These Vegan “Crab” Cakes will blow you away with their amazing texture and flavor. They are easy to make and look like the real deal. Whole Food Plant Based, oil free, refined sugar free, no processed ingredients to minimally processed ingredients, and gluten free!
Hi! Ameera here.
You are going to absolutely love these amazing “crab” cakes. They are so tasty, crunchy, flaky, and delicious!
This Vegan Crab Cake recipe was adapted from Vegan Huggs.
Heart of Palm, what is that?
The heart of palm is the key ingredient in making these amazingly delicious vegan “crab” cakes. Chopped up hearts of palm mimic the texture of crab meat perfectly. It is pretty incredible.
The heart of palm is the core of the stem of the palm from the palmetto tree. They are a great source of fiber, iron and zinc. Each one ounce serving contains 18% of vitamin B-6, which is awesome.
Old Bay Seasoning
The Old Bay Seasoning is a key ingredient as it has the perfect blend of spices to ensure that seafood flair. Perhaps you may not be familiar with it; Old Bay Seasoning has been around a long time, and it has 18 herbs and spices and is blended to create a perfect seasoning most often associated with seafood.
Give these amazing vegan “crab” cakes a try, perfectly crispy on the outside, moist and flaky on the inside! Don’t forget the Vegan Tartar Sauce!
Robin here!
I readily admit, I have never been a fan of seafood, so when Monkey wanted to make vegan “crab” cakes, it took some convincing to get me onboard. I am so glad I did as these vegan crab cakes are delicious.
When growing up, the most seafood we ever had as kids was fish sticks. I never liked them. My dad loved fried fish, but I never learned to enjoy it so my mom occasionally made fish sticks for the kids.
Christmas eve is just around the corner!
When TP and I got married, I always made the Italian “Feast of the Seven Fishes” on Christmas eve. I was still not a huge seafood lover, but my family loved the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” TP loved fried smelts, and by the time I got done making those “stinky little fishes”, the whole house smelled like fish! But TP was happy so it was a small sacrifice in smelliness. LOL
Monkey readily jumped in and really took our “Feast of the Seven Fishes” to the next level, and Christmas eve was really a feast!
TP109 is Santa!
When we went WFPB, the Feast of Seven Fishes was really kind of moot, right? We no longer eat seafood. This dish is reminiscent of our old “Feast of the Seven Fishes” and works perfectly for our Christmas eve dinner menu.
Back in the day, we always had to wait until TP109 came home from playing Santa Claus. He was Santa Claus for a good 10 years or so. Our friends, Joe and Anita, hosted a Christmas party every year for their family. We always found it quite hilarious that lil TP109, all 135 pounds of him played Santa Claus every year for 10+ years. We had to duck tape pillows all over him to “fatten” him up.
(TP109 as Santa and Robin – Circa 1999)
Ho-Ho-Ho!
He would spend the entire day practicing his “Ho-Ho-Ho’ing” as he wanted to get it just right! By 8pm (right before his grand appearance), we would be ready to kick his Ho-Ho-Ho’ing butt out the house –LOL.
Someone (usually Chris) always had to drive him because we would make him so fat with pillows that his feet couldn’t touch the gas and brake pedals. Joe and Anita have since stopped having Santa appearances at their Christmas parties as all their grandchildren are now grown. But we have some great memories from it!
Products used in this recipe
- Mini Chop food processor
- Baking sheet
Vegan “Crab” Cakes
- Prep Time: 13 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 58 minutes
- Yield: 6 Crab Cakes 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Vegan “Crab” Cakes will blow you away with their amazing texture and flavor. They are easy to make and look like the real deal. Whole Food Plant Based, oil free, refined sugar free, no processed ingredients to minimally processed ingredients, and gluten free!
*This Vegan Crab Cake recipe was adapted from Vegan Huggs.
Ingredients
- 7 oz. of chickpeas (1/2 can of 15 oz. can), rinsed. Save the liquid.
- 1 – 14 oz. can Hearts of Palm, drained and rinsed.
- ¼ cup reserved chickpea liquid (from above), plus more for brushing
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (or bottled lemon juice)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon vegan Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup green onions, diced
- 1 ½ teaspoons of dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning *
- ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/- ) *
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika (+ more for sprinkling)
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs (+ extra for the outer coating)
Instructions
- Drain the chickpeas over a strainer into a bowl to reserve the liquid (keep for later in the recipe), then rinse the chickpeas and add them to a food processor and pulse a few times to break them up. Be careful not to over process the chickpeas (we want to keep some texture.) Remove from the food processor and set aside in a medium bowl.
- Then add the drained hearts of palm and pulse a few times to break them up. Be careful not to over process the hearts of palm as we want the texture to resemble crab meat. Remove from the food processor and place in the same bowl as the processed chickpeas.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the reserved chickpea liquid to get a frothy consistency – this will take a couple minutes. To the chickpea liquid, stir in the lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and all the dry seasonings. (Don’t throw out unused chickpea liquid as we will use it as an “egg wash” for the “crab” cakes while baking.)
- Place the breadcrumbs, and green onions into the chickpea and hearts of palms bowl, and stir together. Add the whisked chickpea liquid mixture and remaining seasonings. This is the time to taste and adjust the salt/pepper and seasonings to your taste.
- Cover the bowl and place mixture into the freezer for 15 to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Place about ½ cup of panko bread crumbs onto a flat plate. Scoop up about 1/3 cup of the “crab cake” mixture into a 1/3 cup measuring cup, pack down firmly. Then remove the mixture (this is to give it shape) and gently coat each side of the patty with the panko bread crumbs. Makes 6 cakes.
