The other day I was trying to convince myself that I did NOT need to eat my 3rd burger of the week… I was losing this self-argument, but in a lightbulb of genius I decided to make quinoa patties. I had been thinking about quinoa and black bean vegetarian patties for a few days, so I thought it only natural to use what I had in the house already. I pulled inspiration for these “cakes” or “patties” from here and here. Have you read Yummy Supper before? Excellent pictures, excellent inspiration, and the name is so adorable!! The other blog is a new find, and I’m excited to read more from it!

Crispy Quinoa Cakes (Inspired from Yummy Supper and EYS)

• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 small onion
• 1 small bunch of parsley
• 1 cup of cooked brussel sprouts
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (I used some random raspberry beer cheddar I had languishing in the fridge, but I imagine anything would be good in this! I’m going to try feta next time)
• 3 eggs whisked
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup of flour (optional)
• 1 cup of olive oil (maybe a little less)

1. Wash the quinoa and drain well (I find that unless you give the grains a good scrub you end up with a little sandiness so I’m sure to wash them really well and drain in a mesh sieve). 
2. In a saucepan, bring the quinoa to a boil in 2 cups of water. Once the water boils, lower to a simmer and put a lid on it (bahaha… put a lid on it). And let it cook until fluffy (about 20 minutes).
3. While your quinoa is cooking, get started on the vegetables.
4. Dice the celery and onion. Put into a large mixing bowl.
5. Slice the brussel sprouts. I used pre-roasted brussel sprouts, but you could use frozen ones or whatever other green vegetable you have on hand. Add to the mixing bowl.
6. Chiffonade the parsley and add to the bowl
7. Grate the carrots, using the large holes on your grater, into the mixing bowl with the other vegetables.
8. Once your quinoa is done, add to the bowl and stir until evenly incorporated.
9. Add in the whisked eggs, shredded cheese, and salt/pepper.
10. Shape the mixture into patties. I used about 1/3 cup of the mixture for each cake (this makes about 16 cakes)
11. (OPTIONAL: You can dust the patties lightly in flour before frying them, it helps a little with cohesiveness, but I fried with and without flour… so it’s really up to you.)
12. In a frying pan (I used a non-stick one), heat the olive oil until a little bit of batter sizzles.
13. Taste the little sample batter and adjust your seasonings accordingly.
14. Fry the cakes in small batches, allowing them to brown before flipping them. I cooked mine for about 4 minutes on each side.
15. I let them drain on a cookie cooling rack.

I ate my quinoa cakes with seared scallops and packed the rest of the cakes in a large container with pieces of parchment paper in between layers. To reheat, I simply put them in a frying pan and reheated for a few minutes with a teaspoon of olive oil. These keep well in the fridge for up to a week, but I doubt they will last that long.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I think my recipe might be a little garbled, but I made these in a frantic and starved state (and I’m writing it in the middle of the night)!!