Cooking With Quinoa

Melissa inspired me. I bought a bag of quinoa a month ago and made chicken fried "rice". It was delish and I recommend substituting quinoa into a chicken fried rice recipe of your own. But that's beside the point.

I really like "keen-wa" and love the idea of how healthy it is. I think I even like it better than rice (which is easy because I only really like coconut rice). But since buying and cooking quinoa that one time, it has proceeded to sit on my shelf untouched. Until I read Melissa's blog (here would be where I insert a link to it... if I knew how), and she has started cooking with quinoa, too! So tonight I tried another recipe and it worked out great. It didn't even taste healthy - but it was!

So for Melissa and others, here it is: (for just Trent and I, I cooked 1/2 cup dry quinoa and halved the recipe - and it still made more patties than we needed for the two of us. So judge accordingly...)





Quinoa Patties

2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (I have no clue what my 1/2 cup dry amounts to, but possibly close to this much, it seemed like a lot, but I still halfed the rest of the rest of the recipe and it worked just fine)
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp sea salt, pepper to taste
2/3 cup fresh chives, chopped (or green onion)
1 small yellow onion, finely
1/3 cup fresh Parmesan, grated (I just used parmesan from the shaker, mixed with some grated mozza since I had it.)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup breadcrumbs (I crushed crutons - the seasoning of the crutons was a nice touch)
1 T extra virgin olive oil (I fried them on a non-stick pan so I didn't even need the oil)

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions and place in fridge (to avoid immediately cooking the eggs when added)
2. In a medium bowl beat eggs. Add salt, pepper, garlic, chives, onion, cheese and cayenne pepper.  Add quinoa and breadcrumbs and allow to sit for a couple of minutes.
3. Form into patties. The mixture should be very moist. You may need to add water or extra breadcrumbs to moisten or make the mixture dryer.
4. Place a large skillet over medium low heat. Heat olive oil. Add as many patties as your skillet can handle. (Again, I used a non-stick so no oil was necessary.)
5. Cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned. Flip and cook for 7 more minutes, or until browned. (I made my patties about 1/2 inch thick, to increase surface area of crispiness)

It was super quick and easy, if not a little messy handling the patties. Next time I might add a little more cheese, I'm all for health but you can never have too much cheese. But like I said, I halfed the recipe, yet may have had close to full amount of quinoa, so feel free to play around with proportions. I should have measured the quinoa. They turned out really good anyways. We ate them with ketchup, but next time I wanna try with sour cream or ranch, or maybe ketchup/mayo... all sorts of options. You could easily dress them up with some chopped bell peppers or something. Mmm they were good. Enjoy!