I've been checking out quinoa cake recipes all over the place. Mostly, they call for a couple cups of cooked quinoa, some herbs, a couple of eggs, half a cup of grated cheese and about a half a cup of something to bind it all together.
It's really easy - just mix the ingredients together, make some small-ish patties and then cook them on a hot grill.
I have issues in my kitchen, in that the salesman opted not to tell me that the heat from a gas stove would destroy (and void the warranty) of the vent on a over-the-range microwave. Instead, he sold me both a gas stove and an over-the range microwave, and as a result my smoke detector goes off at least once a week. So, I don't fry much on the stove. Instead, I use my friend the panini press/grill. It actually worked out really well in this case, because it pressed all the patties down to a consistent thickness.
Also - don't touch these for a few minutes after you put them on the pan. You don't need to add any oil or grease to prevent them from sticking, but leave them alone for a bit so that a good crispy crust can develop on the outside. On a frying pan, I'd cook them for about 3-5minutes per side. On the panini grill, which cooks both sides at once, I left them for about 5 minutes total.
This was an experiment, so I used basic ingredients like cheddar cheese and bread crumbs for binding. I think they worked out well, so the next time I think maybe I'll up my game with feta or goat cheese, fresh herbs instead of dried and oats instead of breadcrumbs.
These were yummy. The truth is, I had planned to cook these and then whip up a quick salad. I wolfed three of them down, straight off the grill, and then had to remind myself to make the salad. They were that good.
Another idea is that the next time I make them, I might make them a little bigger and put them on a bun to eat like a hamburger.
Looks yummy! I'm a huge quinoa fan.
ReplyDeleteJanice they look delicious. I just bought quinoa about a month ago and haven't done anything with it. I am going to do these. I think CH would love them and I know they sound great to me. I know I talk quite a bit about eating CHEESEBURGERS and I do love them but I don't eat them often and we don't eat much red meat at our house. I am not a steak lover. We do eat chicken kabobs often. I could easily go the vegetarian route, except for those dang cheesburgers but CH could never do it and wouldn't want to. I am also wanting to eat more edamame. We ate lunch out in St. Louis when we took Little Squee to the Clinic and I had an edamame and rice dish. Yummy!!!!
ReplyDeleteCheeseburgers are the bomb! They aren't very compatible with my weight loss efforts, though. Edamame is something I've had at restaurants, but not cooked myself yet. I've got them in the freezer - just haven't done anything with them yet.
DeleteBlogger just ate my comment! Dang. Anyhoo I am going to make these. They look delicious. I know I talk about eating cheeseburgers but I could easily give up meat if it wasn't for those pesky burgers. We don't eat much red meat but we do eat chicken kabobs often. I have had quinoa in the pantry for about a month and haven't done anything with it. That's going to change!
ReplyDeleteI see both responses, but since you made the effort to write them, I'm going to leave them both here. For a long time, I only used quinoa as a rice replacement. Anything saucy that might be served on a bed or rice is good on a bed of quinoa. Quinoa salads, like taboula, take some getting used to IMO, but I like them.
DeleteI read that as "this was a plastic" and not as this was an experiment, so I'm thinking I need to embrace your new food lifestyle and then my reading comprehension may improve.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that we all really only skim when we read, and that usually, if the first and last letters of the words are correct, we "guess" at the middles anyway. I know I've certainly been guilty of doing the same.
DeleteCheck this out: http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/can-you-read