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These vegetarian Broccoli Quinoa Cakes can be made in 30 minutes flat & are a delicious healthy meal that your whole family will love! Video. See 20+ Fresh Yummy Broccoli Recipes or our 20 Best Quinoa Recipes!
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:
- Amaranth Cakes w/ Lentils, Kale & Chipotle Aioli
- Crispy Vegan Quinoa Cakes with Tomato-Chickpea Relish
- Savory Teff Cakes with Wilted Chard & Fresh Tomato Relish
- 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 1x
- 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, herbs, 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!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Broccoli Cake
- Calories: 255
- Sugar: 2.6 g
- Sodium: 743.5 mg
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 23.5 g
- Fiber: 5.1 g
- Protein: 13.2 g
- Cholesterol: 43.5 mg
Keywords: broccoli patties, broccoli quinoa patties, broccoli cakes, broccoli quinoa cakes, broccoli burgers,
Hi! To make this recipe vegan, do you have a suggestion for the egg substitute? Thank you!
Hi Nancy- You can try flax egg- but the mixture can get crumbly, a little tricky to get it to stay together.
I really love this recipe, and make it frequently, but I’m out of almond flour. Can I use oat, or regular flour?
Great question- yes, I think so?? Or bread crumbs?
Sooo good! Great and easy to follow. Especially for a guy who is new to vegetarian food and cooking from recipes!
Thank you!
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed these and gave them a go, Billy!
The patties did not turn out… would not hold their shape and impossible to cook.. no matter how much flour or bread crumbs I mixed in.. super disappointing and a waste of ingredients.
★
Oh dear! It sounds like the quinoa grains did not break apart. Sorry about that. It’s a little tricky the first time, but once you “get the idea of it”, it works perfectly every time. Sorry, you are disappointed.
I made this and it came out so well and delicious I used the air fryer to cool them.
★★★★★
Oh great idea Hemantha!
Delicious, looks good on the plate, and great that it can be prepped in advance.
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed Sarah.
Yep these were a big fail. They tasted good, and did brown on the outside eventually, but the inside seemed to almost get softer as they cooked on the outside. And the outside brown crumbs would just fall off. Maybe just baking them would be better, and making much smaller patties.
★★★
Shoot, Celina- Did you adjust the recipe in any way? just curious. 😉
Can you use something else in place of the flour?
Do you mean instead of Almond flour? You can use regular flour, GF flour, or GF bread crumbs!
I love your revipies. I recently made the lentil bolgnase and it was deliclous!! Very flavorful and could use this receipe for lasagna as well. I also love the cilatro crema!! I enjoy making your recipes and cooking now. Thank you!!
★★★★
thanks so much!
Delicious, simple, and quick! Love the vibrant color of the cakes too. Thank you!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed!
Loved these ! I used a chopped shallot for the onion, and cooked it in the skillet with a little olive oil first, and added the chopped garlic to cook a bit, before adding to the rest of the mixture in the food processor.
Perfect Michelle!
This looks so good! Has anyone eaten them cold? Thinking they may be fun on top of a salad. Thanks in advance 🙂
Sounds good to me!
Could I make them without the egg and substitute the cheese with nutritional yeast to make them vegan?
Hi Nicole- feel free to try. They do work, but they are a little more delicate and some people have been frustrated, so I took the option out. But I have done it. 🙂 I used a flax egg.
Can I make these and then freeze to cook later?
★★★★★
Hi Jen, I have not tried freezing first. Has anyone else?
Which herbs should I be adding? Is it better to add all of the ones written in the recipe or just one/two are ok? And if so which herb(s) is best to add??
Just add one! I like basil and parsely!
Tried it with basil. This was easy to make for a non-cook like me and was delicious! It was a great dish to make for our family christmas dinner. Thank you!
Great to hear Lee!