Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Quinoa Cake Stackers

I really like cooking with quinoa, but was getting a little bored of the same textured recipes.  One of my friends shared a recipe for Quinoa Patties from Craving Something Healthy.  The original recipe called for cheese, eggs, and bread crumbs (which contain an entire list of processed ingredients in itself). I was feeling inspired and thought I would give it a go.  The nutrition info is nearly identical in regards to calories, protein, and carbs.  Yet my Quinoa Cake Stackers have 0 cholesterol , 1/4 of the saturated fat, almost 2 grams more fiber, and only 1/4 of sodium.

They came out much better than I even expected.  The taste and texture was delicious and they held together really well.  (I have found most veggie pattie recipes tend to fall apart easily).  This recipe can easily be modified to suit whatever veggies you happen to have in the house, and it is super versatile as I will show below.  My little one liked these plain (no sauce or anything extra added...just cut into bite sized pieces).

So let's dive in to this simple, healthy, and tasty dish!

What you need:

1 cup Quinoa
3 1/2 cups Water

5 cloves of Chopped or Pressed Garlic
1/4 cup Ground Flax mixed with 3/4 cup Water
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 Cup Oat Flour
*2 Medium Zucchini (Shredded)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

*Vegetable Substitutions:
~1 cup Chopped Broccoli
~1/2 cup Shredded Carrots (will create a slightly sweet taste, so enjoy it or add more spice to balance)
~1 cup Chopped Spinach (may need to up dry ingredient by 2 Tbsps)
~1 cup Chopped Kale (may need to up dry ingredient by 2 Tbsps)
Almond Meal:  Same thing as Almond Flour. You can make your own by grinding raw almonds in a high speed blender or food processor until it turns to a flour (slightly chunky is ok here but it does need to be ground pretty well). You don't want it blending for too long or it will turn to almond butter.  You can use any nut meal here (walnuts would be wonderful!), or skip it altogether and double your oat flour.
Oat Flour: Easily make your own using a high speed blender or food processor.  You can skip this altogether and just use almond meal (needs to be doubled), or substitute another homemade flour.  Rice, chickpea, even quinoa work!
The whole point of these substitutions is to show you the versatility of the food. 
If there's an ingredient that scares you, you're allergic to, or you don't want to be consuming, find something that works for you and your family!


What you do:

 1.  In a saucepan, bring quinoa and water to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorb.  Quinoa is cooked when you see a little "tail".


2.  Combine cooked quinoa, garlic, zucchini, nutritional yeast, and salt, to flax/water mixture and stir until well combined.

shredded zucchini (any vegetable you use should be this size)

ground flax and water


3.  Stir in almond meal and oat flour.  Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.
Combined with almond meal and oat flour
4.  Heat a slightly oiled skillet to 350
5.  Form mixture into desired size patties (makes 10 thick patties) and cook for 5 - 7 minutes, or until bottoms are deeply browned.  Flip patties with a spatula and cook an additional 5 - 7 minutes, or until golden.
Patties on skillet
6.  Remove from a skillet and cool on a wire rack.
Cooked patties

7.  Can be served as they are.  Or, as I made them the first night, layered between baked eggplant slices, topped with creamy marinara sauce (I had leftover homemade sauce in the freezer.)  Left over quinoa stackers freeze well. Enjoy!


Other Options:

~ Layered between eggplant
~turned into a veggie burger (add bun, veggies, and condiments)
~crumbled and enjoyed on top of a salad (cold and warm are both great!)
~crumbled into a pasta sauce
~rolled into balls instead of patties (in step 5) and cooked to form "balls" which can be enjoyed as a "no meat ball sandwich, or on top of spaghetti
Zucchini Noodles and quinoa balls, topped with marinara sauce  
*The balls also make a great appetizer dish...
Stick a toothpick in the top and serve with different dipping sauces.

 Nutrition info Per Quinoa Cake:
Calories: 176
Fat: 7.8 g
Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 98 mg
Carbohydrates: 20 g
Fiber: 4.7 g
Sugars: 1.4 g
Protein: 7.5 g
To find more whole food, plant based recipes for your little one and connect with other loving parents, visit our Facebook page Loving Green at Loving Green FB.

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