Vegan "Crab" Cakes Recipe

Lord, You have come to the seashore

Neither searching for the rich nor the wise

desiring only that I should follow
HYMN

My sweet friend from work brought me some zucchinis from her garden. Look at these huge zucchinis! We sauteed some with onions and still had some left. So I made a large batch of Zucchini "crab" cakes and froze them for quick meals later. Served in a bun with vegan tartar sauce and shredded lettuce, they could pass for a sandwich at a beach grill.

I save and freeze the drained zucchini liquid to use in vegetable soup later.

Vegan "Crab" Cakes                                      

This recipe was adapted from Connie's "crab" cakes see her amazing original recipe here: Connie's zucchini crab cakes.  I have modified her recipe to be vegan and baked not fried. Thank you, Connie. You are a genius!

Makes about 10 cakes

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups grated Zucchini (drain excess liquid)
1 flax seed egg ( mix 1 tsp ground flaxseed and 2 tsp water)
2 TBs melted Earth Balance Spread
2 cups seasoned Panko bread crumbs (see recipe below)
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs

2 cups Panko bread crumbs ( I use whole wheat)
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 380 degrees.

2. Grease a cookie sheet OR line a cookie sheet with parchment paper/ silicone baking mat and spread a tsp of canola oil on the liner. The oil beads up, but it's fine.

3. Place 1 cup of the seasoned bread crumbs into a bowl for breading the patties later.

4. Mix the grated zucchini, flax egg, and melted Earth Balance in a large bowl. Then add the remaining 1 cup of bread crumbs, flour, seasoning and onions. Mix well.

5. Now take a hand full of "crab" mixture and form a patty. This is going to be messy. Hold your patty in one hand. Cover both sides of the patty with the bread crumbs using the opposite hand. Place patty on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all ten patties are breaded.

6.  Place cookie sheet in the oven for 15 mins. Then turn the patties over and cook for another 15 minutes or longer until the edges of the patties are brown.

7. Serve in a hamburger bun with shredded lettuce, tartar sauce*, and/ or  ketchup.

* For a simple tartar sauce, I use:

1/4 cup Just Mayo vegan mayonnaise
1 heaping tsp sweet pickle relish
1/4 tsp onion powder.

TO FREEZE:

It is incredibly easy to freeze a double batch for quick meals. Wait until the cakes are cooled and then stack them with a small piece of parchment paper in between each patty. Then place the patty stacks in a freezer bag. Then place the bag into another big freezer bag. It's easy to reheat them for 20 mins in the toaster oven or in the regular oven at 380 degrees. I've kept them frozen up to 3 months in the freezer. They may last even longer.

This recipe really helps satisfy a desire for seafood flavors and can help you use up extra zucchinis. I hope you try it. Thank you for reading!