Imitation Crab Cakes
"Don't let the title fool you, these are so good! I adapted them from a regular crab cake recipe on Allrecipes when our grocer had imitation crab on sale. The crab cakes may need 2 eggs as reviewers have noted, it depends on how moist your imitation crab is and how finely you flake it. The cakes won't seem to hold together well but they will cook up nicely, just be sure to make them small and carefully flip them when they're nice and brown on the bottom.
I've also made these with finely diced red pepper and cilantro, omitting the green onions, and that is probably our new favorite way to prep."
photo by cookin mimi
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 13
- Yields:
-
8-10 cakes
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 2 (8 ounce) packages imitation crabmeat, chopped and flaked
- 1 -2 egg
- 2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1⁄4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
- 1 lemon, juice of
- salt
- ground black pepper
directions
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.
- Saute green onions briefly until tender.
- Combine crabmeat, sauteed green onions, egg, mayonnaise, dry mustard, breadcrumbs, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, lemon, salt and pepper with your hands. Work the ingredients together so they start to stick together.
- Form into 1/2 inch thick patties.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the non-stick skillet over medium-medium high heat. * works really well on a flat griddle.
- Cook cakes until nicely browned on each side.
- Drain briefly on paper towels and serve hot.
Questions & Replies
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it calls for breadcrumbs in the ingredients but has you mixing in crackercrumbs. Which is it, very confusing. I read reviews and most used bread or panko crumbs which I will use. But you should read your recipe before posting to make sure the ingredients in the list are the same as in the way to mix and make it. -
C’mon Zanzibar. Crumbs whether pinko or standard and cracker crumbs are easily interchangeable. Texture will vary slightly but it makes little taste difference. But many thanks to lolablitz for the idea. We’re from Maryland and pride ourselves on our crabcakes but I’ve not been able to make them for a family member who developed a severe allergy to shellfish. I’ve been wondering about using imitation crabmeat for his cakes and your recipe sounds like a hit. I’ll try to respond again after I make them, but at 79 sometimes I don’t remember things/ ??
Reviews
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GREAT recipe, but it was really lacking moisture to stick everything together. I doubled the recipe and added a finely chopped red bell pepper and extra Old Bay for a kick. To fix the moisture issue, I added an extra egg, almost a total of 1/4 cup of lite mayo, then almost 1/4 cup of fat free sour cream. At that point, the patties formed nicely and I had no issues with them falling apart. They turned out very moist, flaky, and delicious. Six picky people ate until they were stuffed and we had no leftovers. Thank you "lolablitz" for the recipe!
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I'm actually amazed at how good these are, so much I just left my first food review ever!
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I had some left over imitation crab and gave this a try. Wow! Is it good. Highly recommended!
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My husband and I are very picky about crab cakes and this was an awesome recipe. The only thing i did different was add an extra egg to the mixture to make it bind better (if you use 1lb of meat). I also used panko in the mixture and coated the outside of the patties with egg and panko to give it an extra crunch. -
I made this for my son for lunch today. I don't know but I'm thinking that some restaurants we have gone to are passing off imitation crab for the real stuff now that I've tried this recipe. Thanks for the tasty recipe. (I used panko bread crumbs since I had no crackers.)
see 12 more reviews
Tweaks
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Not too bad, but very lemony. If I were to make this again, I would add the juice of only 1/4 to 1/2 of a lemon. More lemon juice can be added post-cooking to taste if needed. Less lemon juice might also help it stick better. -
I ended up substituting a lot of parts of this recipe because I was missing some things... blue cheese dressing instead of light mayo, Aroy-D chili paste instead of cayenne pepper, lime juice instead of lemon and no Old Bay seasoning. I reduced the amount of onion since my girlfriend and I aren't fond enough of onions to throw three (I halved the recipe to make 4 crab cakes) into one dish. Tasted awesome, definitely gonna make it again.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I am a SAHM who loves to cook for my small family! I have a 14 month old daughter, a wonderful husband, a seven year-old Keeshond and a cat named Rex Manly.
I really just love this website! I visit it practically every weekday for ideas and recipes and try to always post a review of everything I make from Zaar. The only time I don't is when I have a negative reaction to a recipe that was due to my mistake or if I have substituted so many ingredients that it wouldn't be a fair review. Thanks to all of you wonderful cooks who have made me a better cook myself!
