Product: Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Crab Cakes – $5.99+
I’m probably not the best judge when it comes to comparing sea food products with vegan interpretations of them. Honestly. Now, growing up and before I became a vegetarian, I ate seafood. Mostly shrimp. Mostly fried, popcorn, scampi or creole. I was not a huge fan of other fish…but I would eat them. And, to say the least, I made a delicious lemon-crusted oven baked tilapia back in the day.
For real.
But…never, ever did I eat a crab cake before I became a vegetarian and then had to go gluten-free. So, judging these by comparison isn’t going to happen.
Here’s what I can do though. I can go off of flavor, texture, and overall taste. And that was how I approached this product.
The product of which I speak is the Gluten-Free and Vegan Crab Cakes from Sophie’s Kitchen. Now, I’m no stranger to Sophie’s Kitchen, having already tried the Gluten-Free and Vegan Fish Filets, Gluten-Free and Vegan Scallops, and the Gluten-Free and Vegan Breaded Shrimp. While I was blown away by the shrimp, I felt the scallops were good, and the fish filets were…eh…okay.
So…crab cakes. A new challenge for the allergic/intolerant foodie in me.
What I love about Sophie’s Kitchen products is how easy they are to make. The crab cakes could either be baked in the oven, or fried in a skillet on the stove. I’m a health-nut, so I try not to fry things often. I chose to bake them in the oven, which takes about 15 minutes to do. Not too bad at all. They don’t get golden cooking this way, the way the image looks on the box, but I didn’t mind the pale look to them. Remember…never had a crab cake back when I even could. I kept it simple when serving these. I had thought about doing a crab cake sandwich, but didn’t thaw out my gluten-free buns from my local allergen-free bakery. So, instead, I made some homemade kale chips and served the crab cakes over fresh bibb lettuce from my CSA bin. I served a side of Veganaise Tartar Sauce with each cake and…dinner was served in less than 20 minutes. Love that.
But how did it taste?
This is one of my favorite products from Sophie’s Kitchen that I have had the opportunity to try. OH. MY. GLUTEN. FREE. VEGAN. GOD. Seriously…packed with awesome flavor. The texture was great…like lump crab…so that was kinda cool And the blend of ingredients that Sophie’s Kitchen uses to give their faux seafood that fishy flavor worked SO well with these. They are a close second in my favorite gluten-free and vegan things. The first is the breaded shrimp from Sophie’s Kitchen. These are fantastic. They don’t taste fake of bad at all. I loved every bite. Thankfully, my roommate and I made a big dinner out of these…each of us having 2 of the crab cakes instead of the serving size of just one.
Speaking of which…it’s that time in the blog where I bring up the ingredients and nutrition for the products I try. Let’s start with the ingredients. Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan (and Gluten-Free) Crab Cakes are made up of water, pea protein, potato starch, canola oil, seaweed powder, rice flakes (from brown rice), konjac powder, rice vinegar (from brown rice), organic agave nectar, sea salt, celery powder, black pepper, bay leaf, nutmeg, ginger, paprika, dry mustard, cloves, calcium hydroxide. So close to being clean eating…but that calcium hydroxide there at the end sort of killed that.
That being said…it is still a rather healthy choice and one I’d love to buy and indulge in again. In fact, Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Crab Cakes are soy-free, gluten-free, 100% vegan and plant based, contain no preservatives, colors or MSG, and have no artificial anything!! Nice.
Speaking of indulging…a serving size of Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Crab Cakes is 1 cake. This serving will provide you with 120 calories and 6 grams of fat. That’s not bad for a crab cake!! The Vegan Crab Cakes contain only 170 mg sodium and less than 1 gram of sugar. Gotta love that! And, one crab cake also provides you with 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein. Not too shabby.
I am falling more and more in love with the products that Sophie’s Kitchen is bringing to the gluten-free and vegan world. And I love that someone, like me, with food allergies, can safely indulge in a product that is vegan as well. So often this is not the case, so it’s so nice when a company goes the extra mile. And that’s why I continue to purchase and eat products by Sophie’s Kitchen.
And now…I must hit up my Whole Foods for more of these amazing crab cakes. It’s happening!
The Celiathlete 
For me they soak up too much oil…I just used a little olive oil and soaked it right up holding the oil had to soak it up and there was a lack of any taste? I won’t buy these again I will stay with guardian crabless crab cakes…
Awesome. I haven’t been able to find these in years so it’s been a long time since I had them. I would probably air fry them now if I found them in stores.