If you love the taste of traditional Maryland Crab Cakes and you’re looking for a plant based version, I’ve got an amazing recipe for you. Vegan Crab Cakes plus Homemade Tartar Sauce without Mayonnaise are easy to make and rich in umami flavor and texture. Satisfying and delicious, perfect for a healthy appetizer or vegan main dish.
This post has been updated from the original posted December 23, 2015.
Ingredient Notes
- Artichoke hearts: I don’t usually buy the briny artichoke hearts because they have heavily processed vegetable oils and preservatives. I buy the artichoke hearts packed in water. A good sub would be hearts of palm, or chickpeas, but I think the artichoke hearts give off the best crab cake like texture.
- Oats: Ground oats help hold these together. Ground flax is a good substitute.
- Scallions: Use red onion, leek or chopped fennel instead.
- Spices: I used paprika, salt, black pepper and nutmeg. You could also add celery seed, seaweed flakes or old bay seasoning.
- Avocado oil: Skip it if you’re oil free and put the temperature in the oven up to 475 (and convection, if your oven has that setting) so they’ll crisp up.
Step by Step
Preheat your oven to 450 and line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
Use your food processor or a spice grinder to pulse the old fashioned oats.
Continue until the oats resemble a coarse meal. Set aside in a small bowl.
Place rinsed and drained artichoke hearts into the bowl.
Pulse until they’re broken up, with some chunks, and some ground into a paste. The goal is a texture that resembles crab meat.
Use a large mixing bowl so there’s plenty of room to combine all ingredients. First add the artichoke hearts from the food processor.
Then add remaining ingredients, except for ground oats and oil. Use a garlic press or microplane grater right over over the bowl to make it easy to add the garlic.
Mix well. Sprinkle on the ground oats.
Mix again, until everything is well combined.
Scoop crab mixture into 12 equal portions onto prepared baking sheet. I like to use a cookie scoop, but you can also use a ¼ cup measuring cup, filled about ¾ full.
Use wet hands to shape artichoke mixture into patties, then brush tops with 1 Tablespoon avocado or olive oil.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown on the underside.
Flip and then bake on other side for 12 minutes, until crispy on the edges.
Step by Step No Mayo Tartar Sauce
You can make homemade tartar sauce, spicy mayo or, my favorite, tahini sriracha sauce to enjoy drizzled onto your crab cakes. Here’s my easy recipe that uses just 4 ingredients and whisks together quickly.
Use a small bowl and a whisk or a fork to thoroughly mix the tahini, lemon juice, pickle juice and sriracha together. For best results make sure your tahini is thoroughly mixed in the jar before you use it.
Keep whisking until sauce has a uniform texture. Whisk in 1-2 Tablespoons water until desired consistency is reached. If you like a spicier sauce, add another teaspoon sriracha or your favorite hot sauce.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- Your crab cakes will get their flaky texture from the varied texture of the artichokes. So make sure to “pulse” rather than “process.” They’re a great ingredient to use in this vegan seafood recipe if done correctly, they will have a similar texture after processing to crab meat that’s been broken up with a fork.
- This crab cake sauce gets its seafood-ish flavor thanks to the pickle juice. If you don’t have any, substitute caper juice and all will be good. If you love tartar sauce, finely dice some pickles and add them to this.
- Make miniature patties and they’re perfect as finger food, passed around as vegan appetizers, or make them bigger and serve on a bed of lettuce as a light main dish.
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Crab Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 2 15-oz cans artichoke hearts rinsed and drained
- 1 stalk celery, small dice
- ⅓ cup small dice red peppers
- ¼ cup frozen corn kernels
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley flat leaf
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon sea salt finely ground
- ½ teaspoon black pepper finely ground
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg ground
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
Sriracha Tahini Sauce
- 2 tablespoon tahini drippy
- 2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 1 tbsp pickle juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1-2 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a large baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
- Place oats in food processor and pulse until partially ground. Ideally a combination of textures, some ground to flour, some larger pieces. Set aside in a small bowl
- Now, place rinsed and drained artichoke hearts into the bowl of processor and pulse until somewhat pasty, but still with some chunks. Transfer to large bowl.
- Prepare veggies and add to large bowl with artichoke hearts. Small dice red peppers and celery. Thinly slice scallions. Chop parsley into small pieces. Add corn, spices, mustard and thoroughly mix. Then add the ground oats and mix well.
- Scoop into 12 portions onto the prepared pan. Use wet hands to form each portion into a crab patty. Brush tops with avocado oil and bake in preheat oven for 15 minutes.
- Flip crab patties over and bake for another 12 minutes, until golden.
- While crab cakes are baking, make the Sriracha Tahini Sauce. Whisk together tahini, olive oil, sriracha, lemon juice and pickle juice. Whisk in water 1 Tablespoon at a time until sauce is desired consistency.
- Serve warm or at room temperature, drizzled with sauce.
Notes
How to freeze crab cakes
Make sure they are completely cool and then lay in a single layer on a parchment lined tray. Freeze for about 2 hours and then individually wrap in parchment and then foil or place in a freezer-safe container or zip top bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and reheat in a single layer in preheated 450 oven for 15 minutes until heated through.What to do with leftover crab cakes
- They’ll stay good refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
- Reheat in 450 degree oven for 15 minutes, until heated through and crisp.
- Crumble cold artichoke cakes on top of a green salad with capers.
- Top with pineapple mango salsa and serve on a bed of greens.
- Turn them into plant based crab dip by adding crumbled into vegan sour cream and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast.
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
Maureen Koplow
Sounds wonderful!Could I coat the cakes with panko breadcrumbs before baking to make them crispier?
Debra Klein
Sure! I haven’t tried it, so please report back and let us know how they come out.
Maureen Koplow
I added 1/2 teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning and some chopped fresh dill to the recipe. I put about 1/3 cup of panko breadcrumbs on a plate and rolled each cake to get the cakes covered with the breadcrumbs. I turned them over once about half way through baking. They came out nice and crispy and delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Alexandra
My best friend is vegan, and we prepared these together. Great flavours and simple to make. We loved the sriracha tahini dipping sauce too! Yum!
Debra Klein
Totally agree…yum!
Bernice
My first thought was crab cakes without crab? Ummm no. However these were fantastic! I love the flavours and the texture was bang on. I’ll be serving these for Christmas morning brunch!
Debra Klein
Fabulous! They’re great for brunch.
Nora
The artichokes are a great idea! I will definitely try! Thank you!
Debra Klein
You’re welcome Nora.
Marcellina
What a great idea to use artichoke hearts! And the dipping sauce is amazing! I’m looking forward to making these when my friends come over.
Debra Klein
I have a little dish of that sauce in fridge at all times….just the kick that’s needed sometimes.
Emily
The texture and taste of these was incredible! I’ll be serving these over the holidays as appetizers!
Debra Klein
Happy to hear…enjoy!
Prosecco and Projects
Oh my gosh these look amazing! I would have never thought to substitute artichokes for crab but that’s a great idea!
Debra Klein
It’s the perfect substitution in texture and the spices take care of the rest.