Lobster Roll Pasta Salad, inspired by one of my favorite summer sandwiches – a lobster roll – is loaded with lobster in every bite!
Lobster Roll Pasta Salad
This Lobster Roll Pasta Salad is great for special occasions, impressing company, and for when you want a light and refreshing weeknight meal in the warmer months. Cook up some pasta, toss it all together, and voila! Cold pasta salad, plus a glass of rosé, makes for the perfect light summer dinner, or serve this as side for your next party. More lobster recipes try this Lobster Cobb Salad and Chilled Lobster Salad with Corn and Tomatoes for more dinner ideas.
How to Make
Lobster: You can use fresh or frozen lobster, whatever is available to you. Here on Long Island, we have lots of lobster farms that often have specials. I used four whole live lobsters and had them steam them for me.
If you don’t have fresh lobster, you can pick up four larger frozen tails, which you can thaw and then steam until just cooked. Once the lobster is cooked, let it cool and make your salad.
Pasta: Of course, if you’re going to spend good money on lobster, you will want to use good-quality pasta too. I partnered with Delallo, my go-to pasta and the only brand I use. It’s imported from Italy and made from just two ingredients – wheat milled down to flour and water. I used DeLallo’s cavatappi, “a twisted ‘corkscrew’ with hole,” in this lobster pasta salad.
How I Make it Lighter: This pasta salad is heavy on the lobster and lighter on the pasta. I loaded it up with lobster, so it’s full of protein in every bite. I also use less mayo by adding some 0% fat Greek yogurt to keep it creamy without the added fat.
Variations:
- If lobster is not available near you, you can use cooked crab meat, crawfish, or shrimp instead.
- Sub cavatappi with fusilli, macaroni, or bow ties.
- Swap red onion for more chives.
More Lobster Recipes You’ll Love:
- Air Fryer Lobster Jalapeno Empanadas
- Grilled Lobster Tails with Herb Garlic Butter
- Union Cantina Lobster Tacos
- Lobster Asparagus Chopped Salad
- Chipotle Lobster and Avocado Wrap
Lobster Roll Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz cooked lobster meat, from (4) 1-1/4 lb whole lobsters or (4) 4 oz tails
- 1/2 cup chopped celery and leaves
- 1/3 cup light mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup fresh chives
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta
- 8 ounces DeLallo Cavatappi pasta
Instructions
- Prep all the ingredients, if your lobster is raw, steam it until just cooked.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to directions, I prefer to cook it 1 to 2 minutes longer than al dente when cooking for a cold pasta salad.
- Drain and run under cold water.
- Remove cooked lobster from shell and chop into large chunks, about 1 inch. Toss with the remaining ingredients and serve chilled. Makes 10 cups
Last Step:
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Notes
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 141 calories
Total Fat: 2.5g
Saturated Fat: 0.5g
Cholesterol: 68.5mg
Sodium: 383 mg
Carbohydrates: 17.0g
Fiber: 1.0g
Sugar: 1.0gProtein: 11.5g
Nutrition
Recipe created in partnership with Delallo Foods, a brand I love and use in my kitchen.
This is one of my favorites, but I sub chicken breast for lobster, and add halved, grape tomatoes. The whole family loves it!
Just tried this tonight. Absolutely delicious summer pasta dish.
I think the celery salt provided a really savory note to the dish 🙂
I so want to try it but the hubby detests celery and will taste the celery salt too. What would be a good substitute or if I leave it all out, would the salad be lacking flavor?
Gina, I am planning to make this tomorrow. How long will it be good in the fridge for?
2 days.
Thank you so much!
This is my all time favorite pasta salad. I use shrimp, and instead of celery salt, dill. I can’t get enough of it! It is certainly part of my summer rotation!
Thanks Lauren!
Favorite pasta salad!
Great tasting salad and easy to make
I have to make this recipe once a summer! It’s a great meal to take camping because it’s so easy and delicious. I always add fresh corn cut off the corn and it’s also good with tomatoes. I never do the raw onion because it gives me heartburn, but it’s a tasty treat!
Did this for my lunches for the next few days. Made it with shrimp b/c lobster is too pricey both dollar wise and not willing to add the imitation lobster points. Had a little bite to test the seasoning when I was getting it packed up. I am ready for lunch tomorrow! Thank you again for another great recipe!
Delicious!!
What can I use in place of Greek yogurt more Mayo?
Yes!
Great flavor!!! I used imitation lobster, real mayonnaise and full fat sour cream. I also added Old Bay seasoning and decreased the celery salt by half. Cavatappi is my new favorite pasta.
