So making crab cakes at home seemed like a good idea. I've been wanting them for a while but they were always bumped out of the meal plan for one reason or another. These finally rose to the top when some of the ingredients had to be used up before they went bad.
Inspiration
LaaLoosh Baked Crab CakesI didn't realize until I was starting to make them that I only had half the amount of crab I needed. Oh. I had already added the green onion and crab to the bowl, so I couldn't take it back out. So I ended up using twice as much green onion, which didn't bug me at all since I like onion.
I also didn't have any fresh bell pepper or a jar of roasted bell pepper, so I skipped that. And I substituted lemon for the lime juice since I had half of one left over from a previous meal. I also added a little chopped frozen spinach to add a little extra nutrients and color.
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| Main Ingredients |
Ingredients
Crab Cakes
- 8 oz crab meat, drained (I used 2 cans)
- 4 scallions, diced
- small handful frozen chopped spinach
- 1/3 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp dried cilantro
- 1 egg
- 1 T plain Greek yogurt
- salt & pepper
- 2 T lemon juice
Chipotle Sauce
- 1-2 T plain Greek yogurt
- 2T light mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp Chipotle pepper seasoning
- garlic powder
- 2 T lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
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| Crab cake mixture |
Directions
Crab Cakes
Mix up the crab cake ingredients. Mine was a little wet since it was canned crab, I should have probably drained it a little more. You're supposed to let the mixture rest for an hour, but I prepped this at lunch, so it waited a few additional hours. I don't know if that had any affect on the mixture, it seemed no worse for the wear. |
| Shaped crab cake patties. |
Sauce
I mixed all the ingredients up in the individual-sized Greek yogurt container since there was only a little bit of yogurt left. I made this at lunch as well, so it had plenty of time to hydrate and really mix together.At Cooking Time
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I lined my cookie sheet with foil and then sprayed the foil to ensure there was no sticking.I wanted to ensure the patties were the same size, so I used two dollops of my medium-sized cookie scoop to make a single cake. They were smaller than the recipe indicated, I should have gotten only 8 cakes for my half batch, but I had more like 11 or 12.
Even though my crab cakes were smaller, I baked them for the same amount of time indicated in the original recipe (12 minutes per side) since I figured my cakes were a little wetter and could use the extra time to dry out. They didn't stick to the foil and they flipped fine. They were slightly delicate, but none of mine fell apart.
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| After the first 12 minutes in the oven. Lightly brown. |
Verdict
They weren't like a posh restaurant's crab cakes, but at least I knew that they were mainly crab and not filler. Plus I made the whole recipe for less than what a restaurant would charge for only a couple crab cakes.I liked my version of crab cakes and so did everybody else in the family. Husband Jeff seemed to be not eating them, but when I asked, he said he really liked them but was holding back in case Sonny D wanted more. Which was a good thing, since Sonny D ate at least four of them. There were only 2 cakes left at the end of the meal.
The chipotle sauce I made was spicy, I really liked the smoky chipotle flavor. Sonny D wouldn't even try it, but the crab cakes really didn't need it since they were tasty.
Since they were so popular, I will definitely make them again. I would like to find a better source of crab though, the canned stuff was only ok and it was only medium-quality crab. I guess I would try frozen crab, if that's an option. I've never really looked for crab to know what's out there. And it would be nice to have at least the jarred roasted red peppers, that flavor would definitely be a nice addition, but even my more plain version was tasty.