These easy Keto Crab Cakes are gluten-free and served with a quick homemade tartar sauce. Eat them as an appetizer, main dish, or even as a burger!
How much salt do crabs like on their food? Just a pinch! But seriously Keto Crab Cakes! This calls for a shell-abration. These are so delicious I must be dreaming…somebody pinch me. Shore-ly I’m over the claw-ful limit of crustacean related puns, This can’t conch-tinue. Okay, okay, okay that was the last one. I promise. I was all-in on shell-abration, but by the time I got to conch-tinue, I knew if I kept going I’d end up at crab-ohydrates, and that’s a little too cheesy, even for me.
Crabmeat is a delicious protein option rich in B vitamins, phosphorus, selenium, copper, and omega-3’s. One thing to be cautious of when shopping for crab meat is the imitation stuff. Always opt for real crab as imitation is a highly processed food that can contain all kinds of starches, sugar, and even MSG. Plus, it’s actually made of white fish and usually wheat as well. This is especially useful information for keto-dieters because of all the added starches a single serving of imitation crab meat can contain up to 20g of carbs.
Check out these other resources to read more about the awesome nutritional benefits of crab meat and more reasons to avoid imitation crab:
Ingredients in Keto Crab Cakes
- crabmeat
- onion
- bell pepper
- almond flour
- egg
- mayonnaise
- Old Bay seasoning
See how simple the ingredient list is?!
How to serve
- on top of greens as an appetizer
- tucked into our Keto Rolls with lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce for a Keto Crab Cake Slider
- on top of a salad
Keto Crab Cakes
Ingredients
- 8 ounces lump crab meat
- 1/4 onion diced
- 1/4 cup diced red pepper
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter for frying
- Greens for serving
Tartar Sauce:
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 tablespoon chopped dill pickle
- 1/2 tablespoon minced onion
- 1 teaspoon Swerve
- 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- In a medium bowl mix together the crab cake ingredients, form into 6 patties.
- Place all of the sauce ingredients in a small jar with a lid, shake to combine.
- In a cast iron skillet heat the butter over medium heat. Fry each crab cake for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown. Serve with tartar sauce, greens, and a wedge of lemon.
Silly question. I’ve bought crab meat. If there is no fresh seafood department in your grocery store where do you find it? In a can?
Hey Cris, yes typically it would be in a can where they have the canned tuna. We’ve made these with fresh lump crab and canned crab and both turn out great.
Costco carries canned lump crabmeat. It’s awesome!
I meant to say- I’ve never bought crab meat.
Are calories, etc shown per serving or ??
Yes, calories are shown per serving.
How many cakes per serving? 1 or 2?
This recipe serves 2 and makes 6 patties so there would be 3 patties per serving.
Made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! Thanks for a great recipe!
Is the nutritional info including your suggested sauce?
I made this recipe with salmon and it was amaze!
Yes!
Love these crab cakes! I tried 3 times to paste your URL into Carb Manager with no success. Is this something that you can do? Thanks in advance!
I don’t like tartar sauce. Without the sauce, what do you think the net carbs woukd be for a serving?
Hi Rachel, without the sauce it would be 2.4 net carbs per serving. Hope this helps!
Can you do the Nutritional information for the crab cake and the sauce separate please.
You can purchase lump crab canned in the refrigerated seafood at Winco. Can you convert this to coconut flour? I do not like the grainy texture of almond flour
Great taste!
I softened the red pepper and onion in a skillet for 4 min with a pinch of butter before adding them to the recipe.
FitnessPal shows a serving with 647 calories.
Which is correct? (520 or 647)
Hi Kimberly, we use the nutritional calculator through our recipe card which pulls standard data for each ingredient. As always, you’ll want to double-check your specific ingredients for the most accurate calculation.
It was delicious!!!
These crab cakes are amazing and they are keto friendly which is a plus. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Awesome!!!
Hello,
Wondering if I can use coconut flour in place of the almond flour? Would I use less or equal amount?
Excited to try this recipe!
Thanks!
It would not be equal amounts and I don’t recommend using coconut flour in this recipe for taste reasons. Is there another nut flour you could use?
Pecan flour has fewer carbs than both almond and coconut flour. I believe we could experiment with. Nothing beats a failure but a try right!!
This keto crab cake recipe is amazing!!! I used lump crab which is pretty expensive so I was thrilled that the flavors were right on. I cannot eat red bell pepper so I replaced it with celery. I also sautéed the onion and celery in butter for five minutes first. Great job! 👌🏼
I liked these but would recommend using half of the recommended amount of Old Bay. I thought it over[peered the crab. Otherwise great.
Great recipe for restaurant-worthy crab cakes! It made five, 1/3-cup cakes. I subbed diced celery for the red bell pepper, which complemented the old bay, and I sautéed the onion and celery in a little butter before making the cakes, which worked out well. The sauce was excellent, and added a lot. I served it with buttered, steamed broccoli and sliced tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. We all loved this.
Great recipe!
Can I use imitation crab?
Oh please don’t. Imitation crab will not taste good at all in these crab cakes and typically is filled with junky ingredients. I’m not sure that it would even form into a patty either.
Loved these. I did sub crushed pork rhinds for the almond flour because I hate almond flour, and increased the amount to 1/3 cup. I also added a clove of minced garlic.
My husband went bonkers. Thanks for the recipe!
Pork rinds are a great sub for almond flour, we’ll have to try that ourselves! Thanks for sharing, glad you and your husband enjoyed them!
We made these tonight and added some Jalapeno. They were delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
These were very tasty but a disaster while trying to cook. They totally fell apart in the frying pan. The almond flour and egg weren’t enough to keep them together. I had another recipe that called for crush up pork rinds. I think I will try adding some of those next time and just adjust the nutritional value. I served them with (not on) a mixed salad and made a siracha aioli with a bit of bite. Good combination of tastes! Thanks!!
The first batch fell apart in the skillet. The second batch came out nicely. I think that you need to let the skillet get extremely hot before frying them. I put the first batch in when the butter began to sizzle, but that must not have been hot enough. They have a delicious, non-fishy flavor, and the tartar sauce was yummy too. I’ll probably make this again someday.
Turned out amazing!
I put the crabcakes over cauliflower rice with tomato sauce.
My non-keto family LOVED LOVED them. I made them about two weeks ago and I made a comment that I would make them again. Everyone cheered. Odd, huh? But I get it. The crab cakes are so good.
I had to substitute the lump crab cake for ground. I substituted the regular onion and peppers for shallots. I sprinkled a little garlic powder and paprika. The results are amazing.
So delicious!!! I make a double batch to have a second day of meals
Made these for my wife who is on a keto diet. I try to make things that I will like as well and these crab cakes certainly made the grade. Delicious! Yes, they tend to fall apart, but just be careful flipping. Will make again.
Great recipe!!!! Thank you!!! I used Creole seasoning and celery seed instead of the old bay (I don’t like old bay). Quick, easy and delicious!!!
My crab cakes kept falling apart in the pan and seemed to take forever to brown. Any tips?
We love this recipe. They are even better with a bang bang sauce