Zucchini cakes with crab is a nice and easy light meal, if your feeling adventurous and in the mood for something different.
When shopping the ingredients for these do not feel pressured to use real crab, I mean you certainly can, however I like to be frugal when I can, and the imitation crab is just perfect for these cakes, why not pinch a few extra pennies.
One of the successes I have in the garden each season is an over abundance of zucchini, by the time late September is falling into October, my house is over run with giant zucchini! I literally have to put them where ever I can, prior to prepping them for the freezer.
This is the time of the year when the spiralizer and my arms get a good workout! I wash, peel and spiralize the zucchini to par boil, drain, and put into my seal-a-meal bags, for freezer storage so I can enjoy all the zucchini I can eat during the winter.
Each year, when planning my garden I always tell myself, this year ” I am not going to plant zucchini!”. However I just luv watching those little zucchini plants grow up and produce all the wonderful zucchini. I am pretty sure I need a zucchini intervention, so I can stop this cycle and take just one season off, maybe try something new lol.
It was because I have so much zucchini in the freezer that I created the zucchini cakes with crab you see.
One Saturday night, I felt adventurous, and found myself, standing in front of the open freezer, with a blank look on my face staring at the bounty the freezer contained. When I snapped out of it, I had a bag of spiralized zucchini in my right hand and a package of imitation crab in my left.
As I rummaged thru the refrigerator I found, carrots, celery and onions. and in the pantry, I found some bread crumbs. and seasonings.
I decided it would add more flavor if I cooked the crab prior to adding it to the crab cake, this way I could really blend in some butter , salt and pepper flavor and moisture.
Grabbing a large bowl, I began to put everything together, by flaking apart and separating the crab, and giving the zucchini another good squeeze to get out as much water as I could.
After I chopped the onion, and added that into the bowl, I shredded the carrot, chopped the celery and added those along with a good amount of minced garlic.
A good squeeze of lemon juice, lemon pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash or two of old bay seasoning along with a few red pepper flakes were blended in for the final touches.
You will want to add the 1 egg and breadcrumbs, mixing this completely into the mixture prior to forming the patty cakes.
If you have time, place the patty cakes into the refrigerator for about 10 minuets prior to cooking, this will help the patty cakes keep a good shape while cooking and not fall apart.
To serve, make the Lemon Aioli Sauce for dipping , you can also use fresh horseradish or a sauce of your choice.

Zucchini Cakes with Crab
Fresh Ingredients
Instructions
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Prepare the Crab
Flake the crab well, so it spreads easily.
Finely chop the onion
Add butter to a skillet, sauté the crab and chopped onion
Add to a large bowl
Shred the carrot , finely chop the celery, add to bowl
Squeeze out any excess water in zucchini using a strainer or colander, add the zucchini to the bowl
Add the minced garlic to the bowl, blend well.
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Make the zucchini and crab cakes
Add in the seasonings, lemon juice, mayo, to bowl, blend well
Add in the egg, and all the bread crumbs, blend well.
Form the mixture into patties, place in a lightly greased skillet, cook browning on each side.
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Serve with the Lemon Aioli
Plate and serve the zucchini crab cakes with your favorite sides, and dipping sauce, such as the lemon aioli.