- Place the crab cakes onto a baking sheet, then lightly brush the tops with a very small amount of the left over reserved garbanzo bean liquid, then sprinkle lightly with some sweet paprika, and place in a preheated 400 F oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, switch the oven from bake to broil, move the crab cakes to the top rack and broil until lightly browned.
- Serve immediately. Garnish with green onions, lemon wedges and our Vegan Tartar Sauce.
Notes
*Old Bay Seasoning is Gluten Free according to the manufacturer of Old Bay Seasoning.
*Vegan Tartar Sauce: This recipe can be served alone (without the Vegan Tartar Sauce); however, we have found the extra tang of the Vegan Tartar Sauce really pulls the meal together nicely.
*Panko Bread Crumbs: We used Ian’s Gluten Free Panko crumbs for this recipe.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Storage: Cool to warm, place in the refrigerate, and use within 3 days.
This has to be one of the most creative recipes I have seen, the crab cakes look insane good! big fan of old bay seasoning, love this recipe
Hi Albert, thank you so much! We love this recipe, and make it often! The texture is awesome and paired the old bay takes it to the next level, looking forward to making more recipes with hearts of palm.
– Ameera and Robin 🙂
These sound WONDERFUL!! I am forever buying something similar at $11.99 a pound at whole foods…it may be time to end all that! 🙂 The texture on these vegan “crab cakes” looks incredible.
Hi Cakespy! Yay, I’m so glad you like it! Thank you so much! These vegan crab cakes are so simple and easy to make, plus budget friendly. We hope that you give them a try!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I love that these are vegan! They look so yummy!
Hi Bethany! Thank you so much! They truly are delicious with a great texture and taste! We hope you get a chance to make them!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Made these tonight… taste was good, but the inside was mushy and they spread in the oven. I’m not sure what I did wrong. Maybe air fry next time
Hi there Maggie 🙂 Glad the taste was good, but we are so sorry to hear they were mushy and spread in the oven. We bake these crab cakes quite frequently and have never had them mushy on the inside or spread in the oven. They have always kept their shape. We have also had a number of Facebook followers make them as well and really loved them. We think they would be great in an air fryer, but don’t think there should be any difference between baking in the oven or air frying them – they should both come… Read more »
I just found your site this past weekend. I tried these vegan crab cakes (with vegan tartar sauce) on Monday evening and they were a huge hit! Thankfully I made a double batch so we could have leftovers two days later. Absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Hi there Pat 🙂
Yaaaay! We are so glad that you found us and that these Vegan Crab Cakes were a total hit! Thank you so much for your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Made this last night – spritzed w Olive oil and put in air fryer. It was FANTASTIC!!
Hi there Priya 🙂
Woo Hoo!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Could you make these with jackfruit?
Hi there Robin 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. We have not tried using jackfruit as a substitute. We aren’t quite sure how well the “crab” cake would hold up. The text and flavor will be slightly different. If you give it a try, we’d love to know how it went.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
This was totally delicious! The hearts of palm were an inspired addition and really made for a fish texture without the seafood! We upped the spice because we love really punchy flavors but otherwise followed to the letter. We’ll definitely pull this out to impress company 🙂
Hi there 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe and plan to use it to impress company *happy dance*. We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Hi!
I wanted to let you know that when you print/save any of your recipes they save cutting off some of the recipe at the bottom of any page.
Hi there Susan 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We have found that when using the internet browser safari, this does not happen. However, if you are using a different internet browser, you need to close any advertisements that are open before going to the print settings. We hope this helps.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Looking for what to make along with these for dinner. Any suggestions?
Hi there Shannon,
Thank you for your question. The options are limitless. You can serve this with coleslaw, a hearty salad, baked french fries, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, macaroni salad, etc. I hope this helps.
-Ameera and Robin
Made these tonight exactly as stated then cooked in the air fryer and they were delicious and filling! Thank you so much for such a great recipe!
Hi there Kristin,
WOOOO HOOOO!!! We are thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so much for the awesome review.
-Ameera and Robin
Just made these and they are fabulous!! I added a little kelp to the mixture and they are perfect!
Hi there Lind,
YAYYYY!!! We are thrilled that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it. Thank you so much for the awesome review.
-Ameera and Robin
Can I mix them up and put them in the fridge and bake later?
Hi there Colleen,
Thank you for your question. Our only fear in doing this is that the panko crumbs will become too soggy sitting in the fridge. You can always test it out. We have not tested it ourselves, so we are reluctant to say it will work perfectly.
-Ameera and Robin
While I wanted so badly to love these, I just didn’t. And for only one reason. I could not for the life of me taste anything other than the liquid the hearts of palm came packed in. I rinsed and rinsed to no avail. The texture is magnificent, the seasoning is great, the presentation makes my mouth water.. but that brine flavor just overpowers it all. At least for me it did. And that could just be me.. the recipe itself was easy to make , don’t let my experience keep you from trying them if you haven’t. Totally could… Read more »
Hi there Marlene,
Awe, we are so sorry that this recipe wasn’t to your liking. Thank you for your review.
-Ameera and Robin
How much chickpea liquid should be reserved for the “egg wash”? I looked, but sorry if I missed it. Can’t wait to make these!
Hi there Sarah,
Thank you for your question. You are correct, we did not specify. We reserve the whole can of chickpea liquid and use what we need and discard the rest. I wish I could be more specific. If we had to guess, we would say, it was about half the can of the liquid.
-Ameera and Robin