Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Nutty, slightly sweet, oniony. Texture: Deeply crispy and caramelized on the outside, tender, fluffy and toothsome on the inside Ease: A few simple ingredients, one bowl, one pan and less than 25 minutes if your quinoa is already cooked. Appearance: The crisp brown crust on the outside lets you know how delectable these cakes will be Pros: Simple, tasty, and perfect for breakfast, lunch, snack or a side. Plus you can make the mixture ahead of time. You can also toss in whatever flavoring agents or veggies you like. I added some hot sauce. Cons: None. Would I make this again? Already made these quinoa cakes twice.This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
This gem of a recipe was found in one of Heidi Swanson’s mesmerizing books, Super Natural Everyday. You might remember when I wrote about the book back in April when it first came out. Just try to flip through one of Heidi’s books without vowing to make nearly every recipe because they all just look so dang tasty and do-able.
The other day I found myself re-organizing my spatially challenged pantry when I stumbled across a bag of quinoa I forgot I had. Score! Unfortunately I was in desperate need of groceries and didn’t have much of anything I could throw in to make a tasty quinoa dish. That’s when I remembered this recipe. I had everything on hand and by lunch-time I had the cakes on my plate just waiting to be eaten. Served with a few handfuls of fresh salad greens and I had a simple, scrumptious, satiating meal. What could be better?
P.S. – Quinoa is pronounced “keen-wah” in case you were wondering.
Quinoa Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups/12 oz/340 g cooked quinoa, at room temperature
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- 1/3 cup/.5 oz /15 g finely chopped fresh chives
- 1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup/.5 oz/15 g freshly grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup/3.5 oz /100 g whole grain bread crumbs, plus more if needed
- Water, if needed
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or clarified butter
Instructions
- Combine the quinoa, eggs, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the chives, onion, cheese, and garlic. Add the bread crumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. At this point, you should have a a very moist mixture you can easily form into twelve 1-inch/2.5cm thick patties. If your mixture is too dry, add some water or more beaten egg. If your mixture is too wet, add some more breadcrumbs.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat, add 6 patties, if they’ll fit with some room between each, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms are deeply browned. Turn up the heat if there is no browning after 10 minutes and continue to cook until the patties are browned. Carefully flip the patties with a spatula and cook the second sides for 7 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the skillet and cool on a wire rack while you cook the remaining patties. Alternatively, the quinoa mixture keeps nicely in the refrigerator for a few days; you can cook patties to order, if you prefer.
Mine fell apart when I flipped them. I added lots of fresh mushrooms.
I made these tonight and they were fantastic! I started out with this slaw, http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2011/11/brusse… made with quinoa, rather than wheat berries. It was too big a quantity for me to finish before it would go bad, and I needed to turn it into something else. These cakes were the perfect thing. I sauteed the onion before I added it, but otherwise made them exactly as the recipe. An absolute find! Thanks for posting it and thanks of course to Heidi for such a great recipe.
I made these last night and ate the leftovers this afternoon! They are yummy and even my husband, who is not a big Quinoa fan, loved them! I made a red pepper aioli sauce to go with them but they are just as good on their own.
I love this blog! I like how you break it out to describe taste, texture, ease, pros and cons. I haven't seen that around much. I appreciate!
Wow! These look scrumptious! I am looking forward to trying these this week for dinner. They'll go great with the carrot soup I just made. Thanks for the recipe.
I'm planning on making these tomorrow night, and just wondering if you think panko breadcrumbs would work? Sorry if that's a silly question! Love your blog by the way!
Panko bread crumbs do work! Just made them with those!
So I made these for dinner tonight with the following: subbed goat for the Parmesan, then added cucumber and sun-dried tomatoes. However, I believe the additions caused the following problem: they fell apart when I tried to flip them. Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem? All I could think of was using a food chopper to make the cucumbers smaller.
Eryn, I think the issue was the cucumber added too much water content and the tomatoes could have prevented the patties from uniformly sticking together (a smaller chop might help like you suggested). You could chill the cakes before cooking to firm them up and you could try to add more breadcrumbs to counter the water content of the cucumber but I think your best bet would be to make the recipe as-is and simply top the cakes off with cucumber and tomatoes. Hope that helps!
Made these tonight and they are very yummy! Thanks so much for sharing. I think I might have added a little too much onion in it. next time I will go for a small one(opposed to medium). Will make these again for sure!
I'd rather make this cakes with bulghur. We love it. But if we felt for a sauce, which one would you recommend us?
Thanks for your answer.
Cheers!
I usually like to accompany these cakes with sriracha mayonnaise (3 tablespoons mayo + 1 tablespoon sriracha + 1 teaspoon lemon juice). You could also blend together avocado and sour cream for an avocado cream sauce. A lemony yogurt sauce is nice or even a ragu sauce.
Any ideas on how to make these without egg? (or cheese for that matter..)
I'm one of “those” vegetarians that believe egg is animal….and cheese just hurts my stomach, but I LOVE quinoa and am always looking for ways to make it more interesting.
Thanks!
Michelle
New Orleans, LA
Michelle – I'm no expert on vegetarian/vegan cooking but I would suggest an egg replacer product as the eggs are really important in keeping the quinoa cakes from falling apart. As for the cheese, I'd just leave it out if it hurts your stomach. It won't make a HUGE difference. Hope that helps 🙂
Lots of people with wheat/gluten sensitivities (me included) eat quinoa because it's a good gluten-free substitute for grains like cous cous or orzo pasta. To make this yummy looking recipe suitable for celiac and chrohns sufferers, simply use gluten-free bread crumbs. (I like Udi's brand, available at Whole Foods and elsewhere.)
Unfortunately, the texture won't be quite as nice as the real thing, but with a little adjustment I'll be able to come have dinner with you. I'll bring good wine.
also unfortunately Quinoa has Saponins (soap like compounds) which have been documented to punch holes in the gut. Some in the Paleo world think its worse for the leaky gut than Gluten. Too bad because it takes pretty good
You are supposed to rinse those off. They give the quinoa a bitter flavor and aren't good for you. That's why almost every recipe you see for cooking quinoa says “well rinsed” or something of that nature next to the quinoa.
Our young friend made these for supper last weekend and we loved them. Now going to make and take hiking with us — a couple of senior citizens.