this Palm Crab Cake Hearts The recipe is crispy, flaky on the outside and delicate with incredible flavor on the inside! These delicious Hearts of Palm Crab Cakes are so good you should double the recipe.
Although I love my vegetarian crab cake recipe made from tofu, hearts of palm crab cakes are my new favorite food! Hearts of Palm Crab Cakes are easy to make and a great bite-sized appetizer, or I serve them with rice, broccolini, and vegan tartar sauce.
Jump:
I recently saw vegan seafood at the grocery store. So, I tried the vegan crab cakes from the freezer section, and unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed. They were greasy and tasteless, and I found the crab cakes soggy.
Since I used hearts of palm for my vegan lobster rolls and tuna pasta salad, I decided to try it for a crab cake recipe full of vegetables.
Heart of palm crab cake ingredients
- Heart of Palm: Hearts of palm are a white vegetable from the root of certain types of palm trees. They have a neutral, earthy, vegetal flavor with a mild sweetness like white asparagus, water chestnuts or artichoke hearts.
- Chickpeas: Chickpeas taste a lot like beans, considering they are beans themselves. Most people compare their flavor to cannellini and pinto beans because they are starchy. However, they also have an earthy flavor with nutty undertones.
- Red Onion: Red onion is sweet in taste and mild in raw form.
- Red Chilli Bell: Red bell peppers are sweet and subtle. They provide many colors and great taste.
- Fresh Parsley: Parsley has a bright, herbaceous, and slightly bitter flavor that works as a contrast to emphasize other flavors in a dish, like lemon zest.
- Bread Crumbs: I make my own bread crumbs with toasted bread and process it in a food processor.
- Old Bay Seasoning: According to McCormick, Old Bay is a blend of 18 herbs and spices, making it versatile for many recipes. Unique combinations of spices include (but are not limited to): celery seed, paprika, mustard, salt, cayenne, and black pepper.
- Dals Flax: Candy It is a seaweed – a large category of edible saltwater plants and algae, including seaweeds such as nori and kelp. Dulse has a mildly salty, savory flavor with a subtle ocean flavor. Plus, it’s loaded with a smoky umami flavor.
- Cashew Mayo: I make my own cashew mayo with a nut-free alternative.
- Dijon Mustard: Dijon mustard has a tangy, pungent and pungent flavor with a hint of spice.
- Lemon juice: I prefer fresh lemon juice when available. Also, if you want an extra lemony flavor, add some lemon zest.
Hearts of Palm crab cake ingredient substitution
- Artichoke hearts are often used to replace hearts of palm in recipes. However, artichokes retain more water and should be dried on paper towels if used as a substitute.
- White beans instead of chickpeas.
- White onions, shallots or green onions replace red onions in recipes.
- Any color bell pepper works well. However, green peppers have a stronger distinct flavor than other colored bell peppers.
- Buy bread crumbs instead of making your own. Gluten-free bread crumbs are also available.
- Celery salt and paprika are the two main ingredients in Old Bay seasoning. If you have this spice in your cupboard, you have a good option. When substituting, mix ¼ teaspoon paprika with ¼ teaspoon celery salt. Use this for every 1 teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning.
- Kelp grains or crumbles nori are alternatives to dals flakes.
- Choose store-bought vegan mayo for your dietary needs.
- Stoneground mustard is a close substitute for Dijon mustard.
How to Make Vegan Crab Mix
First, using a food processor, pulse the chickpeas and hearts of palm and form a crab-like structure with flakes and pieces of hearts of palm and chickpeas.
Chickpeas act as a binder to hold the crab cakes together, while hearts of palm provide the vegan crab cakes with a flaky texture.
Then, transfer the mixture to a bowl, combine the other ingredients and stir until combined.
Next, use a burger press Palm to mold crab cake hearts. If making appetizer-sized crab cakes, use smaller slider-sized molds.
Or, make entree-sized crab cakes using larger molds. Then, of course, if you don’t have a burger press, you can make carb cakes with your hands.
cooking options
I like to fry this hearts of palm crab cake recipe because it takes less time than the oven. But the oven is another great option.
Air Frying
- Preheat air fryer to 375 degrees.
- Place the crab cakes in the basket.
- I like to put parchment paper under the basket to reduce cleanup.
- Cook for 16 minutes until deep golden brown and crisp.
- Flip after 8 minutes and cook for an additional 8 minutes.
