Seafood
Easy Shrimp Cakes
Prep
5 minutes
Cook
15 minutes
Yield
10 shrimp cakes
These easy shrimp cakes 🍤 are perfect for a quick appetizer or snack. They're made with a few simple ingredients in just 20 minutes.
These shrimp cakes are such a delicious, crispy snack, appetizer, or meal (I have suggestions on what to pair them with below). These cakes are made with such simple, easy ingredients, and can be made in JUST 20 minutes!
❤️ Why You’ll Love Shrimp Cakes
- Quick: Make these shrimp cakes in only 20 minutes. They make a great snack, or quick appetizer and your whole family will love them
- Versatile: Eat these on their own, top them with a yummy sauce, or throw them on top of a salad for some extra protein, the options are endless
- Healthy: The ingredients in these shrimp cakes are easy, healthy and they’re packed with protein
🍲 Ingredients
Shrimp- I only recently started eating fish and shellfish again and I’m really glad I’ve reintroduced it into my diet because there are so many delicious possibilities. Shrimp is a lean source of protein and is rich in vitamin B12, alongside other essential nutrients.
Feta- Feta is obviously a staple in my house as a Greek woman who loves to cook. Feta is a Greek-brined cheese made from sheep’s milk and lasts so much longer in your fridge than other cheeses, which makes it great to have on hand to throw into recipes like these shrimp cakes.
👩🍳 How to Make Shrimp Cakes
- To a food processor add the onion and garlic and pulse to chop into small pieces. Add the defrosted shrimp, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, lemon zest, chili flakes, feta cheese and egg. Pulse to chop/combine everything, making sure not to over-mix into a paste. You want to ensure you have the best consistency to form a patty so less is more.
- Pour mixture into a bowl or scoop directly out of the food processor, about 1/4 cup at a time, and form/flatten into 1/2 inch shrimp patties.
- Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Fry for 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown on each side, and the shrimp cakes are cooked through. You’ll know the shrimp cake is ready to flip if the spatula can slide underneath the pattie easily. Flip a third time if you think the shrimp cakes need a bit more time to cook.
- Fry in batches until all of the shrimp cakes have been cooked. Enjoy dipping with the best tzatziki recipe which can be made with under 10 ingredients that you probably already have handy in your house. You can also buy storebought if you want to speed this recipe up even more.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Tzatziki: I love these shrimp cakes with homemade tzatziki, but you can buy store-bought tzatziki too.
- Mixing: Don’t over-blend your mixture in the food processor or you’ll end up with a paste that won’t be great for texture or forming your patties
- Prep: Prep the patties in advance and keep them on a baking tray in your fridge until ready to fry
- Food Processor: If you don’t have one you can easily chop all your ingredients and mix them up in a bowl
🗒 Substitutions
Here are some easy substitutions you can make in this recipe:
- Onion: Regular white onion will work just as well as red
- Breadcrumbs: If you don’t have breadcrumbs, you can swap them for panko. It’ll give a bit of a different crunch/texture, but still delicious
🗒 Best served with
- Easy Pad Thai Recipe: Serve shrimp cakes as an appy to this easy pad thai recipe
- Cabbage Salad: This Vietnamese Inspired Cabbage Salad, pairs so nicely with a side of shrimp cakes
- Spicy Cucumber Salad: Pair the shrimp cakes with this spicy cucumber salad for an easy lunch
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Fridge: You can store leftover shrimp cakes in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Make sure you let them cool completely before putting them in the fridge.
Freeze: You can freeze cooked shrimp cakes by letting them cool, freezing on a baking sheet, and then once frozen, adding them to a Ziploc bag. By freezing on a baking sheet first, you’ll make sure they don’t all freeze stuck together.
🤔 Common Questions
Try putting the mixture in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. Sometimes the mixture gets too warm when in your hands and it makes it hard to form. If the mix is sticking to your fingers, wet your hands slightly, don’t dry them off, then try to form them.
One of my biggest tips is to use an ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop out your mixture vs. just grabbing it with your hands. This allows you to see and “measure” how much you have for each ball to keep them more consistent.
Honestly, you can use whatever kind of shrimp, just make sure you buy raw shrimp vs. cooked, and if they aren’t already peeled, make sure you peel them before blending them in the food processor.
Easy Shrimp Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup red onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 450 g defrosted raw shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 zested lemon
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 egg
Instructions
- To a food processor add the onion and garlic and pulse to chop into small pieces. Add the defrosted shrimp, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, lemon zest, chili flakes, feta cheese and egg. Pulse to chop / combine everything, making sure not to over-mix into a paste .
- Pour mixture into a bowl or scoop directly out of the food processor, about 1/4 cup at a time and form / flatten into 1/2 inch shrimp patties.
- Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Fry for 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown on each side and the shrimp cakes are cooked through. You'll know the shrimp cake is ready to flip if the spatula can slide underneath the pattie easily. Flip a third time if you think the shrimp cakes need a bit more time to cook.
- Fry in batches until all of the shrimp cakes have been cooked. Enjoy dipped the best tzatziki recipe!
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop the shrimp into small pea-sized pieces and then mix together in a bowl with all of the other ingredients. Then, form into shrimp cakes and follow the rest of the recipe.
Can I use frozen cooked shrimp?
I think you could but it would be tricky to not get them to overcook and be rubbery. But honesty since the cakes cook for so little you should be ok! Try it and report back to me! Please note the recipe was not tested that way.
Delicious and so easy to make! I don’t have a food processor and mixing everything in the blender is a bit tricky, so I blend everything besides the feta and shrimp, I chop those up separately and add them at the end and it works great
what a great hack, Marta! I love that so much!