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These delicious Sweet Potato Crab Cakes are one of our family favorites! Easy to make for dinner or prep for the week, these filling and flavorful crab cakes are a recipe you’ll want to save.
Using whole foods like sweet potatoes to make this healthy crab cake recipe was a total ‘a-ha’ moment. The textures and consistency of sweet potato crab cakes just makes sense.
I’m always so glad when a healthier recipe turns out to be delicious; now I can serve these for dinner parties, family meals, and no one will realize that they’re eating something lighter!
Where’s the recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life, we write recipes that anyone can follow. In the article below, you’ll find cooking tips, information about ingredients, and even special diet plan information.
If you don’t need any of that extra information, please scroll down to the bottom where you’ll find the printable version of this easy recipe for Sweet Potato Crab Cakes.
I think making healthier versions of my favorite recipes has become a bit of an addiction–like these easy crab cakes. The trick is to find a recipe that you really like, then pair it with flavors and textures in whole foods.
Ingredients in Sweet Potato Crab Cakes
- Cooked crab: I prefer to use jumbo lump crab meat when I can find it.
- Cooked and mashed sweet potato: If you have an Instant Pot, I recommend using it to cook the sweet potato.
- red bell pepper
- green onion
- egg (optional)
- garlic
- parsley
- lemon juice
- creole seasoning (like Old Bay seasoning)
- black pepper
- panko bread crumbs
- coconut oil, if you’d like to fry these
How to make these Sweet Potato Crab Cakes
This recipe takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.
- Stir together all ingredients except for the oil and breadcrumbs.
- Shape into 3″ patties (about 1/3 cup), then coat in breadcrumbs.
- Grease a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or fry with coconut oil:
- Heat half the coconut oil on medium heat. Cook crab cakes 2-3 minutes per side.
- When refilling skillet it’s best to wipe with paper towel and then add more oil.
- This recipe usually makes two batches to cook in my skillet.
Recipe tips
- Instead of an egg, you can use chia seeds and water to make a gel-like substitute. I use 2 tsp chia seeds to 3 tbsp water in this recipe. Mix them together and let them form a gel, then add to the recipe.
- If you have an air fryer, line the bottom with foil and cook these for 5-7 minutes on 350º.
- If you don’t have coconut oil, olive oil will do. So will avocado oil!
- I prefer to use lump crab meat instead of artificial crab meat, if you can find it.
- Looking for a delicious topping? Hot sauce and Dijon mustard are both delicious!
Healthy Eating Plans
For the 21 Day Fix or Ultimate Portion Fix: The entire recipe is 3 red containers, 3 yellow containers, .5 green containers, and 9 teaspoons of oil (if frying). I give you the counts for the entire recipe so it’s easier to recalculate if you change any of the ingredients.
If you make 12 crab cakes, your container counts for two cakes will be 1/2 red container, 1/2 yellow container, a negligible amount of green, and 1 1/2 teaspoon.
Weight Watchers This recipe is 6 Points on the 2023 Plan | 6 Blue Plan Points | 7 Green Plan Points | 5 Purple Plan Points per serving.
2B Mindset: This recipe is perfect for lunch–just add some protein and veggies!
Healthy Sweet Potato Crab Cakes
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 12 oz cooked crab
- ½ cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
- ¼ cup red bell pepper , chopped
- ¼ cup green onion , thinly sliced
- 1 egg , lightly beaten
- 1 tsp garlic , minced or chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley , chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp creole seasoning
- ⅛ tsp pepper
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Stir together all ingredients except for the oil and breadcrumbs. 12 oz cooked crab, ½ cup cooked and mashed sweet potato, ¼ cup red bell pepper, ¼ cup green onion, 1 egg, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tbsp parsley, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp creole seasoning, ⅛ tsp pepper
- Shape into 3" patties (1/3 cup), then coat in breadcrumbs. 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- Heat half the coconut oil on medium heat. 3 tbsp coconut oil
- Cook crab cakes 2-3 minutes per side.
- When refilling skillet, it's best to wipe with paper towel and then add more oil.
Notes
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum
Could these be baked instead of fried?
I’d assume so, though I haven’t done it. I’d bake them at 400 if I tried though!
I really love sea foods especially crabs. I would try this recipe out. Thanks for sharing.
I see the container count for entire recipe. Do you happen to have the break down per-serving and what the serving size is?
No, because it varies depending on how big you make your cakes :) The recipe makes about 12 for me. The small amount of containers in the entire recipe makes it super hard to calculate the containers for each cake. It would be something like .25R, .25Y, 1/2tsp and whatever 1/12th is .5G is.
I figured it was just easier to give the count for the entire recipe :)
anyone know the breakdown per serving??????
See the comment above :)
Yummy! Tasted just like a crab cake but healthier! Slightly fell apart, will use one more egg next time. Substituted red onion for the red bell pepper and cilantro for the parsley. Will make again!
These look amazing. Can I ask what kind of crab you used. Imitation?
I use real whenever I can, but I used imitation for these!