how to make quinoa cakes | 50-second video
What I love about Quinoa Cakes
Ingredient Notes
How to make Quinoa Cakes
Can They be Baked?
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Quinoa Cakes with Tomato Chickpea Relish
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 large cakes
- Category: vegan main
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: mediterranean
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Quinoa Cakes with Tomato Chickpea Relish- a delicious, healthy, flavorful plant-based vegan dinner that is gluten-free. Please watch the how-to video to see how to get the quinoa to “clump”.
Ingredients
Quinoa Cakes ( use white quinoa – tri-colored, or other colored quinoa will not bind)
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup rinsed, white quinoa (rinse and drain!!! DON’T SKIP)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon herbs de Provence ( or Italian dried herbs)
- ——
- zest from one small lemon (optional)
- 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley (optional)
Fresh Tomato Chickpea Relish
- 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 cup cucumber, diced
- 1/4 cup fresh basil ( or flat-leaf parsley, dill, or mint, or a combo!) chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions (or finely sliced red onion)
- 1 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas ( 1 can, drained and rinsed)
- 3 Tbs olive oil
- 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 tsp salt… more to taste
- 1 small minced garlic clove (optional)
Instructions
- Read directions and watch the video before starting- this recipe can be tricky.
- In a medium pot, over high heat, add water, rinsed white quinoa, salt, garlic powder, cumin, dried herbs, olive oil, and stir. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat to low, and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Set timer.
- While the quinoa is cooking make the Tomato Chickpea Relish, stirring all ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Check quinoa– making sure all the water is gone. If not, continue cooking covered, 5 more minutes, and until steam holes appear (this usually takes me a total of 25 minutes) and quinoa has soaked up all the water and looks fairly dry.) It is important that quinoa is dry-ish and not watery. Be patient here, all stoves are different.
- While it’s still warm, stir the quinoa vigorously with a fork, for a one whole minute, until you begin to see the individual grains break apart. This is imperative, to getting the quinoa to bind. Eventually, after a full minute of stirring, the grains will break apart and begin to clump. You can visually see this. Remove from stove, let cool down in the pot to where it’s cool enough to handle with your hands, about 15 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and fresh parsley if you like.
- Using wet hands, shape into 4 balls, the size of a tennis ball. Place on a plate or sheet pan. Using wet hands press into a 1 – 1 1/2 inch thick cake (about 3-4 inches wide), smoothing any cracks on the edges, making them nice and tidy. Wet hands is key.
- Refrigerate 15 minutes to set. As the quinoa cakes cool they will become even more sturdy. (These will keep 3-4 days if made ahead, just lightly oil them, cover, and store in the fridge.)
- Gently Pan-sear the Quinoa Cakes in a well-oiled skillet (using a thin metal spatula to flip) over medium heat. You can pan-sear them without any coating, or for an extra crispy crust, dredge in rice flour or GF Panko. I often do these without any coating at all. Just be sure to not fiddle with them- letting them develop a good crust before flipping. As then develop the crust, they will naturally release themselves from the pan. I like to use a thin metal spatula to flip (more precise).
- You can also bake these in a toaster oven ( right on the rack) or in a 400F oven ( on a parchment-lined pan) until warmed through, about 20 minutes, but the crust for a skillet gives these the BEST texture.
- Divide among plates and top with the fresh tomato chickpea relish. Spoon any remaining dressing over top and around the cakes.
- Garnish with OPTIONAL crumbled goat cheese if you like or a balsamic glaze.
Enjoy!
Notes
USE WHITE QUINOA. Other colors will not work.
Can be made ahead, will keep up to 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cake with 1 cup relish
- Calories: 388
- Sugar: 4.9 g
- Sodium: 560.1 mg
- Fat: 17.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 48.2 g
- Fiber: 9 g
- Protein: 12.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
HI, would the texture change if i added feta?
If adding, you might consider adding it to the relish versus the cakes? I am not sure how the cakes would hold up with feta added.
Turned out perfectly and the obligate meat eater in the family ate it all with no complaints!
Perfect! 🙂
i made these-love the idea but added 1tbsp of bobs red mill egg replacer and 1 tbsp nutritional yeast; took about 40 minutes to cook the water away before adding
supplements
I fried them til crispy using 2 TBsp olive oil
GREAT
Glad you played around and made them work!
This is the third recipe I’ve made from your site in 3 days and let’s just say, I’m hooked! Even my meat lovers loved this! Your food is inspiring and really highlights that veggies and grains can stand alone. These were so easy to make and wonderfully healthy too. Thank you Sylvia!
We are so happy you all enjoyed!
I forgot to say that you’ll want to make sure you squeeze the water out of the quinoa after cooking because it was still kind of wet and fell apart on most made up cakes.
Thanks Rebecca- yes, actually there should be no water left in the pot. But if so, and the grains are fully cooked, absolutely drain them!
These were tasty, now that I’ve made them once, I have more fine tuning and experimenting to do. Also, to everyone not thinking about it, just do a vegan cheese. There’s all kinds of vegan cheeses out there.
Sounds perfect Rebecca!
Worked perfect every time until I bought a new bag of quinoa. Same brand same everything but they will not stay together. Tried less water, longer cooking time. Nothing works now.
More water is usually they secret…. so the grains get really soft and fall apart.
I made this for dinner. I followed exactly the receipt, and I could not get the quinoa to stick together. Everything falls apart.
Sorry about that. The quinoa grains must “break” apart, to get them to stick together, so sounds like they weren’t soft enough to break apart. My guess is either they were undercooked or not enough water?
All your recipes are amazing. We love them all!
I only have tricolored quinoa, which, as you mentioned, won’t work. Do you think it would work if I used half a cup of quinoa and half a cup of millet?
I would say it is worth a try Zahra! Let us know how it turns out.
Hi,
This looks amazing, I will try this recipe soon.
Is 1 Cup 200ml or 250ml?
thank you!
Hi Mayu! 1 (US) liquid cup is 236 ml. FYI you can always google this. 😉
Thank you for your confirmation! I have been using 200ml for a cup up till now as I am Japanese. When I google it told me there are 2 cup measures in the US, Customary cup and Legal cup. Also metric cup is 250ml which I use for UK recipes, so I thought I should ask.
Oh! Got it Mayu! I see how it could be confusing! 🙂
We loved this. Didn’t have cucumber but did have celery and it was so good I’d use celery again. Loved the crispy cold w the hot.
Same here! Glad you enjoyed this!
Hi Sylvia: The cakes are wonderful in texture and easy to make, and we love them as they are, but we hope to change the seasoning a bit. Might you have another seasoning idea for these cakes up your sleeve? We’re thinking of a falafel-type flavor, for example, how could we achieve it? Thank you!!
I think the seasonings could be easily tweaked. I would just have fun and play around with it! Perhaps, Cumin, Coriander, and fresh chilantro for falafel seasonings.
Can you freeze them
Yes, absolutely!
Hi, I made these and they were delicious! I am planning on making these as a wedding entree, and wondering if you had any recommendations for a side to go with it?
Great to hear Lisa! As for sides, I would serve with a veggie- grilled asparagus, green beans, brussels… etc!
This was delicious and filling! My husband loved it as well. I’ll definitely make it again and highly recommend giving it a try!
Great to hear Theresa!
These were so delicious!! I had a little difficulty in flipping them and keeping them together but that was just me being impatient. Nonetheless, so flavorful!! Thank you, Silvia!
Awesome Gabriella! Glad you enjoyed!