I came here to see if would still work with imitation crab, because $$ ha!
One of our favorites! I sometimes use the imitation crab meat instead of lobster and that is wonderful too!
Wow! I found lobster tails at my Costco yesterday. Only needed 2 of the 4 in the package so I have enough for next time. I did add a little dill and old bay and I added some chopped cucumber and quartered cherry tomatoes. (I had them on hand and thought they would go great in this salad). It’s delicious! Def be a go-to summer dish! Esp when Costco has the tails.
This sounds absolutely delicious! I want to make this for our Labor Day family potluck for 10 people as a side. Would I need to double the recipe? I have 12 ounces of frozen langostino In the freezer now & want to use in place of the lobster. Do I need another package? Thank you!
I’m confused by the number of servings mentioned in the recipe. It says 5 servings at the beginning & further down it says 10 servings. Can you please tell me which is correct? Also, I have 12 ounce package of langostino I was was going to use in place of the lobster. Do you think that will be enough for the full recipe? Thank you!
5 servings if you are having it as your main (2 cup serving) or 10 servings as a side (1 cup serving). 🙂
Made this today . My guests loved it , but I have to say I added a little lemon juice . Also, it was in the fridge for several hours after the preparation and it was dry when I was getting ready to serve it, so I added more of the dressing ingredients and turned out perfectly . Will definitely make it again !
I have been making this recipe for a while now. I can’t really afford using lobster, so I swap it with surimi. It works perfectly.
This is exciting to hear because I was thinking of trying it with surimi. Thank you!
This is my favorite pasta salad of all time. It’s so simple, yet packed with flavor & it feels like you’re eating a lobster roll! I followed recipe exactly as written, with a tiny bit celery seed added for more flavor. I will try with shrimp as mentioned by other reviewers since lobster is a little too expensive to use very often.
Had to half the recipe since I only had 8oz of lobster meat but made as directed. It is fantastic! Thank you for the recipe!
Yummy!!!!!! This was so good and so easy to make. I only made a few changes (ugh…I hate when people say that.) I used shell pasta because that is what I had. I did not add celery salt because I did not have any on hand. I also added fresh dill. And the big thing I did different was I did not use lobster (too expensive) but I did use some sauteed shrimp and imitation crab meat. In other words this recipe is flexible and you can use a different kind of seafood if you wanted. I loved it and so did my mom. Definitely recommend. I will be making it again.
I don’t like celery or onion. What would be good substitutions for added flavor?
Would imitation crabmeat meat work here? I was just checking out prices today and it’s fairly inexpensive. Thanks
Delicious with imitation crab meat!
Could not find the pasta, so I used fusilli but it definitely did not make 5 servings. More like 2! Maybe because of the pasta I used. Still delicious though!
At the end of the video, what is the white sauce you drizzled over the salad?
This looks great! The hubs doesn’t like lobster, so I’ll substitute with shrimp! 🍤
Question: Is there a way to make this without mayonnaise?
Really fresh and tasty! I read the comments so I added a pinch of dill and a teensy spritz of lemon, but otherwise followed the recipe to the “t”. The dressing really coated to the cavatappi (I just used barilla) and it really gave that summertime lobster-roll satisfaction! I will definitely make again!
I made this last night using fresh steamed crab meat (I couldn’t find any lobster meat) and it was delicious! I didn’t have any celery salt so I subbed Old Bay Seasoning. My husband loved it, too. I will definitely be making this again.
I don’t like lobster so I am going to make this with shrimp. It’s on the menu for next weekend at the cabin!
Where, OH WHERE, is the dill? My parents’ seafood restaurant on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in CT uses dill in many of their Seafood Salads. Even a tiny bit adds a punch of flavor. Also, depending on which dish you’re making with fresh seafood, (sometimes) adding a pinch of Old Bay Seasoning will bring it over the top – but not here, because you definately want the sweetness of the lovely Lobster to shine.
Oh yes! Our parents must be related! Cannot wait to make & share! Thanks
I can’t wait to try this, but with lobster going for $10.99/lb in Massachusetts, (double the normal price) it won’t be soon. ☹ My mouth is watering just reading this!!
My comment is not regarding the recipe but…..I ordered your Fast and Slow Cookbook and I am really disappointed. I expected to see the point values for the Weight Watcher points. The recipes look wonderful and I will try many of them but I will have to input them into the WW calculator to get the point values.
There is a cookbook tab on the site- click on in and drop down to cookbook index. All the points are listed there. 🙂