Crab and Quinoa Cakes - delicious patties made with fresh crab, cooked quinoa, spices and served with a simple yoghurt dip.
Crab Quinoa Patties
I love quinoa, it's one of my favourite things to use instead of rice, pasta etc and in little patties like these with some fresh crab, it makes delicious healthy patties.
These are great for packed lunches and taking on picnics as they can be eaten both hot or cold.
What is Quinoa?
Quinoa is what is known as a seudo grain, meaning it is actually a grain. It's known as a super food because of it's high protein and fibre. It's a great replacement for things like couscous too for those that are gluten free.
You can buy quinoa in various different types too. Regular quinoa which is the most common, then there is also tricoloured, red, golden and black as well as flakes, flour and crisps (chips). Of course the latter are not what would be classed as a free food on Slimming Eats.
1 cup of cooked quinoa packs about 8g of protein and 4g of fiber as well as amino acids, so it's a great food to add into your diet.
When cooked it has a slightly nutty taste and each grain looks like it has a little hair, which can be off putting to some, but trust me when I say it's really actually quite tasty.
Canned Crab versus Fresh Crab
You may be wondering if you can use canned crab for these crab and quinoa patties? Personally fresh is so much better, the taste is just amazing. But if fresh crab is hard for you to source, then canned will work okay. Just make sure you fully drain any liquid and pat dry otherwise the patties may not form together. Also be careful not to overmix the ingredients, you want to try and keep flakes of crab in the patties.
Where I live in Canada is right in the middle of the Great Lakes area of Ontario, so crab is pretty expensive here and is hard to source sometimes fresh due to the fact we are not near the sea. We do have Snow Crab legs though and frozen crab meat or fresh crab meat that comes in a tub. Not quite the same as buying a fresh crab straight from the fishmonger in a coastal location though, but it's the next best thing.
Sides for Crab Quinoa Cakes
I serve these crab quinoa cakes a simple salad of baby greens or arugula with the yoghurt dip.
However a mixed salad is great too with some of the follow:
- Crisp Lettuce or Baby Leaves
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
- Radishes
- Beetroot
- Onion
- Peppers
- Shredded Carrot
More Crab Recipes
Looking for some other crab recipes? Check out these:
- CRAB STUFFED SWEET POTATO
- FRESH CRAB CAKES
- CRAB AND CHILLI FRIED RICE
- CRAB WITH RED PESTO SPAGHETTI
- CREAMY CRAB CHILLI TOMATO PASTA
- THAI CRAB CAKES
or head on over to my Full Recipe Index with over 900 delicious Slimming Eats and Weight Watchers friendly recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients, value and smart points etc
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Recipe Card
Crab and Quinoa Cakes
Crab and Quinoa Cakes - delicious patties made with fresh crab, quinoa and seasonings and served with a simple yoghurt dip.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (120ml) of uncooked quinoa
- 170g of crab meat (fresh or canned)
- 1 cup (240ml) of fish stock (or you can use chicken or vegetable stock)
- 1 red chili, finely chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- pinch off black pepper
- pinch of garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon of paprika
- little lemon zest
- 2 eggs
- olive oil spray
For the dip:
- 1 cup (240ml) of fat free Greek yoghurt
- fresh mint, finely chopped
- juice and zest of half a lemon
Instructions
- Thoroughly rinse the quinoa under a running cold tap.
- Place in a saucepan and cover with the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until stock is absorbed (the quinoa grains should have what looks like a little hair on each grain). Turn off heat, but leave covered with the lid for about 10 mins, as the steam will continue to cook the quinoa.
- After 10 mins, fluff up the quinoa with a fork and allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, gently combine the quinoa, with the other ingredients. (Be careful not to over mix, as you want to keep big chunks of crab meat).
- Cover with cling film and refrigerate for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 200c or 400f (gas mark 6)
- Grease a baking sheet with olive oil spray and then form the mixture into approx 12 medium sized patties.
- Place on the baking tray and bake in the oven (approx 30mins) until lightly golden all over. (you may want to carefully flip half way through cooking).
- While baking you can mix together all the ingredients for the dip.
- Serve with a side salad and the mint dip and Enjoy!!
Notes
Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:
- Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
- WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.
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Nutrition Information
Serving Size 3 Patties with dipAmount Per Serving Calories 171Total Fat 3.1gSaturated Fat 0.7gCarbohydrates 16.9gFiber 2.1gSugar 2.9gProtein 14.4g
Tracy Drane says
That looks awesome, but I don't like seafood. Could I use chicken instead? Grilled or canned?
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
yep you sure can
Nikki says
Can you use cous cous instead of quinoa??
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
I personally haven’t tried, so couldn’t say.
Emma Saxby says
These look lovely. I’d like to make them for Christmas Day evening buffet but don’t want to actually make them on Christmas Day. Can these be pre made the day before andcreheated? Can they be a few days before, frozen and thenteheated? Thank you
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
Yes they should be fine or make the day before and reheat