Gluten and Grain-Free Crab Cakes

I can vividly recall the first time I was introduced to a crab cake.  I was 25 years old and we met in a dimly lit restaurant over a glass of Cabernet.  I was shy at first, but my tall and handsome companion gently urged me to put aside my ambivalence and surrender to this sweet indulgence.  As the first morsel entered my mouth, my eager taste buds met with a contrast of pleasing textures, both crispy and moist.  And it was love at first bite.

When my friend AndreAnna shared her recipe for Grain-Free Restaurant Crab Cakes over at Life as a Plate earlier this year, I could hardly contain my excitement!  I was newly grain-free at the time and her recipe was nearly perfect, I  just needed to make a few minor adjustments in order to accommodate my family’s other food allergies.

I made the crab cakes egg-free by using one “chia egg,” but I’m sure Ener-G’s Egg Replacer would work well too (not sure of the corn-free status however, it does contain citric acid).  If you can use real eggs, by all means, do so.

I also used blanched almond flour instead of grinding my own walnut meal – simply because it was less work and I wanted those crab cakes ASAP!

The result was pure heaven and the crab cakes are now a regular request at my table.

Gluten and Grain-Free Crab Cakes

(adapted to be egg-free and soy-free from Life as a Plate)

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

10 oz cooked Crab Meat (please make sure you use REAL crab meat, imitation crab not only contains gluten, but it’s just plain gross).

1/4 c. Scallions, sliced

2 tbsp Soy-Free Veganaise or you can make your own Egg-Free, Corn-Free and Soy-Free Mayo

2 tsp. Dijon Mustard (for corn-free, you can either make your own Dijon Mustard, or I use Eden Foods Organic Brown Mustard, which is made with apple cider vinegar instead of distilled)

1/2 tsp. Garlic, minced

1 Chia Egg:  Combine 1 tsp. ground White Chia Seed + 3 Tbs. Water, stir and set aside until thickened, about 5 minutes.

1-2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

2 Tbs. Blanched Almond Flour (I use Honeyville)

2 Tbs. Organic Refined Coconut Oil (Tropical Traditions is the brand I use and it does not have any coconut flavor to it).

Directions:

1). Combine all ingredients, minus the coconut oil, in a medium size bowl, mix well (clean hands work great for this).

2). In a large frying pan (I like to use my cast iron pan), melt the coconut oil over medium high heat.

3). To test if the oil is ready, simply drop a small amount of crab cake mixture into the oil and if it bubbles around the edges, the oil is ready.

4). Form patties out of the crab mixture and gently add to the hot pan.

5). Cook each crab cake for 2 – 4 minutes per side.

6). Remove crab cakes from pan and drain on a paper towel.  Depending on how large you make the patties, you should get 8 – 10 medium-sized crab cakes.  I like to serve these as a meal, along with a salad, so I make large patties and get about 5 0r 6 crab cakes.

7). Serve with AndreAnna’s Dijon Dip, it’s delicious! 

**When making the Dijon dip, I swap the regular mayo for Soy-Free Veganaise (or you could make your own egg, corn and soy-free mayo).  I also use my Homemade Corn-Free Worcestershire Sauce, (Lea & Perrins is gluten-free, but it contains high fructose corn syrup,  Annie’s Naturals Worcestershire Sauce is NOT gluten-free).

Why I use Coconut Oil

A lot of my “real life” friends ask me why I use so much coconut oil in my cooking (I always chuckle when I see the look of horror spread across their faces as I pull out my ginormous bucket of “saturated fat”).  The following is a video by Dr. Joseph Mercola explaining why coconut oil has been given a bad rap and why you should consider adding it to your diet:

Now for some shameless self-promotion…someone has kindly nominated my website for one of the Top 25 Food Allergy Mom Blogs over at Circle of Moms so if you have a quick second, I’d love your vote (you don’t have to register for anything)! 😀