I am always looking for new quinoa cooking ideas and lately I have been trying to come up with more vegetarian quinoa recipes.  The reason for this is two fold – one, I really appreciate all of my readers out there and many of them have made this request, and secondly I am trying to eat less meat myself while keeping my husband (who hates it when I cook meals without meat) happy.  Luckily, cooking quinoa keeps just about everyone in my house happy.

A while back, I ran across a couscous cake recipe in Fine Cooking magazine.  I have been reading Fine Cooking off and on for years, and find them to be one of my favorite sources of motivation for really amazing recipes.  Of course, being me, making the recipe with couscous was out of the question.  So I took some of the basis of their recipe, made some of my own modifications, and came up with this quinoa recipe that I think you guys are going to love.

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Quinoa Cakes with Spinach, Artichoke and Feta Salad

Salad Dressing

2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T non-fat greek yogurt
5 T extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Quinoa Cakes

1 cup cooked quinoa
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup red onion
1 carrot, shredded
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 T Panko breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
3 T Olive Oil (for frying)

Salad

6 cups baby spinach, washed
14 oz artichoke hearts, drained rinsed and sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (low fat is fine)

Instructions

Salad Dressing

1.  Combine all dressing ingredients in a blender and pulse until everything is combined.  Set aside until you are ready to serve.

Quinoa Cakes

1.  In a food processor, combine garlic, parsley, chickpeas and 1 tsp salt.  Pulse until chopped coarsely.
2.  Combine garlic mixture with quinoa, rent onion and carrots.  Add in eggs, cayeene and breadcrumbs.  Salt and pepper to taste.
3.  Take around 1/4 cup of the mixture, and press into a cake.
4.  Heat olive oil to medium.  Add quinoa cakes to the skilled and cook around 3 minutes per side.

Salad

1.  In a large bowl, toss the spinach, artichokes and tomatoes with dressing.  Season to taste.  Place salad on plates and top with quinoa cakes.  Sprinkle with feta and drizzle with a tad more dressing.

A Few Notes –

Now, aren’t you proud of me for coming up with a recipe that isn’t a quinoa salad? (It’s been a while…I know.)  A couple of things to keep in mind.  First, this recipe requires that you start with quinoa that is already cooked.  If you do not know how to cook quinoa, you can follow my simple instructions here: how to cook quinoa perfectly.

Next, I am not a big fan of using canned food because of the BPA.  While you can certainly choose to use canned garbanzo beans, I always like to start with dried beans (regardless of what I am making – a hummus recipe, black bean recipes, whatever – and cook them myself.  I would just plan to cook this recipe within a day of when I was making hummus to make things easier.

Next, if you have wheat intolerance, feel free to leave the breadcrumbs out.  You really won’t notice that much difference.

Give this one a try and let me know what you think!

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Tagged as: quinoa cakes, quinoa cooking ideas, Quinoa recipe, What is Quinoa