Favorite dishes required some changes for health

By Kathy Manweiler

For years, some of my favorite foods were fried, but when I set out to lose weight, I knew I needed to make some changes.

Instead of giving those delicious dishes up, I spent plenty of quality time in my kitchen learning ways to make my favorites — like today’s crab cakes — healthier.

The key to slimming down these crab cakes is to make them taste crispy and crunchy without dunking them in sizzling oil.

Coating the crab cakes with a generous amount of panko plus a little cooking spray helps. These Japanese breadcrumbs have a coarse texture that helps some baked foods taste fried. Some stores stock panko next to the regular breadcrumbs, or you might find it in the Asian foods section.

It’s also important for the crab cakes to be thoroughly chilled before the panko coating so they hold together during baking. Refrigerating the crab cakes and then popping them into the freezer for about 10 minutes works well for me.

I lighten up this dish further by choosing light mayonnaise, egg substitute and a little extra Old Bay seasoning.

If you order crab cakes at a restaurant, just one of them could contain more than 250 calories and about 18 grams of fat without any dipping sauce. But you can have two of my crab cakes with a tablespoon of dipping sauce for 198 calories and 9 grams of fat.

KATHY’S CRAB CAKES

2 tablespoons light mayonnaise

2 tablespoons finely minced green onion (green part only)

2 tablespoons finely minced red bell pepper

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon yellow mustard

1 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley

2 tablespoons of egg substitute, such as EggBeaters

1‚Ñ2 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

1‚Ñ2 pound lump crab meat

3 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs, such as Progresso

1‚Ñ2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Cooking spray

For dipping sauce:

1‚Ñ4 cup light mayonnaise

2 teaspoons chopped dill pickle slices

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon paprika

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon chili powder

1‚Ñ8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1‚Ñ4 teaspoon ground cumin

1‚Ñ8 teaspoon salt

To make dipping sauce: Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill the sauce until you serve the crab cakes.

To make crab cakes: Put the first seven ingredients into a large bowl. Use a whisk to blend ingredients together. Gently fold in the crab meat and plain breadcrumbs. In a nonstick standard size muffin tin, lightly coat eight muffin cups with cooking spray, then fill the cups with equal amounts of the crab mixture.

Press down lightly on each crab cake so that the top is flat. Don’t press too hard or the crab cakes may be hard to get out. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. After an hour, try to take one of the crab cakes out of the tin. If the crab cake doesn’t stay together firmly, put the muffin tin in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Once the crab cakes are thoroughly chilled, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Fill a shallow dish with the panko breadcrumbs. After removing each crab cake from the muffin tin, gently roll it in the panko until the whole crab cake has a light coating of panko.

Lightly coat a nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray, then place each crab cake on the baking sheet. Lightly coat the top of each crab cake with cooking spray. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the coating is crispy and lightly browned. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

Makes 8 crab cakes. Serves 4.

Per serving (2 crab cakes with 1 tablespoon dipping sauce): 198 calories, 9 fat grams, 14 carb grams, 16 protein grams, 40mg cholesterol, 929mg sodium.

Crab cakes adapted from “Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2” by Todd Wilbur.

Dipping sauce slightly adapted from “Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2” by Todd Wilbur.