Soft shell crab with papaya salad

Soft shell crab and papaya salad is a Summer meal in our house. It has fresh tasty flavours and leaves you feeling light! You can also do this with fish, tofu, calamari, or even have the salad on it’s own.. it’s devine!

Ingredients (serves 2)

60 mls Fish Sauce
60 mls Soy Sauce
60 mls White Vinegar
1/2 cup Sugar
60 mls Water
1 long red Diced up chilli (seeds removed)
1 Green Papaya (shredded)
1 Carrot (Shredded)
1/4 cup Vietnamese mint (Thinly sliced)
2 tbsp Shallots (for topping)
Crushed peanuts optional
4 Soft Shell crabs (thawed, washed and dried on paper towel)
3/4 cup Flour for dusting crab in
1 tsp Salt and pepper (into flour mixutre)
1 tbsp Paprika (into flour mixture)
Oil For deep frying soft shell crab
2 Eggs (beaten for egg wash)

Method

Dressing: combine the fish sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, water and sugar in a bowl, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Taste it to make sure you get an even balance of sour, sweet, spicy etc.
Combine the papaya, carrot, mint, crushed peanuts and fried shallots in a separate bowl. Set aside until ready to serve.
Drain any excess water from the soft shell crab on paper towels. Once dry, place crabs in egg wash and then coat in flour mixture. (Light dusting). Deep fry soft shell crabs until golden brown. (Test by cutting through centre to see if it is cooked to your delight) but don't over cook otherwise crab will be very dry. Let the crab drain on a paper towel whilst you assemble your papaya salad
Pour the Dressing into the papaya salad mix and stir through well using your fingers. Place the salad on a plate for serving and then top off with soft shell crabs. Pour remainder of the dressing over the top of the crabs/salad and ENJOY!

83 Comments

- - mom160270 said
  - 28 Nov 2025
    11:52 pm
Wow, this is very exotic. Would love to give it a go. Thanks for sharing.

- - mom19782016 said
  - 01 Oct 2018
    6:14 pm
Oh wow, that looks amazing!

- - ella12 said
  - 17 Jan 2018
    11:19 am
Not really keen on this and looks a bit heavy.

- - Stef said
  - 25 Feb 2017
    3:55 am
Soft shell crab is one of my favourite seafood dishes..so delicious!

- - Melissa89 said
  - 30 Jul 2016
    3:09 pm
This sounds absolutely delicious

- - mom19782016 said
  - 22 Jun 2016
    9:48 pm
Woo hoo, I want this dish!!! It sounds divine!

- - sharna_booth_weinrowski said
  - 17 May 2016
    7:59 pm
this sounds incredible! Thank you for sharing the recipe!

- - Kasey said
  - 30 Dec 2015
    10:24 pm
this looks fabulous bet it tastes fantastic!

- - mom113055 said
  - 19 Sep 2015
    9:28 pm
shell crab
- coastalkaryn replied
  
  16 Jan 2016 , 8:50 am
  Hi, why don’t you comment with real words, instead of copying and pasting the title of the recipe on every post I see. Obviously you are in it for the prizes only – good luck to you, but it is a little tacky (my opinion only of course)
- - kymichelle said
  - 17 Sep 2015
    10:21 am
My son loves crab. Maybe he can make this for his Mum this Summer 🙂

- - mom113055 said
  - 10 Sep 2015
    11:42 pm
soft shell

- - Samiaye said
  - 01 Aug 2015
    9:16 pm
have got to try this!

- - maryphilip said
  - 30 Jun 2015
    12:20 pm
Oh yummy, this looks so good, I have never tried papaya salad. I am going to try this one. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

- - coastalkaryn said
  - 24 Jun 2015
    6:13 pm
I have never eaten papaya – can you describe the taste?

- - mom113055 said
  - 17 Jun 2015
    8:42 pm
so exellent

- - mom108638 said
  - 03 Jun 2015
    1:22 pm
This looks amazing… whenever I see soft shell crab on a menu I order it.

- - dannsbuild said
  - 30 May 2015
    10:41 pm
This really does say me. I like this recipe a lot.

- - Mum of 5 darlings :) said
  - 29 May 2015
    10:21 pm
Crab with salad … I couldn’t think of a better combination.

- - talwin said
  - 27 May 2015
    4:05 pm
Never had soft shell crab! I think it is time I try this. Thanks for sharing

- - am1979amanda said
  - 19 May 2015
    11:12 am
Looks real tasty I’ll try this thanks