Quinoa Cakes

My husband and I have been eating quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa) for a little over a year now. I had read about this healthy little grain on a website and wanted to try it out. Quinoa is great... it basically has little flavor on its own so it will take on any flavor you cook it with. It's light...almost like little pasta or rice bits, but much healthier. There is red and white quinoa - they taste the same to me. We currently have red quinoa in the house.

I used to whip up teriyaki quinoa with chicken and broccoli in it. That was my favorite way to eat it. I had tried making it with other sauces, vegetables and garlic but the teriyaki flavor was consistently my favorite.

Well, this week I wanted to do something different and I found this recipe for quinoa cakes. This definitely intrigued me but I changed the recipe around to make it my own.

Here is what I used:

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
2/3 cup frozen peas
2/3 cup shelled edamame
1/2 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Worcestershire sauce
teriyaki sauce

Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a medium pot. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes. At this point I also flavored my quinoa to taste with the sauces.

Set aside off of the heat for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and set aside to let cool.

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, combine cooked quinoa with onion, garlic, peas, edamame, spinach, flour, baking powder, egg, salt and pepper.


Form mixture into eight (4- to 5-inch) patties and arrange on an oiled baking sheet. Bake, flipping halfway through, until lightly browned and just crisp, about 20 minutes.

This recipe was DELICIOUS!!! I liked the cake aspect a lot, and you could totally eat it as a burger on a bun. We chose to just eat them as plain cakes with some sides. It's very light, yet filling.

This is my new favorite way to make quinoa!