Hummus Quinoa Cakes

Quinoa is a recent discovery of mine. Hearty and good for the diet, it's a carb that you can feel good about. This recipe will please picky eaters and give them a dose of veggies as well. I used orange peppers in this to give these some beautiful color.

 

1 cup cooked quinoa

3/4 cup hummus

1/2 sliced pepper

3 minced celery stalks

1/2 cup minced onion

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tsp garlic powder

 

Recipe Adapted from The Lemon Bowl

 Cook quinoa according to directions. Allow to cool. Dice vegeatables and combine with quinoa and hummus. Heat a frypan over medium heat and then add in the oil. Form quinoa cakes into patties. I found that actually getting your hands in there and dirty and pressing them compactly into balls worked well and then flattening them out in the pan was the best method. Brown them for 3-4 minutes on each side, turning them very gently (sometimes I needed 2 spatulas).

 By the end I had beautiful golden cakes like this!

 But my first ones turned out like this and I almost admitted to my first Pinterest fail.

They were still yummy though! I served the good ones to company and ate the broken ones for lunch.

 Hindsight:

A great tip to know is that when the quinoa is browned, it pops (kind of like popcorn). Try to keep the cakes as intact as possible and keep a good distance from the pan when you don't have to turn them.

 

 If one falls apart, scrape it off to the side and get it out of the pan as quickly as you can because it will begin to turn the oil brown.

 

Next time I do this, I think I'm going to try to form the balls ahead of time and refridgerate them for an hour or so before browning. I've used that method with potato, sweet potato, and zucchini patties in the past and it works out well.