These vegetarian Broccoli Quinoa Cakes can be made in 30 minutes flat & are a delicious healthy meal that your whole family will love! Serve them up with Simple Sauteed Greens or a beautiful Mediterranean Chard Salad and top them with your favorite sauce! Easy Peasy!
Do not try to save the world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then, will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.- Martha Postlewaite
Here’s an easy healthy recipe for Broccoli Cakes that are made with simple ingredients you probably have on hand. It’s a quick and healthy nutritious meal that really satisfies! Filling yet light, I love these best served with a generous side of salad or simple sauteed greens.
If you’de like to add a flavorful sauce, the possibilities are endless here and I’ll list a variety of options in the recipe notes. Here I’ve served them with this Vegan Cilantro Crema that I had from leftover tacos.
Also, I intentionally left the seasonings pretty basic here, to make them easy and accessible- and I know you will find ways to jazz these up to your liking.
Broccoli Quinoa Cakes! |30-sec video
To get this started, cook 1/2 cup quinoa in 1 cup water. This will take about 15 minutes.
While the quinoa is cooking, steam 8-10 ounces of broccoli florets, which is about 4-5 cups, packed tight.
***The key to this recipe is NOT overcooking the broccoli (you want it al dente) and patting it dry.
Add the steamed broccoli (pat it dry), scallions, seasonings, egg, cheese and quinoa to the food processor. Pulse until combined. Add almond flour or bread crumbs to bind.
You’ll end up with a coarse mixture that can be formed into patties.
It should look like this! A dry, sticky mix.
Form patties with damp hands. If they feel wet, you could coat in bread crumbs, but I don’t usually need the bread crumbs.
Sear the broccoli cakes up in a well-oiled skillet over medium-low heat.
FYI: If you don’t fiddle with them, they won’t stick, naturally releasing from the pan as they form a crust.
Cook them until slightly puffed and store in a warm oven until ready to serve.
At this point, the Broccoli Cakes can be refrigerated and reheated for lunches.
So as you can see I did not have to coat the broccoli cakes in flour or bread crumbs.
Using a metal spatula helps here (it has a thinner edge) as well as being patient, letting them release themselves from the pan as they from the crust, very gently flipping.
The crispy quinoa edges add great texture! Feel free to add a sauce (see notes) or leave them plain!
Let us know what you think of these Broccoli Cakes. I’ve made several batches this week and all have quickly disappeared. Always a good sign. 😉
More recipes you may like:
- Broccoli Stir Fry
- Chickpea Quinoa Veggie Burgers
- Jalapeño Broccoli & Cheddar Soup (Vegan)
- Creamy Vegan Broccoli Salad
- Garlic Chili Tofu with Sesame Broccolini
- Broccoli Manicotti with Burrata
Have a lovely weekend.
Broccoli Cakes
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 patties
- Category: main, vegetarain
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These vegetarian Broccoli Quinoa Cakes can be made in 30 minutes & are a delicious healthy meal that your whole family will love!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (or sub 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa)
- 4–5 cups fresh broccoli florets (8 ounces)
- 1 scallion, diced
- 1/4 cup chopped herbs- basil, dill, Italian parsley, or cilantro (use what you have)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced (or 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic)
- 1/4 cup almond flour (or use bread crumbs), more as needed
- 1/2 cup grated cheese (cheddar, jack, mozzarella or vegan cheese)
- 2–3 tablespoons oil for searing.
Instructions
- Cook Quinoa: Rinse quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer. Drain. Bring quinoa and 1 cup water to boil in a very small pot, cover, lower heat to low and simmer 10-12 minutes until tender and all the water is gone. Turn off heat, let stand 5 minutes covered.
- Steam broccoli: While cooking the quinoa, steam the broccoli until tender, being careful not to overcook. Drain well, let cool, and pat dry. (It is imperative that broccoli is not overcooked and is patted dry in order for cakes to stick together.)
