Crabbie Patties sans Crab

I’m stupid.  I really am.  It’s almost Christmas and I’ve decided to go on a diet.  I understand the silliness of this.  Dieting this time of year means twice the amount of temptation, as well as not being able to enjoy all of the delicious seasonal treats.  Most people don’t start the dieting until January 2nd, and I’m usually counted in among that group.  My problem with that is I procrastinate and end up never dieting, so I’m starting now.  No excuses!  Total annihilation!  I will be thin once more!

So, in that spirit, I’ve been experimenting with new recipes for diet food and thus the Crabbie Pattie sans Crab was born.

Ingrediants:

• 3/4 C chopped onion or scallion
• 1 green pepper, minced
• 1/2 C minced carrot
• 1/4 C chopped parsley
• 3/4 C minced celery
• 2 packages firm tofu, cubed and pressed
• 2 tbs Old Bay seasoning
• 1 1/2 C bread crumbs
• 3/4 C mayo
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Get all those veggies minced and chopped.  Heat up the oil in a saute pan over medium heat and add all your veggies.  Saute until they are nice and soft and then set aside. 

Preparing the tofu can be kinda tricky.  There are probably better methods then the one I used, but it seemed to work out for me.  Drain the tofu then cube it if you didn’t buy the already cubed kind.  Place the tofu cubes onto a plate, then take a paper towel and press down on the tofu with it.  There will be water on the bottom of the plate so drain it off.  Continue doing this until you get as much water as you possibly can out of the tofu.  If you don’t press the tofu then your crabbie patties will fall apart. 

Put the tofu in a food processor until it looks like cottage cheese or you can use a fork to chop it up.  In a large mixing bowl, mix the veggies, the tofu, 1 cup of bread crumbs, salt, Old Bay and mayo.  I used a 1/3 cup to portion out my patties, but I suppose you can make them whatever size you want.  With the other 1/2 cup of bread crumbs coat each pattie. 

Place the patties on a nonstick baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the patties over and bake for 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

Michelle’s Thoughts:

This is a great way to prepare tofu if you are unsure about tofu or if you’ve never tried it before.  Seriously, they taste just like a real crab cake.  I tricked my brother and gave him one without telling him tofu was involved in any way, and he couldn’t guess they weren’t made from crab, so there you go.  Mikey couldn’t tell either.

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