Vegan Maryland Crab Cakes - Holy Cow Vegan Flavorful and creative plant-based recipes to please the omnivore, the picky eater, and everyone in between! (2024)

Published: Sep 28, 2018 · Modified: Dec 20, 2022 by Vaishali · This post may contain affiliate links · 7 Comments

These vegan Maryland Crab Cakes are a delicious treat. Crispy on the outside, tender and flaky on the inside, and packed with healthful goodness. Eat them on their own or cradle in a burger bun for a unique treat. A vegan and nut-free recipe, can be gluten-free.

As a Marylander, there's plenty about my home state that I am proud of. Its diverse and beautiful landscapes, its forward-thinking lawmakers, the fact that it sits next door to one of the coolest U.S. cities, Washington, D.C., and is home to another, Baltimore, and the fact that many, many great authors have lived here, including my two perennial favorites, Edgar Allan Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

But there's one thing I can't wrap my hungry vegan heart around: the food we're best known for.

Michigan has its cherries, Idaho has its potatoes, Georgia has its peaches, and we in Maryland...well, we have crabs.

Ugh.

So that's what we get for sitting on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, and most Marylanders -- today -- might disagree with me, but honestly, can't we just give those poor crustaceans some peace? (And no, Maine, I don't think putting pot in your shellfish before you plunge them into a boiling pot is the answer)

I can't say I've ever really enjoyed eating crabs. As a girl, I would watch in panic when my mother bought live crabs from the fisherwoman who made the rounds of our Bombay neighborhood, basket filled with fish balanced on her head, each time her husband returned home with a catch. The woman would twist off their claws before handing them over to my mom and the poor creatures, in a frenzy of pain and panic, would make every attempt to escape. Some would manage to crawl right out of the bowl and hide under chairs. It was the saddest thing I'd ever seen.

But as an adult, when we we'd spend a day out in Baltimore or Annapolis, both home to many seafood restaurants, I'd sometimes get tempted to eat what was touted as Maryland's culinary specialty: crab cakes. There were no shells and claws to deal with, and out of sight was out of mind.

Afterwards, older, smarter, and vegan, I learned how to make vegan crab cakes and posted a recipe in the infant days of this blog, more than 10 years ago.

I still love that recipe, which is simpler than this one, and make it from time to time, but this recipe, which is more complex, is certainly my favorite now.

It's a really simple recipe, and it takes moments to stir up. It packs a good, strong, healthy wallop, with both tempeh and chickpeas. And tons of flavor from hot sauce, dijon mustard, seaweed (for the seafoody flavor and more healthfulness) and Old Bay seasoning.

Old Bay, if you didn't already know, is also Maryland-born, and although it is usually used in seafood (which is the reason we are using it here), it is vegan and you can nosh on it guilt-free.

These crab cakes are all that. They have a delicate seafood-y flavor from the seaweed and the Old Bay, and they are crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. Eat them with my Vegan Wasabi Tartar sauce (recipe included below), or by themselves, and you'll be having your crab cake and eating it too -- no crustaceans harmed.