These are the best gluten free crab cakes! Enjoy these rich, nutrient packed crab cakes with a few sides for dinner tonight for a healthy meal the whole family can enjoy. Easy to make ahead and great for entertaining & serving a crowd.
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It's time to celebrate Healthy Vision Month with a Healthy Vision Blog party!
I'm bringing the crab cakes because that's like the best thing ever to have at a party, am I right?
Totally.
Before we get to the crab cakes let's talk about Macular Degeneration for a minute.
What is Macular Degeneration?
According to the American Macular Degeneration website, it is the leading cause of vision loss, affecting over 10 million Americans. It is an incurable eye disease that is caused by the deterioration of the central portion of the retina.
Age and genetics are two main risk factors, but there are some risk factors under your control -- smoking, prolonged unprotected exposure to the sun on the eyes, being overweight, having high CRP levels (which is a marker of inflammation), and having unchecked high cholesterol or heart disease are all risk factors.
[clickToTweet tweet="Enjoy these rich, gluten-free crab cakes packed with nutrients for dinner tonight! #GF" quote="Enjoy these rich, gluten-free crab cakes packed with nutrients for dinner tonight! #GF"]
Luckily, feeding your body with nourishing foods is incredibly important for eye health (along with lots of other things!)
Remember when you were little and your parents told you to eat your carrots because they helped your eyes? Well, there are tons of other great foods that help promote healthy vision! [Insert party popper emoji here]
Some important nutrients to vision health are lutein, zeaxanthin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acid.
My goal? To see how many of these healthy vision promoting nutrients I could fit into one meal...
[clickToTweet tweet="#EatRightForYourSight with these crab cakes full of vision health promoting nutrients" quote="#EatRightForYourSight with these crab cakes full of vision health promoting nutrients"]
Why you should make Gluten free Crab Cakes
I am a seafood lover through and through, so when I saw that Rouses had lump crabmeat on sale for $14.99 I immediately grabbed a container.
Crab meat offers lots of goodness including Vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, and zinc.
I have a hard time not making crab cakes when I have fresh crabmeat, but I've already made those and they are perfect.
Then I thought about all the sad people that can't have crab cakes when they're made with crackers or bread crumbs.
But I remembered that I have some almond flour leftover from my Blueberry Almond Muffins {you gotta check those out if you haven't yet!!}, and almonds are packed with Vitamin E. So I decided that I had to make gluten free crab cakes and use almond flour.
Including the nutrients from the crab meat and almond flour, you have eggs with their nutrient-rich yolk. Egg yolks are full of lutein, zeaxanthin, and zinc.
Parsley & lemon juice add Vitamin C to the mix; plus they make the crab cakes taste extra delicious. Served over a bed of romaine lettuce bumps up the nutrients including zeaxanthin.
How to Make Gluten Free Crab Cakes
These are easy enough to make. There are a few things you need to know to make the best gluten free crab cakes, and I listed them below.
Basically, you stir together the binder which is the cream cheese and eggs along with the spices. Add in the almond flour, and once everything is mixed, you gently add the crab meat and form them into patties.
When you're ready to cook, you cook them in a skillet with a combination of butter and oil to give them extra flavor.
Tips for Making Gluten free Crab Cakes
Something to know about crab cakes: you really must make these ahead of time. They need at least one hour of refrigeration time before you cook them. They will hold together much better that way.
Use lump crabmeat or claw meat. Don't waste your money on jumbo lump crabmeat because it will be broken up as you stir the mixture together. And if you cannot get fresh crab meat, frozen thawed crab meat will work.
Oh and don't over mix; just carefully fold in the crabmeat until it is all combined.
Make Ahead Tips
As mentioned above, these are great to make ahead of time. You can make as many as needed, and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to prepare.
You can also freeze them at this point, and thaw in the refrigerator completely before cooking as directed.
Variations & Substitutions
If you need to make these dairy free, you can use dairy free cream cheese and use all olive oil instead of the combo of butter & olive oil to cook the crab cakes.
If you don't have celery salt you can skip it and use regular salt in its place. Or you can use Old Bay seasoning instead of celery salt.
You can cook these in batches. If you do, just use half of the butter & oil to cook the first 3 crab cakes. Then add remaining butter and oil to skillet to cook the other 3 crab cakes.
Serving tips
You can serve these as mini crab cakes for an appetizer or as larger crab cakes for your meal. They are tasty no matter what their size is.
Final thoughts:
These crab cakes are super tasty! I love making extra to keep in the freezer to have a delicious yet nourishing meal that helps promote vision health.
MORE RECIPES THAT PROMOTE VISION HEALTH YOU'LL LOVE:
- Easy Pesto Salmon
- Avocado Egg Salad
- Banana Almond Muffins
- Tuna Wraps with Avocado Blood Orange Salsa
- Cheesy Beef, Chickpeas and Veggies

Gluten free Crab Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoon cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon creole mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic from 3 cloves garlic
- ยผ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ยฝ teaspoon onion powder
- ยฝ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ยผ teaspoon celery salt or salt
- ยผ teaspoon garlic powder
- ยผ teaspoon paprika
- โ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup almond flour
- 16 oz lump crabmeat
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cream cheese, lemon juice, minced garlic, fresh parsley, onion powder, cayenne pepper, celery salt, garlic powder, paprika, and nutmeg. Stir in almond flour. Once everything is very well combined, fold in the crabmeat. Stir only until crabmeat is completely mixed in.
- Line a plate or baking sheet with wax paper, plastic wrap, or foil. Shape the crabmeat mixture into patties (about ยฝ cup each), and put on lined plate. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
- When ready to cook, heat butter and oil over medium high heat in a skillet. Add crab cake patties, and cook for 8 minutes. Carefully flip and cook on the other side for 5-10 minutes until golden-brown on both sides. Enjoy!
Notes
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Emily Kyle says
These crab cakes are the best ever! I love that they are gluten-free but still so delicious that everyone in my family still loves them too ๐
Lorie says
Crab cakes make me think of vacations with my grandparents as a kid. These are happening when I start to miss grandpa xoxoxo
Robert Reinhardt says
Fantastic recipe! Worked just fine with only 10 oz of fresh (not canned) dungeness crab.
Meme says
Woohoo!!! So happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to share ๐
Kim says
Made these on the recommendation of a friend. Very yummy and (picky) husband approved. Iโll be adding this to my recipe book!
Meme says
YAYYYY!!! So so excited! Glad y'all enjoyed them, and thanks for coming back to share ๐
Shanon says
Just made these from last night's left over fresh crab and OMG! loved them! I didn't have almond flour so just used all purpose 1 to 1 gf flour and it all worked out just fine.
I think next time I'll add diced onions and peppers!