Classic Crab Cakes

As some may recall, I very much like to follow Bethenny Frankel and have taken great advice into my own eating habits from Naturally Thin. I’ve tried couple recipes of hers previously, and there are definitely more to come.  Her recipes are quite easy to transition to gluten free, if even necessary at all (this part I love!).  This is one of her recipes suggested in the ‘Downsize Now’ chapter of Naturally Thin.
I made the full recipe of these crab cakes, and the sous chef and I could NOT finish them for dinner one night!  This was the only thing on our menu that night.  We had leftovers, although leftover crab cakes are not really my thing.  Nonetheless, if you are cooking for two or preparing this recipe as an appetizer for two (say for Valentine’s Dinner tonight ), I would do some reducing on these crab cakes.  All that said, these were DELICIOUS!  I love the many flavors involved in this recipe!  Below is my adaptation of the recipe to make it gluten free, which is hardly different from the original recipe AT ALL!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup small-diced red onion
1 1/2 cups small-diced celery
1 1/2 cups of each; small diced red and yellow bell pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup gluten free breadcrumbs (I used Udi’s whole grain bread and created bread crumbs from this loaf)
1/4 cup gluten free mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 pound (8 ounces) jumbo lump crabmeat, drained
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons store-bought pesto + 2 tablespoons gluten free mayonnaise mixed together and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

Directions

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion, celery, and bell peppers until soft.  Season with Old Bay, salt, and pepper.  Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, and the Worcestershire sauce.  Stir in the crabmeat to combine, but don’t overmix.  The crabmeat should remain in large pieces.  Combine ingredients from steps 1 and 2.

Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and turn heat to medium.  Scoop evenly-sized cakes into the pan using an ice cream scoop and sauté over medium heat until crispy on both sides.  Top each crab cake with tiny dab of pesto/mayonnaise mixture.  Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.



Be sure not to cook too long or too little before flipping the crab cake.  This is the only tricky part to this recipe.  Unfortunately, mine are little too done in these pictures.
In order to make this recipe as Bethenny suggested, simply make the gluten free ingredients above not gluten free.