Baked Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hot Sauce

     Crab cakes have always been my favorite and I’ve been thinking about making it for quite sometimes now and this is a time. I used to have crab cakes at the restaurant that were usually fried with butter and they were ridiculously goooood! Of course butter makes everything taste awesome…right?!     And now when I’m thinking of making it myself, I just want to cut down some of those calories a little bit by baking them, add some little kick of Louisiana Hot sauce, and using Greek yogurt instead of using real mayonnaise – oh, I love Greek yogurt and regular plain yogurt! 

And nowadays, I found myself trying to use yogurt more often in my cooking. It’s good for you and it also tastes great. And the result of my baked crab cakes? Amazing!  While it’s a little crisp on the outside, the inside is light and luscious still of all the goodness that was added in there. And a little heat from the roasted red bell pepper hot sauce for the dipping is surprisingly wonderful, better than I used to have elsewhere. So, try to have some fun, it’s not as hard as you might think.

What you need:   -  make about 12- 14 depends on how big you make it

1 can-16 oz or 2 cup crab meat, picked over

1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt

2 tbsp Louisiana hot sauce

1 cup bread crumbs + 1/2 cup for coating (I used Italian bread crumbs)

1/4 cup celery finely chopped

1/4 cup red bell pepper finely chopped

1/4 cup green onion finely chopped

2 tbsp cilantro leaves finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 whole egg

1 egg white

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp Louisiana hot sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp sugar

Cooking spray

*Preheat the oven at 350’ F

- in a large mixing bowl,  add together crab meat, celery, red bell pepper, green onion, cilantro leaves, Greek yogurt, egg + egg white, lemon juice, hot sauce, garlic, salt and pepper, sugar, and bread crumbs, mix them all together thoroughly  (did I forget anything?)

- form into patties about the size that fit in your palm and coat them with bread crumbs, set them on the baking sheet

- spray both sides with cooking spray and bake about 12 minutes each side

* serve immediately when it’s cooked through with the roasted red bell pepper hot sauce and wedge of lemon

For the sauce

1/2 cup miracle whip

1 tbsp roasted red bell pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp Louisiana hot sauce

Pinch of salt to taste

: blend all the ingredients together in the food processor until it has a smooth consistency

Enjoy!

^___^