People often ask me, “What can I make that will be a substitution for the meat in my meal?” This is a fun recipe that you can make to base your meal around. I served these Artichoke Crab Cakes as a side dish at Thanksgiving but they could easily be served as the main dish alongside a salad and steamed vegetables, or stir-fried mushrooms and steamed Swiss chard. I also enjoyed the leftover patties the next day on top of a big green salad.
The sriracha sauce is a great compliment, although you have to like spicy food because it is certainly spicy! (Reduce the sriracha powder according to your heat tolerance level ). If you don’t want to bother making the sauce, you can find plant based sriracha or chipotle mayonnaise in stores such as Nature’s Fare. Earth Island is a fabulous brand. Here is a link to my burrito blog post that includes a photo of it. Be careful, it’s addicting, super spicy and great as a bean burger spread and french fry dip!
Why artichokes instead of crab you ask? What is the big deal? Well…
- generally when people think they are getting crab, it is actually imitation crab, which doesn’t contain crab at all…or contains just a tiny amount of it.
- Imitation crab is a product made by grinding fish, such as pollock, into a paste, then adding in starch, fillers, egg whites, soy protein, humectants, artificial flavouring and food colouring to mimic real crab. That doesn’t sound that healthy to me…
- between 2 and 3 million, 2-3% of the fish caught in the oceans is made into imitation crab. Here is a video on how they process it.
- According to this Wikipedia link, “Before the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, mad cow disease), it was an industrial practice to add bovine blood plasma into the fish paste to help its curing or gel-forming. Today some manufacturers may use a transglutaminase to improve the texture of surimi.” WOAH, no thank you!
I think I might just have me some artichoke as my “crab”! Here are some good reasons to eat artichoke instead:
- Artichokes are low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol. They are also a good source of niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and copper, and a very good source of dietary fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate and manganese.
- no fish from the sea have been netted and killed, taking along with them many other organisms that are killed and dumped back into the oceans as waste.
- artichokes are not heavily processed like the imitation crab is before reaching my plate.
This recipe is modified from the recipe book "But I Could Never Go Vegan!" by Kristy Turner. www.thevibrantveggie.com
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Instructions
