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Crab Dinner Ideas to Cook at Home
Crab cakes, pasta, soups and whole steamed crab, for fresh, frozen, canned or leftover meat.
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CheapCooking's leftover-crab cakes start about 45 minutes before dinner: mix, chill half an hour, then shape and fry. For a whole-Dungeness feast, one forum cook's rule is one crab per person, plus one more. CookingChew notes canned jumbo lump costs more than claw, which has the stronger flavour. The ideas here cover fresh, frozen, canned and leftover crab, from quick salads to a slow bisque. They leave out cleaning a whole crab and any allergy advice.
Why these items are on the list
- Crab cakes with tartar sauce. CheapCooking got four good-sized cakes from one small crab, chilling the mix half an hour first.
- Steamed whole Dungeness crab. A Hungry Onion cook steams it 18 minutes on a trivet, over an inch or two of water.
- Cracked Dungeness crab with lemon. Lots of lemon wedges and mayo on the side, as one forum cook serves it.
- Garlic noodles with crab. One Hungry Onion cook calls garlic noodles a good next-day meal for leftover crab, eaten before it goes bad.
- Linguine with crab, chili, garlic. Optional for a saucier pasta: stir in finely chopped tomatoes after frying the garlic and chili, before the crab.
- Crab Louie salad. A Dungeness favourite from the forum thread, praised at Swan's Oyster Depot.
- Shrimp crab bisque. CookingChew calls it a traditional creamy French dish, so save it for a night when you've got time.
- Crab Imperial. CookingChew calls it a Virginia dish: lump crab baked with Parmesan on top, like a crab cake casserole.
- Crab salad on halved avocado. Quick to mix, and a little chili adds colour and heat.
- Crab sandwich with brown meat. Butter the bread with the brown meat, pile on white meat, add a little lettuce.
- Crab fried rice. One Hungry Onion cook says Vietnamese and Thai versions tend to be just lump crab piled on top.
- Crab curry. One forum cook lists it first, ahead of crab cakes without much filler.
- Crab soup, tomatoes, roasted peppers. One forum cook likes it with tomatoes and roasted red peppers. Sherry is optional in another recipe.
- Crab-stuffed salmon. Salmon overcooks easily, so watch its colour and texture.
- Seafood lasagna with crab. Go easy on the béchamel, since too much can leave the lasagna wet and mushy.
- King crab legs with garlic butter. They're usually pre-cooked and frozen, so you're really just heating them through.
- Crab and cucumber salad. One forum cook likes a light vinaigrette so the sweet crab meat does the talking.
- Crab melt. Shows up in a forum list of Dungeness favourites, beside crab boil and chowder.
- Ginger-scallion crab stir fry. One forum cook prefers a light stir fry with ginger and scallions, rather than dousing sweet crab in heavy sauces.
Scroll it in the shop or at the fish counter and tick off what you'll cook. It's easy to hand to whoever's cooking with you.
When to use it
Useful when Dungeness is in season, when canned crab is in the pantry, or when there's leftover crab to use up.