Easy Maryland Crab Soup by ivy

Typical lack of measurement and precision on my part and you need to start with a meal of MD steamed crabs, which I know can be tricky if you’re not around here.

1. Go out for or prepare blue crabs steamed with Old Bay. Gorge on them. Somehow save 4-6.

2. By the next day, clean the leftover crabs of their meat. Don’t rinse off all (or any if you like spicy) of the spices from the shells first. Assemble pile of crabmeat. This is the difficult part. Not the cleaning; the resisting eating it all.

3. Keep some of the crab in-shell, for example the small legs, the claws, and/or larger joints, which you have hammered on a bit and from which you've removed all loose shell fragments. You don’t want to be biting into fragments, but I'm from the school that believes working with some partially shelled crab bits in your soup builds character and adds adventure. (As you cook the soup the meat will gradually slip out of the shell, but if you want to get at it all, some parts must be plucked out and eaten with your hands, which allows you to revisit your crab feast.)

4. Put the crabmeat in a soup pot and just cover with water. Add tomato puree and perhaps more water until you have a stock you like. Heat to boil/reduce to simmer. Add more Old Bay if desired, I usually do, but be warned the existing/new Old Bay will intensify as it cooks. Things can get spicy.

5. Add mixed frozen vegetables. Combo of corn, carrots, green beans works well. I throw in a couple cubed par-boiled potatoes as well. Add what you like. Lima beans and peas also traditional.

6. Simmer until tomato puree cooks down and loses some of its sweetness. Add more water if you desire. Even though crab is delicate it’s OK to slow-cook the soup for quite a while if you like. The meat just gets all loose and shreddy and heavenly.

I’m sure there are better ways to go about this with all fresh ingredients, etc., but this is my go-to easy recipe for leftover crabs and it is quick and yum. I’m glad this is not a MD-focused board because no doubt 20 indignant people would chime in and tell me I’m doing it wrong. Note my preemptive explanation in #3. People around here are dead serious about how they like their crabs.