Crab and ale recipe points to a vegetable (9)
I believe the answer is:
calabrese
'to a vegetable' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'crab and ale recipe points' is the wordplay.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'recipe' indicates anagramming the letters.
'points' becomes 'se' (two compass points).
'crab' put after 'ale' is 'alecrab'.
'alecrab' is an anagram of 'calabre'.
'calabre'+'se'='CALABRESE'
(Other definitions for calabrese that I've seen before include "Variety of broccoli" , "Vegetable" .)