in Mississippi, but I did grap another Chicken recipe that I saw. Thanks and I love your blog.
My mom picked it up for me last year, I finally got to use it! I'll have to ask her where she bought it.
What is the indicator that the calamari is cooked? Like if its not cooked yet, how do you know? This looks delicious, by the way! I LOVEEEE calamari!!
I've never cooked calamari and only eaten it fried, but this looks wonderful. And love, love, love the fish plate!
I love that fish plate. adorable! where is it from?