- Combine and Pulse: Place broccoli, scallions, cooked quinoa, egg, salt, pepper, garlic, and cheese into a food processor and pulse repeatedly until finely ground. Pulse in the almond flour, mixing in well. The mixture should easily mound on a spoon and just be slightly sticky, easily forming a patty. If the mixture seems very wet, continue adding almond flour a tablespoon at a time until manageable. With damp hands, Form 4 large patties, pressing them together. You shouldn’t need to coat these in flour or breadcrumbs- but if they feel very wet, feel free to.
- Sear: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Carefully place patties in the skillet, lowering heat to medium-low or low — resisting the temptation to move or fiddle with them. As they form the deep golden crust, they will naturally release themselves from the pan, and not stick- making flipping so much easier. (I like to use a thin metal spatula here. Rubber spatulas have thicker edges, much harder to get under delicate things.) Flip when golden and releasing, about 5 minutes. Pan-sear the other side until slightly puffed in the center (indicating the egg is cooked through) lowering heat more if need be. You can also finish cooking these through in 350F oven after pan-searing if they are getting too dark on the stovetop.
- SERVE: At this point, you could refrigerate if making ahead, and reheat down the road. Or keep in a warm oven until serving. Serve with a slaw, side salad or sauteed greens. Top with a flavorful sauce if you like (see options in notes).
Notes
Feel free to sub 1 1/2 cups cooked short-grain brown rice for the quinoa.
Making sure the steamed broccoli is as dry as possible (pat it dry) will allow you to use less flour or bread crumbs. The first time I made this, I did not pat dry the broccoli, and it needed 1/2 cup almond flour. The second time, I patted the broccoli dry, and only needed 1/4 cup flour, if that.
Make sure the quinoa is dry and not watery.
Pick a sauce to serve these!
Keywords: broccoli patties, broccoli quinoa patties, broccoli cakes, broccoli quinoa cakes, broccoli burgers,
Super easy and delicious.. I’m not one to measure exactly but these held together very well and I followed the advice not to fiddle until it was time to flip.
I used half a red onion instead as that’s what I had handy.
★★★★★
Great to hear Rachael!
I don’t know what happened but these did not keep their shape while cooking. They looked kind of ok going into the pan but just broke apart on flipping/ while cooking.
The bits do taste delicious, so I really wish this had worked.
★★
Oh dear, sorry Kristen. They can be tricky the first time. Did you use white quinoa?
So good!!!
We added half and shallot and split the cheese half cheddar half parm.
SO good. Excited to make them again!
Thanks for sharing
★★★★★
Thanks Jackie!
Hi Sylvia’
Those were pretty darn good. I made broccoli cakes tonight. I followed the recipe but the patties turned out awfully wet. I added a half a cup of einkorn flour and that helped a bit. They cooked up better than I expected, though they were pretty soft inside, like an underdone crab cake. I increased the heat a bit to medium plus a bit, and cooked them another four minutes turning the cakes every minute. The flavor was great, but they needed to be a bit crisper. Probably too much moisture as you cautioned against with the broccoli. I will definitely make these again. The flavor is really good. Thank you.
★★★★
Yes they can be a little tricky getting the consistency right. Dry the broccoli as much as possible. I’ve had the best luck with the almond flour, or bread crumbs. Haven’t tried regular flour or einkorn, for fear they would get gummy inside? Did you notice that?
I love these! I genuinely can’t understand those who say it’s taken over 2 hours!?!
I am notoriously slow in the kitchen but find them quick to make. I also loathe cooking, but I found these tasty, easy and something new to make. All my kids, including those who think broccoli is a crime and cheese is vile, all like these. I vary the recipe with different veg that I might have in the fridge and also add more spice like chili and paprika. Really delicious and easy. Thank you so much! I’ve also tried a couple of your other recipes (Bombay wraps and cottage pie, they’ve also give down very well) again, thank you.
★★★★★
Thanks Barbara, glad you are enjoying!
Can these be made without cheese? Wondering if they will hold together that way.
I think some have tried without cheese, but they tend to crumble a bit.
I tripled the recipe and refrigerated the “batter” so I could fry up the cakes fresh for each meal for best texture. I found it easier to use a non-stick frying pan instead of cast-iron skillet. It only takes 4-5 minutes for each side to brown up beautifully. I served it with the vegan cilantro crema. Yum!
★★★★★
Perfect! Thanks so much Bowie!