Crabby Cucumber Holiday Tree

Our low-calorie, low-salt, low-sugar holiday hors d’oeuvre brings crab and cucumber together in a fun and super-tasty way. Easy to prepare, too! Arrange on any platter to serve and enjoy year round.  

Total time to prepare: 30 to 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1-2 seedless cucumbers*, cut into ¼ inch slices
• ⅔ cup reduced-fat (⅓ less) cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper, or more to taste
• 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
• ½ lb. (8 oz) fresh crab claw meat
• ⅓ cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
• 2 green onions (scallions) sliced
• For decoration: parsley, grape tomatoes, yellow sweet pepper, parsley, chopped kale

*Seedless cucumbers are narrow at one end. To keep slices uniform cut off the ends and save to use in a salad later.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and Old Bay seasoning.
2. Fold in the crab, sweet red pepper and green onions.

To Assemble Holiday Tree

1. Pat cucumbers dry with paper towel.
2. Place heaping teaspoon of crab mixture on cucumber slices and top with a small piece of parsley. Make 14 of these for the tree.
3. On serving plate, place 1 cucumber slice at top, then 1 grape tomato horizontally underneath. In next row, place 2 cucumber slices then 3 grape tomatoes underneath. Continue layering, increasing the number of cucumber slices and tomatoes to form a tree.
4. Cut a star shape out of the yellow sweet pepper and place on top cucumber slice. Cut 2, 1-inch x ½ inch pieces from yellow sweet pepper and place at bottom for the tree stump.
5. Fill around the edges of the tree with kale.

Hint: Serve remaining crab dip in small bowl along with remaining cucumber slices and sliced yellow sweet pepper. Or make more cucumber crab slices to serve on separate plate.

Makes about 40 servings

Nutritional Information
Per cucumber crab slice: 11 calories; 0.7g total fat (0.3g saturated; 0.1g polyunsaturated, 0.1g monounsaturated); 59.2mg sodium; 4.5mg cholesterol; 0.3g carbohydrate; 0.2g sugars; 0.0g fiber; 0.8g protein; 15.4mg potassium.