8 Ways to Serve Crab Cakes

Tartar sauce and cocktail sauce are tried-and-true, but so many other things are delicious with crab cakes. Here's a list of sauces and complementary foods to serve alongside the classic seafood treat. Feel free to mix and match. (Russian dressing-slathered po' boy, anyone?)

1. With Russian dressing

Follow Andrew Zimmern's example and serve cold Baltimore-style crab cakes with Russian dressing and tomato.

2. With horseradish cream

Make a punchy combo of sour cream, mayonnaise, and horseradish. It's just as good with crab cakes as it is with roast beef.

3. With gazpacho

How do you make crab cakes even more summery? Serve them over a pool of the quintessential chilled soup. Here are 15 gazpacho recipes to choose from.

4. On a po' boy

Mash up two great regional foods — Maryland crab cakes and a New Orleans-style sandwich — by piling the cakes on hoagie rolls with lettuce, tomato, and lemon aioli. Grace Parisi uses ciabatta rolls for her po' boy recipe that can be adapted.

5. Over corn soup

Make a silky, sweet, pureed corn soup and serve crispy crab cakes on top. Laura Rege transforms corn soup to a bright green version with spinach, jalapeños, and a touch of fresh lime juice.

6. As burgers or sliders

Make oversized cakes to serve on brioche bread or buns with spicy mayo and kimchi. In Austin, Texas, the Peached Tortilla serves mini crab cakes with creamy slaw on soft, slightly sweet buns.

7. In a salad

Upgrade any salad with a crab cake, like our simple summer salads. Richard Landau substitutes hearts of palm with the same concept.

8. With mango puree

Asian- or Caribbean-spiced cakes are especially good with a fruity sauce, like this one from Ming Tsai.

Kristin Donnelly is a former Food & Wine editor and author of the forthcoming The Modern Potluck (Clarkson Potter, 2016). She is also the cofounder of Stewart & Claire, an all-natural line of lip balms made in Brooklyn.