Patty Pan Cakes (Faux Crab Cakes) & Arugula Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing

A few weeks ago, Megan’s mom gave us a recipe for these fake crab cakes that are basi­cally a fried shred­ded zuc­chini cake. How can that not be good!? Unfortunately, it was right after we fin­ished using the enor­mous amount of zuc­chini we had received that week from our CSA — and that was the last zuc­chini we got. Fortunately, this week, we did receive some patty pan squash and I decided to try using that. I fig­ured if I was using a dif­fer­ent squash I may as well mod­ify the rest of the recipe too (espe­cially after see­ing Nancy Vienneau post about some­thing sim­i­lar). The result was amaz­ing and paired per­fectly with the spici­ness of arugula and the hearty bite of bleu cheese. The lemon yogurt dress­ing was bright and fresh and really tied it all together well. Keep read­ing for the patty pan cake and lemon yogurt dress­ing recipes and more pictures.

Patty pan squashes are those lit­tle UFO shaped sum­mer squashes that taste a lot like a com­bi­na­tion of zuc­chini and yel­low squash. they are very ver­sa­tile and can be used as a replace­ment for zuc­chini in any recipe.

Even though this meal was a salad of sorts, the star was the patty pan cake. It was amaz­ing. Megan said it was bet­ter than most crappy crab cakes she’s had which is say­ing some­thing con­sid­er­ing she grew up so close to the Atlantic coast and con­stantly had her fill of fresh seafood. These were easy to make and are sure to please!

Patty Pan Cakes (Faux-Crab Cakes)

2 grated Patty Pan Squashes
Kosher Salt
1 cup Bread Crumbs
1 Egg, beaten
1/4 tsp. Onion Powder
1 Chocolate Bell Pepper, diced, about 1/4 cup (red bell pep­per works fine as well)
1 cayenne pep­per, diced
1 1/2 tsp. Old Bay sea­son­ing
1 tsp. Horseradish Dijon Mustard
1 tbsp. Mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Vegetable Oil and 2 tsp. but­ter for frying

Place grated squash in a colan­der and sprin­kle lightly with salt to remove mois­ture. Let this drain for at least 30 min­utes. Squeeze to remove addi­tional liq­uid, the dryer the better.

Combine squash and all the other ingre­di­ents in a large bowl and mix well.

Form into pat­ties using 1/3 cup of squash mix­ture. Rest pat­ties in the refrig­er­a­tor for 20 min­utes. This allows the fla­vors to comb­ing a lit­tle bet­ter but also sets up the pat­ties bet­ter, mak­ing them eas­ier to deal with when it comes to frying.

Heat a small amount of oil and but­ter in a skil­let. Once the oil is hot, place 4 cakes (leav­ing the remain­ing cakes in the refrig­er­a­tor) in the skil­let and fry 4 – 5 min­utes per side (depend­ing on how hot your oil is). The bet­ter you brown them, the bet­ter they taste.

Once they are done fry­ing, allow then to drain & rest on a paper towel for a cou­ple min­utes before eat­ing. Repeat with remain­ing cakes.

Lemon Yogurt Dressing

1 cup Greek Yogurt
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1/4 tsp. Lemon Zest
1/8 tsp. Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp Extra vir­gin Olive Oil

Combine all ingre­di­ents except oil in food proces­sor or blender. Pulse a few times to com­bine ingre­di­ents. With proces­sor run­ning, slowly pour in olive oil and con­tinue mixing.

I topped a bed of arugula with bleu cheese and some lemon cucum­ber slices. On the salad I placed two cakes and driz­zled the dress­ing all around.

Try this some­time and let me know what you think. I promise you’ll love it. Oh, and thanks Mama Sandi for the inspi­ra­tion to this won­der­ful meal!