I had no faith in this recipe. First of all I’m not a huge fan of quinoa, and second, I didn’t really think the combined ingredients were exciting enough to turn quinoa into something palatable. But I admit, that I was dead wrong. These quinoa cakes are amazing and versatile. If you don’t have the time or patience to bother with the time-consuming pan frying process, then simply throw them in some muffin patties and bake them. Of course they won’t be cakes, but rather morsels of tasty, protein goodness. Which ever way you come at this recipe, it’s a winner. You can serve them up with yoghurt, tomato chutney or sweet chilli sauce but I found any accessorising to be too distracting – they are just that good. Also you can leave out the garlic salt/powder if you’re worried about garlic breath at the office, just add a little more salt to compensate.
Cheese and Quinoa Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 cups chicken broth/ water with a stock pod added
4 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 c chives, chopped
1 carrot, grated finely
3/4 cup cheddar, shredded
3 eggs
1/2 cup cottage cheese
Method:
Add quinoa to boiling water/stock and cook on low heat until it is soft, or to your liking, this takes about 20 minutes.
Combine first the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then add the rest of the ingredients, including the quinoa.
You can either fry spoonfuls in a pan like fritters, or you can bake the mix into muffins or loaf or even in a pan/oven combo as you would a Spanish omlette.
The most important thing to remember is that this mix is a bit like a cake mix, it requires a lot of cooking on the first side if you want to fry it in batches like fritters, otherwise it will fall apart. Leave it for 5 minutes on one side, then flip for another 5 minutes.