Baked Tomatoes Topped with Crab

Fresh, sweet crabmeat paired with juicy, ripe tomatoes is the perfect combination. Being from New England originally I would have preferred either Rock or Jonah crab, but these Blue Swimming Lump crab claws from Indonesian waters worked perfectly. I think canned crab, if you cannot get fresh, would also work well. This is a South Beach diet dish, but you would not think you were dieting when you dig into this tasty dish. It is luscious, flavorful and filled with interesting texture contrasts, thanks in large part to the nuts.

The crab topping has lots of unexpected flavors and textures: black olives, mushrooms, garlic, cheese and herbs. I did deviate from the original recipe a bit, as it seemed if you did not add a little binder to the crab mixture it would never stay together. So I added some mayonnaise and a slightly beaten egg to hold it all together. When I post the recipe I will post it exactly as South Beach recommends.

Start by finely grinding 1/2 cups nuts, such as pecans or walnuts. I used pecans and used my Ninja mini-max to grind them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with PAM or other cooking spray.

Drain and if necessary, clean the crabmeat. This crab was very clean.

Cut the tomatoes in half and coat both sides of the tomato with cooking spray. Normally, at this point, I would generously salt the tomato halves, but the olives are salty, cheese is salty and the crab was a little salty so no salt this time. South Beach did not recommend it either. Place the ground nuts on a plate. Dip the cut sides into the nuts to coat well. The crunch of the nuts was a welcome texture contrast to this dish.

Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on the prepared baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine the crabmeat, cheese, black olives, mushrooms, parsley, garlic, dried oregano and basil. This is where it seemed a little binder was necessary so I added 2 Tbsp. mayo and 1 slightly beaten egg. In addition to the dried basil, I also added 1 Tbsp. of freshly chopped basil, which lifted the flavor. Divide the crab mixture among the four tomato halves. Top with  more freshly, chopped parsley.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. South Beach recommends 15 minutes, but my tomato halves were large and even after 22 minutes of cooking they were still perfectly cooked, but still al dente. I topped each tomato half very generously, but still had some crabmeat stuffing left over. It was delicious in a stuffed mushroom baked to perfection! Yummy appetizer for another meal.

I served with steamed yellow squash for a perfectly light supper.

ENJOY!

Print Pin

Baked Tomatoes Topped with Crab

Sweet crab on a juicy, ripe tomato is the perfect combination. Easy to put together, tasty and good for you!

Ingredients

• 2 lge. Tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup Finely ground nuts, pecans or walnuts Or get creative!
• 1 cup Fresh Lump crabmeat, well-drained
• 1/2 cup Black olives, finely chopped I used calamatas.
• 1/2 cup Mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Parsley, finely chopped Save some for topping before baking.
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. Oregano, dried
• 1/2 tsp. Basil, dried

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
• Place the ground nuts on a plate. Coat both sides of the tomato halves with cooking spray. Dip the cut sides into the nuts to coat well. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on the prepared baking sheet.
• In a large bowl, combine the crabmeat, cheese, olives, mushrooms, parsley, basil, and oregano. (This is where I added 1 slightly beaten egg and 2 Tbsp. mayo). Evenly divide the crab mixture among the tomatoes.
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until hot and bubble.