These vegan Maryland Crab Cakes are a delicious treat. Crispy on the outside, tender and flaky on the inside, and packed with healthful goodness. Eat them on their own or cradle in a burger bun for a unique treat. A vegan and nut-free recipe, can be gluten-free.
As a Marylander, there's plenty about my home state that I am proud of. Its diverse and beautiful landscapes, its forward-thinking lawmakers, the fact that it sits next door to one of the coolest U.S. cities, Washington, D.C., and is home to another, Baltimore, and the fact that many, many great authors have lived here, including my two perennial favorites, Edgar Allan Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
But there's one thing I can't wrap my hungry vegan heart around: the food we're best known for.
Michigan has its cherries, Idaho has its potatoes, Georgia has its peaches, and we in Maryland...well, we have crabs.
Ugh.
So that's what we get for sitting on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, and most Marylanders -- today -- might disagree with me, but honestly, can't we just give those poor crustaceans some peace? (And no, Maine, I don't think putting pot in your shellfish before you plunge them into a boiling pot is the answer)
I can't say I've ever really enjoyed eating crabs. As a girl, I would watch in panic when my mother bought live crabs from the fisherwoman who made the rounds of our Bombay neighborhood, basket filled with fish balanced on her head, each time her husband returned home with a catch. The woman would twist off their claws before handing them over to my mom and the poor creatures, in a frenzy of pain and panic, would make every attempt to escape. Some would manage to crawl right out of the bowl and hide under chairs. It was the saddest thing I'd ever seen.
But as an adult, when we we'd spend a day out in Baltimore or Annapolis, both home to many seafood restaurants, I'd sometimes get tempted to eat what was touted as Maryland's culinary specialty: crab cakes. There were no shells and claws to deal with, and out of sight was out of mind.
Afterwards, older, smarter, and vegan, I learned how to make vegan crab cakes and posted a recipe in the infant days of this blog, more than 10 years ago.
I still love that recipe, which is simpler than this one, and make it from time to time, but this recipe, which is more complex, is certainly my favorite now.
It's a really simple recipe, and it takes moments to stir up. It packs a good, strong, healthy wallop, with both tempeh and chickpeas. And tons of flavor from hot sauce, dijon mustard, seaweed (for the seafoody flavor and more healthfulness) and Old Bay seasoning.
Old Bay, if you didn't already know, is also Maryland-born, and although it is usually used in seafood (which is the reason we are using it here), it is vegan and you can nosh on it guilt-free.
These crab cakes are all that. They have a delicate seafood-y flavor from the seaweed and the Old Bay, and they are crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. Eat them with my Vegan Wasabi Tartar sauce (recipe included below), or by themselves, and you'll be having your crab cake and eating it too -- no crustaceans harmed.
Maryland Crab Cakes
Ingredients
- 8 oz tempeh (crumbled with fingers into small bits)
- 1 cup chickpeas (cooked or canned. Drain before using)
- 2 slices whole wheat bread (crumbled. Can use gluten-free bread for a gf version)
- 1 small stalk celery (finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoon seaweed (like Nori, blended into a powder)
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1-2 teaspoon hot sauce
- ¼ cup vegan mayo
- 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (for frying)
For vegan wasabi tartar sauce
- ¼ cup vegan mayo
- 1 teaspoon wasabi powder
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional if you don't like your tartar sauce very tangy)
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
Instructions
- Place the chickpeas and burger bun into a food processor and pulse 8-10 times until the bread has broken down into crumbs and the chickpeas are in tiny pieces.
- Remove the chickpea-bread mixture to a bowl and add in the remaining ingredients. Mix well.
- Form the mixture into 10 equal-sized patties. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet and add the oil. When the oil is hot, place the crab cakes in the skillet. I do two batches of five each.
- Let each crab cake cook for a couple of minutes over medium-high heat or until the cake is golden-brown on the bottom. Flip and cook until the other side is golden-brown.
- Remove to a plate lined with paper towels.
Make vegan wasabi tartar sauce
- Place all the ingredients for the wasabi mayo in a small bowl and mix well with a fork.
- Serve the crabcakes hot with the mayo.
Nutrition
Jane
So good! Definitely needed more than 8-10 pulses to get the right texture. I also added the celery, nori, tempeh, etc into the blender for the final mix. Used 'herbal salt' instead of old bay because both had salt and celery ingredients.
Only small bits came off in the pan when I fried it with (vegan) butter. But mostly stuck together fine! Fried up half today, and excited for the next half tomorrow 🙂
Nandi
I cooked these up and they are so delicious. One comment I have is that the recipe says to pulse the chick pea and bread 8-10 times. Next time I will pulse more times since most of my cakes fell apart while turning. I think because the mixture had too large of a crumb. The tartar sauce is delicious too! Will also put my nori sheets into the spice grinder. They did not hand pulverize well which probably also contributed to the cakes falling apart. I’m making these again today btw.
Vaishali
Hi Nandi, thanks for the feedback -- so happy you tried and liked these. 🙂 You do need to pulse the chickpea mixture until it's pretty fine but not pasty.
Rhonda
The recipe reads delicious. I would like to try this but bake then in stead of frying. Thanks for sharing
Vaishali
Thanks, Rhonda, hope you try!
Leslie Grabowski
I've never had a crab cake, because I didn't like seafood even before going vegetarian and then vegan. But my husband, who sadly is still a pescatarian but who eats vegan at home, loves them, so I'm going to try these. I'm hoping that GF vegan bread will substitute well for the wheat burger bun.
Vaishali
Hi Leslie, yes, GF bread would be fine, and thanks for the reminder-- I added that to the recipe as well!