Crab meat is an absolute delight for seafood lovers. Whether it’s in dip form, shredded, breaded and crispy, or straight from magnificent claws; crab meat is wonderfully light, flavourful, and versatile, which makes it ideal for an appetiser or a lush starter dish like crostini.

I received a sample of superb quality snow crab meat from Bradley’s Fish, and I was super excited to use it to serve as an appetiser at our last dinner party. The meat came frozen and packed in a small box, ready to defrost and eat. Once defrosted, I could not believe the incredible smell it had – so fresh and amazing! I then tasted it and, wow – it was so hard to stop myself from just eating it right there!

Having a taste of that delicious crab meat, I decided I had to go for just a few mild and simple flavours to accompany it, that way I would let the taste of the crab meat be the star of the show. I can honestly recommend you try the snow crab meat from Bradley’s Fish, it was perfect and delicious on the crostini!

I made two different kinds of crostini to serve as great seafood sharer starter, and you will see just how simple it was to prepare and put together in the recipe. We all know how people love mashed avocado on toast these days, so the first crostini had mashed avocado, red chilli, crab meat and parsley. The second version of crostini was with crème fraîche, crab meat, dill and pumpkin seeds. There were a few more ingredients to each crostini to season the crabmeat, which you can read below under each crostini recipe.

To make the crostini, all I did was get a French baguette and thinly slice it, then brush the slices with olive oil and bake at 160 C degrees for 10 minutes.

Both crab crostini types here turned out delectable and looked fabulous! I made equal amounts of each crostini, and each of them was as popular as the other.

Make sure you assemble the crostini with plenty of crabmeat. Serve immediately and devour!

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Crab, Crème Fraîche, Pumpkin Seeds and Dill Crostini

Ingredients for 8 crostini

• ½ Large baguette, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons crème fraîche (or sour cream)
• 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds
• 150g fresh crab meat
• ½ small shallot, very finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Handful of fresh dill, chopped and a few small sprigs for garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Slice the baguette to about 2 cm slices, brush the slices with olive oil and place in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how crusty you want your crostini to be).
2. In a bowl, combine the crab meat with half of the small shallot finely chopped and a teaspoon of chopped dill. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Take the bread slices out of the oven and spread crème fraîche on each, then top with crab meat and pumpkin seeds. Garnish with fresh dill sprigs.

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Crab, Avocado and Chilli Crostini

Ingredients for 8 crostini

• ½ Large baguette, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ripe avocado
• Pinch of red chilli flakes / red pepper flakes
• 150g fresh crab meat
• 1/4 cup butter (melted)
• Fresh juice from ½ lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Handful of fresh parsley – chopped and a few leaves for garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Slice the baguette to about 2 cm slices, brush the slices with olive oil and place in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how crusty you want your crostini to be).
2. Mash the avocado and season with red chilli flakes, salt and pepper.
3. In a bowl, combine the crab meat, melted butter, juice from a half lemon and a pinch of chopped parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Take the crostini out of the oven and top each of them with a tablespoon of the avocado mix, and crab meat mix on top. Garnish with fresh parsley leaves. If you like a bit of extra heat, top with some more red chilli flakes.

Crab crostini are a fantastic way to add some lush fresh seafood to your dinner, and it can be served as a sharing starter or a side dish. These two ways of making them will offer your guests with the option of going for a buttery, zesty and pleasingly hot crab crostino; or a rich and delicate, creamy crostino with a subtle crunch from pumpkin seeds ☺️

Which one would you go for? Let’s face it, at the end everyone would probably have the two versions, so make sure you make enough of each – they are slightly addictive!

If you make them, let me know in the comments what you thought about them! And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @Glasgowfoodelicious 🤗