Impromtu Low-Cal Crab Cakes

It's always nice when I have time to make a proper lunch.  It seems like I am usually on the go.  Today I had a wild hair and decided to make crab cakes.  They happen to be a favorite of mine, but I don't have them very often.  Since Carl (my darling hubby) is allergic to crab I have been scared to cook it at home for fear of contaminating our kitchen.  I'm still a little nervous about that, but I will make sure the kitchen is EXTRA clean.

I didn't have a recipe.  Instead I decided to wing it and hope for the best.  They turned out delicious so I plugged the recipe into the Spark People recipe calculator.  I didn't do too bad.  They were only 230 calories per serving (Yay!).  I was estimating on the amounts of everything, because I didn't measure any of the seasonings.  If I had it to do over again I might add some diced celery or serve it as an appetizer with a roasted red pepper sauce.  It married quite well with a salad which was lightly dressed with lemon juice and just a dash of Ken's Steakhouse Lite Northern Italian dressing.  The salad was a simple mix of baby spinach and romaine.  I threw in a few capers, scallions, cucumbers, tomato, and a little bit of red cabbage.  I'm saving the second crab cake for lunch tomorrow.  Maybe I will experiment with a roasted red pepper sauce.  Let me know if you have a good recipe for one, and I will add it as a guest post.

Here is my impromptu recipe:

Ingredients

1 Can of Crab Meat, Preferably Lump, drained
10 Saltine Crackers, crushed
1 Tbsp. Spicy Brown Mustard
2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 Egg White, beaten
1 Tbsp. of Shallot, finally diced
1.5 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp. Dried dill
1 tsp. Paprika
1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.

Heat 1/2 tbsp. of olive oil on the stove on medium high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke toss in the diced shallot. Salt and pepper the shallot and cook for 1 minute.

Combine the shallot with the crab, crushed saltines, mustard, egg white, and spices. Go easy on the salt because the saltines are already salty.

Heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil in the skillet on medium high heat. While waiting for that to heat up create 2 patties out the crab mixture each about 1/2 cup. I like to use the measuring cup to form the patty. Once the oil starts to smoke add the crab cakes to the skillet. Cook them on each side for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the crab cakes to the oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Serve immediately over a lightly dressed salad.

Serving Size: 2 servings each about 1/2 cup
View this recipe and other recipes on Spark People.  My recipes are under FITNESSSARA.