- If you are cooking in batches, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the cooked crab cakes in a 325-degree oven while you cook the remaining crab cakes.
baking
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone Baking mat
- Place crab cakes on baking sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking.
Serving advice
- Serve hearts of palm crab cakes as an appetizer with vegan tartar sauce or mustard dipping sauce.
- Or, make a crab cake sandwich with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles.
- Try serving as an entree, as I did, with rice, broccoli and lemon and topped with vegan tartar sauce.
- Another way to enjoy these vegetarian crab cakes is inside a lettuce wrap.
- If you’re a brunch-lover, use crab cakes for the base of a vegan benedict with cashew hollandaise.
Recipe FAQs
Hearts of date have a very mild flavor, similar to white asparagus or artichoke hearts. Their texture is hard and crunchy but delicate and easy to eat.
Hearts of palm is a highly nutritious vegetable that contains a lot of fiber for few calories. Also, date hearts are an excellent source of iron, zinc and magnesium and contain substantial amounts of B vitamins and potassium.
In grocery stores, fresh hearts of date are available in jars or cans, sliced or whole cylinders, packed in water or marinated in brine. You can combine the cores into a salad, pasta, roast, grill for a side dish or appetizer, or marinate and serve raw in a vegetable dish.
advice
- To make the meal, make hearts of palm crab mixture, cover and refrigerate until the patties are made.
- Or make the patties in advance and cover and refrigerate until ready to cook in the oven or air fryer.
- Heart of palm crab cakes can be frozen but should be thawed completely before cooking in the oven or air fryer.
- Flash the frozen patties on a baking sheet and then transfer them to a freezer-safe container.
- No oil is required when cooking in oven or air fryer.
- Smaller crab cakes take less time to cook; Cooking instructions are for entrée cakes.
Try Hearts of Palm Crab Cakes for a unique vegan crab cake! You’ll love the taste and texture without any tofu!
If you like the Palm Crab Cake recipe, give us a 5-star review and comment below. We want to hear from you!
📖 Recipe
Heart of Palm Crab Cake
You should try hearts of palm as an alternative to flaky crab meat! These are Heart of palm crab cake Crispy on the outside and flaky and delicate on the inside with incredible flavor!
instructions
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Wash the chickpeas.
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Drain the heart of the palm.
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Add chickpeas and date hearts to a food processor and pulse until chopped and flaky. Do not over pulse.
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Transfer the mixture to a bowl.
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Add onion, red bell pepper, bread crumbs, parsley, dulse, and Oud Bay seasoning.
dressing ingredients
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Add cashew mayo, Dijon mustard and lemon to a bowl.
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Whisk to combine.
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Pour the contents into the heart of the palm mixture. Stir to combine.
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Chill the mixture covered in the refrigerator and then make patties, or make crab cakes using molds or assemble by hand and cook immediately.
Air Frying
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Preheat air fryer to 375 degrees.
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Place the formed patties in the air fryer basket, not touching each other.
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If cooking in batches, prepare a baking sheet and preheat an oven to 325 to keep the crab cakes warm while cooking the other batches.
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Cook for 16 minutes, flipping halfway through (8 minutes on each side).
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Smaller cakes take less time.
baking
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
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Place the crab cakes on the pan, not touching each other.
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Cook for 30 minutes (15 minutes on each side), flipping them halfway through cooking.
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Smaller cakes take less time.
Comment
- Hearts of date are available in the canned/jarred vegetable section of the grocery store. It is usually jarred or canned in water or brine.
- If you don’t have a food processor, use a fork to blend the chickpeas and roughly chop the hearts of palm.
- For a nut-free alternative, opt for the silken tofu or white bean substitute in the cashew mayo recipe.
- Prepare crab mixture hearts or patties up to 1 day before baking or air frying.
- If serving as an appetizer and making small crab cakes, cut the cooking time in half.
- Hearts of palm crab cakes are browned and crips on the outside eh.
- Consider serving with vegan tartar sauce or mustard dipping sauce.
nutrition
Worship: 1gCalories: 117kcalSugars: 22gProtein: 4gFat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fats: 1gSodium: 241mgPotassium: 90mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 116IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 67mgIron: 2mg
Oh! My name is Kathy, I am a retired high school English teacher and vegan enthusiast and blogger. My entire blog is completely plant-based vegan. I truly believe that what we eat and how we live determines our health and the preservation of our planet! 🙂