A few months ago Trey and I (along with a few friends who met us from Nashville) spent the weekend at my SIL, Kat’s, lake cabin. You remember Kat, right? She’s the wine lady. And in true Kat form, she had planned a five-course wine pairing dinner for us that weekend.
I know, I have the best in-laws for many reasons. You don’t even know.
One of the dishes she served was broccoli quinoa patties. She made quite a few, so we ended up snacking on the leftovers the next day too. And it just reminded me how much I love these, even though I hadn’t made any for at least a whole year. Boo!
My first encounter with quinoa patties was in Heidi Swanson’s book, Super Natural Everyday. Awesome cookbook, and I love her blog as well.
These are a fun and flavorful variation filled with peas, pesto, and garnished with fresh squeezed lemon juice. They make a great (and light) dinner next to a salad, you could top them with a fried egg for a savory breakfast option, or you can eat them cold for an afternoon snack. That last option, the lazy choice, is probably the one I do the most. Go figure. 🙂
Peas + Pesto Quinoa Patties, makes 20 small patties.
1 cup uncooked quinoa (about 2 1/2 cups once cooked)
2 slices whole wheat toast
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup peas (if frozen, thaw first)
2 tablespoons pesto
1-2 eggs (There’s one in the photo, but I ended up using two—chaos!)
1/4 cup flour
salt + pepper to taste
lemon for garnish
Cook the quinoa and allow to cool. You can also use day old quinoa for these.
Toast the bread, then turn into bread crumbs either in a blender or food processor.
In a large bowl combine the quinoa, bread crumbs, chopped onion, peas, pesto, and eggs. Season generously with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Then stir in the flour. You’ll also want some extra flour set to the side so you can flour your hands as you work on forming the patties.
You want each patty to be just slightly larger than the palm of your hand. Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper as you work. Once you form all the patties, pop the whole sheet in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so they can firm and dry out just a little.
If you’re not going to eat all of these within a day or two, then you could also wrap a few of these up and freeze them until you’re ready to eat them.
Add a few teaspoons oil or butter (I used olive oil) to a pan. Cook the patties over medium heat. Once you add the patty to the pan, lightly press flat with a spatula. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip and press the other side flat.
You want to only flip once or twice, as this helps the patties not fall apart as you cook. So be sure to use a little patience and wait 2-3 minutes so each side can cook. If they get too crispy during that time, adjust your heat.
Once cooked, remove to a plate lined with paper towels to remove any excess oil before serving.
Serve warm with a lemon wedge. You’ve got to add the fresh lemon juice to these, makes them totally out of this world. I just love peas and lemon together. Yum! xo. Emma
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Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa (about 2 1/2 cups once cooked)
- 2 slices whole wheat toast
- ½ onion (chopped)
- 1 cup peas (if frozen, thaw first)
- 2 tablespoons pesto
- 1-2 eggs (There’s one in the photo, but I ended up using two—chaos!)
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- salt + pepper to taste
- lemon for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa and allow to cool. You can also use day old quinoa for these.
- Toast the bread, then turn into bread crumbs either in a blender or food processor.
- In a large bowl combine the quinoa, bread crumbs, chopped onion, peas, pesto, and eggs. Season generously with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Then stir in the flour. You’ll also want some extra flour set to the side so you can flour your hands as you work on forming the patties.
- You want each patty to be just slightly larger than the palm of your hand. Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper as you work. Once you form all the patties, pop the whole sheet in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so they can firm and dry out just a little.
- If you’re not going to eat all of these within a day or two, then you could also wrap a few of these up and freeze them until you’re ready to eat them.
- Add a few teaspoons oil or butter (I used olive oil) to a pan. Cook the patties over medium heat. Once you add the patty to the pan, lightly press flat with a spatula. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip and press the other side flat. You want to only flip once or twice, as this helps the patties not fall apart as you cook. So be sure to use a little patience and wait 2-3 minutes so each side can cook. If they get too crispy during that time, adjust your heat.
Super tasty meal! I thought the recipe would take less time to make, but it was fun and very satisfying when you have success flipping the patties over, following Emma’s advice!
Amazing, vegetarian recipe. As a meat eater I’m always trying to vacate days in the week for substituting meat while trying my hardest not to turn to the high carbs of pasta! This I think is the biggest challenge, while bringing out strong flavours in grains and Quinoa.
Will definitely be giving these a try instead of the Thursday night Veggie burgers this week!
Thank you.
Oh, I was just looking for something to do with my quinoa! Maybe I will give this a try.
I was just looking for quinoa recipes!! Thank you
http://www.tasteneapolitan.com/
so delicious! Thank you Emma!
Made these yesterday! It was delicious 🙂
just FYI: i just made a vegan version of these by leaving out the egg(s) and using some cornstarch instead and they turned out great (i even oven-baked some instead of frying and they were still very tasty and without any fat as well 🙂 )
I love that this recipe required only a handful of common ingredients! Great adaptation. Delicious, too!
if I just use traditional already ground up bread crumbs, about how much?
I’m just asking on this post, because comments of older posts are closed, what kind of food processor do you use or would you recommend to make nut butters, cookie butters and just in general chop vegetables etc.
Thanks in advance
-Sophie
Just made these. So yummy!!! I baked them in the oven for 20 min instead of the pan. Less oil, so they feel even healthier!! Thanks for sharing your delicious recipes and lovely pics 🙂
This looks yummy! I’m gonna try it!
Made these last night! Wonderful!!!! No peas in the freezer (How did that happen?) but used cut up artichokes instead. VERY, VERY good…had kind of a falafel vibe to it. Hubs took extra for lunch and I’m going to do a fried egg over mine! Great recipe
I haven’t with this recipe, but I always bake my croquettes (made with quinoa, or meat, or chickpeas, etc) and they turn out amazing every single time, and very crunchy. I just put them on a baking sheet, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over them, and pop them in the oven for a few minutes, turning them over a couple of times. I find that they bake better if you put them quite high on the oven, and use the grill function (specially if you like them crunchy).
so. ah! wow. looks super yum! 🙂
I made these for dinner tonight and they were fantastic. Definitely as delicious as the pictures portray them to be. They tasted light and healthy and were surprisingly filling at the same time.
Thanks for the great recipe Emma!
I just had dinner but my mouth is watering at the sight of these! They look so, so amazing. Thanks for sharing!
I can’t wait to try this! It combines some of my absolute favourite ingredients; pesto and quinoa! Thanks for sharing, Emma!
🙂 Anneke
I’m terrible with sides. What, other than a lemon, would you serve this with?
It looks amazzzingggggg! So delicious! Need to try this recipe.
Happy new year!
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