Crab cakes with creamy coleslaw have been on my mind ever since I brought home 25 pounds of fresh seafood from my fisherman brother-in-law last November. He caught an incredible stash off the California coast. I’m talking king crab, tuna, lingcod, salmon, trout, and more. Knowing how much Dan and I miss the seafood from our home state, he even packed it all in a cooler just for us. (You should have seen the looks I got from airport security trying to get that thing through!) I made it back to TN with my precious cargo and have been rationing it ever since.
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a great recipe for crab cakes with creamy coleslaw from Valerie Bertinelli on Food Network and decided to give it a try. These crab cakes are AMAZING! I deviated from her recipe just a bit, but I think the changes I made only make them better. Here’s what I did:
How to Make These Flavor-Packed Crab Cakes With Creamy Coleslaw
These crab cakes with creamy coleslaw are packed with bold flavors and a perfect balance of spice and freshness. Follow these simple steps to create a dish that’s great for dinner, parties, or a fun coastal-inspired meal at home.
Step 1: Prep the Vegetables
Start by dicing 1 Anaheim pepper, 1 cup of celery, and 1/2 cup of red onion. It’s best to have these ready to go ahead of time to make the cooking process easier.
Step 2: Cook the Sausage and Vegetables
In a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet, add all your chopped vegetables to the pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add in 8 ounces of Italian sausage. If you like spicy crab cakes, try the spicy Italian sausage. Otherwise, stick with the mild. Cook this until the pink is gone or about 10 minutes.
Step 3: Add Seasoning and Wine
Next, add 2 tablespoons of minced fresh garlic and 2 1/2 teaspoons of seafood seasoning. Old Bay is really popular, and Red Lobster now sells their seafood seasoning too. Mix this while it cooks for another 2 minutes. Lastly, add 1/4 cup of white wine and cook it for 4-6 minutes until the alcohol is cooked off and the yummy flavor is left. Take the sausage mixture and set it aside.
Step 4: Prepare the Crab Meat
While the sausage is cooling, grab a pound of lump crab meat. If you don’t buy it fresh from a seafood store (be sure to check for shells, by the way), you can find this in the canned section near the tuna. I was lucky enough to have a pound of crab meat that my brother-in-law gave me. He is a commercial fisherman in Northern California. When we went for a visit last November, he said I could keep whatever meat I pulled out of the crab! So I sat my little seafood-loving butt down and got to work!
I probably ate a pound in the midst of pulling out the meat, but hey! Finders Keepers. There is nothing like fresh-caught crab. NOTHING. If I close my eyes, I can still taste the Pacific Ocean.
Step 5: Mix the Crab Cake Mixture
Shred the crab meat into small chunks and add it to the sausage mixture. Add in 2 beaten eggs and 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs.
Get down and dirty by mixing the crab cakes with creamy coleslaw with your fingers. Make sure everything is well coated. It should hold together when you squeeze it.
Step 6: Form the Crab Cakes
Now, form your crab cakes with creamy coleslaw by rolling a ball in your hand, placing it on a cookie sheet, and then patting it flat on top. You can make these into crab cake sliders by keeping the patties small, making about 12. I opted to make mine a little bigger and stick them inside Brioche buns rather than slider rolls.
Take this cookie sheet and put the whole entire thing in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You don’t want to skip this step because as the crab cakes cool, they bind together. If you cook them right away, they will most likely fall apart.
Step 7: Cook the Crab Cakes
In a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Cook the crab cakes with creamy coleslaw until golden brown on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. You will probably need to add another tablespoon of butter when you flip them to keep the bottom from burning.
Step 8: Assemble and Serve
Take the crab cakes and put them into a toasted Brioche slider roll or bun. You can toast the buns in the same pan as the crab cakes once they are removed.
Top the crab cakes with creamy red cabbage coleslaw. This stuff is AMAZING! I could eat the whole bowl myself. It is made with seafood seasoning, so the flavors really complement each other. The creaminess of the coleslaw cools your mouth from the heat of the Italian sausage and Anaheim pepper in the crab cakes. You can also print off the coleslaw recipe here.
Perfect for Any Occasion
I would probably eat 2 or 3 crab cakes with creamy coleslaw, so I opt for the regular-sized Brioche bun. Plus, I need all the extra space to hold that coleslaw!
If you’re near the ocean, wouldn’t these be fun to make at a crab boil? The slider version could also serve as a specialty appetizer or tapa at your next party. If you love seafood as much as I do, you may also like this dijon salmon with sautéed snap peas or this spicy shrimp fried rice. And if you’re not a big seafood lover, don’t worry! I have all sorts of amazing recipes on my recipe index and Pinterest boards. Happy cooking, y’all!
