Vegan Crab Cake Sliders

Vegan Crab Cake Sliders are not only super easy and delicious, but actually CHEAPER than their animal counterpart!

A few years back I made this recipe as an experiment to see if I could make something better than the Jackfruit Crab Cakes from Trader Joe’s. Naturally it was no contest! In fact their Crab Cakes have since been discontinued! They were OKAY, but honestly, it’s so dang easy to make some zip zapping vegan crab cakes that there’s no reason not to make them from scratch.

As for these Crab Cakes versus “Real” Crab Cakes, I can’t be too sure. I’ve only had Maryland Crab Cakes once and I was slightly inebriated. I remember my friend who grew up in Baltimore had them delivered and he was raving about them. Again, I thought they were good, but I was a little underwhelmed to be honest. These vegan crab cakes however are far from underwhelming!

We’re starting off with Jackfruit, then adding in a bunch of seasonings, most importantly OLD BAY (if you can’t find Old Bay you can use some celery salt and paprika). We’ll also add in a bunch of stuff to make it taste fishy (like kelp granules) and some binders. Then we just need to form them into patties.

After that we simply need to fry them up in a pan until golden brown and delicious!

You can serve them traditional style on a plate with some vegan tartar sauce, or throw them on some slider buns! Your call! In my original video (posted below) I made a Jalapeño Lime tartar sauce, but I’ve updated it to use my standard (and better) vegan tartar sauce.

Ingredients for vegan crab cakes

• Jackfruit – This is the base of the recipe! You can probably sub with hearts of palm no problem. Just make sure to get the young jackfruit in brine or water and not syrup. Trader Joe’s cans of Jackfruit are a little bigger than other cans that I’ve gotten elsewhere (they are 20 oz. and 9 oz. drained whereas others are around 14 oz. and 7 oz. drained), so you might end up with like 1 less crab cake than I did.
• Old Bay – In my opinion this is necessary! But if you can’t find it, you can use celery salt, black pepper and paprika instead.
• “Fishy” Ingredients – To get this to taste fishy, we’ll need some stuff from the sea. I like these Kelp Granules but you can use nori sheets too. I’ve also used Trader Joe’s Furikake seasoning and that also works.
• Capers & Brine – For some more fishy funk!
• Mayo, Dijon, Worcester – For fat and flavor! Make sure they are vegan of course!
• Aquafaba / Plant Milk – Feel free to use aquafaba or unsweetened plant milk, or even Just Egg for binding.
• Crackers / Breadcrumbs – Speaking of binding, I like to use crushed up oyster crackers or Ritz style crackers, but you can use breadcrumbs too.
• Lemon and Herbs – Dill and Parsley are used but you can skip one or the other, but I highly recommend using the DILL!
• Breading – You can bread these with some more crushed up crackers (like oyster crackers or Ritz) or breadcrumbs. I’ve made it with and without and they are both outstanding!

One note I’d like to add is to season this to taste as you go! Definitely be conservative with the lemon / Old Bay until everything is mixed up. It’s a lot easier to add stuff, it’s impossible to take it out!

Below is an older video, I’ve since tweaked the recipe a bit to improve it, but the video is still great for a step by step.

handy dandy video here!

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Vegan Crab Cake Sliders

Thee Burger Dude

5 from 10 votes

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Ingredients

  

Crab Cakes

• 20 oz. can of Jackfruit roughly chopped
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup breadcrumbs or crushed crackers about 10 Ritz crackers
• 2 Tbsp vegan mayo
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay more to taste
• 2 tsp chopped capers
• 1 tsp caper brine
• 1 tsp kelp granules or 1 Tbsp chopped nori
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 Tbsp chopped dill
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened plant-milk or aquafaba
• 1 – 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Cayenne to taste

For Frying

• 10 more crushed crackers for breading optional
• Oil for frying

Tartar Sauce

• 1 cup vegan mayo
• 2 Tbsp dill relish
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp capers chopped
• 1 – 2 Tbsp fresh dill chopped
• 1 Tbsp chives chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Combine ingredients for the tartar sauce and set aside in the fridge.
• Combine everything for the Crab Cakes except the jackfruit in a bowl to make the crab cake slurry. Season to taste.
• Drain, wash, and pat dry your jackfruit. Then roughly chop it (or shred by hand) and combine with crab cake slurry.
• Form your crab cake mixture into patties. You can use a cookie cutter to form them if you like! I got 7 patties out of this mixture. Add them to a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate to firm up. If you want to coat them in breadcrumbs / crushed crackers, freeze them for about 30 minutes. Then coat them in the crackers before frying.
• Heat up about 1/2 an inch of oil in a non-stick skillet.
• Fry your crab cakes until golden brown on both sides, then let rest on a wire rack.
• If making sliders, toast your buns, then dress with some lettuce, a crab cake, a liberal slathering of tartar sauce and dig in!
• ENJOY!

AIR FRY OPTION

• I've never air fried these except to reheat them, but I don't see why this wouldn't work. I would line my air fryer with some parchment paper that I've poked a decent amount of holes in. Then spray the parchment paper and crab cakes with cooking spray. Cook 'em at 400 F for 5 minutes. Then flip and repeat until browned to your liking!

Keyword vegan crab cake sliders, vegan crab cakes

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