Little Quinoa Patties
These adorable little quinoa patties are so remarkably delicious, even the worst skeptic can be convinced to try them (and most likely love them). Promise.
Don’t disregard this post. Really, don’t! For all that is good and righteous about food, I promise you that I will not lead you astray with what you might consider crazy-people food (quinoa gets a bad rap in many conservative kitchens!).
If it makes you feel better about sticking around, I assure you I’m not crazy (well…that’s probably debatable overall but when it comes to food, I’m not crazy, pinkie swear!).
These adorable little quinoa patties are so remarkably delicious, even the worst skeptic can be convinced to try them (and most likely love them). Promise.
A beautiful, smart, witty reader, Melanie D., forwarded me the recipe and I was intrigued enough to try them almost immediately (ok, so I’ve never actually met Melanie in person but with a name like that, she’s gotta be pretty cool!).
I made them for my four rowdy little boys, my sister and her two little boys, and my mom.
With that many kids to please, I was expecting major groans and quite possibly gagging. But these little patties were gobbled up (smothered in ketchup and gobbled up but gobbled up nonetheless) without a shout of complaint.
In between shoving bites of them into my mouth in order to even get a taste before they were all snatched, I managed to be completely amazed, especially when my 8-year old loudly exclaimed, “I definitely want these for my birthday dinner!” Huh, what? Who is this kid and how did he get here?
In the interest of full disclosure, I set out to try these simply in an effort to incorporate more quinoa (a super healthy food we love in this and this already) into our diet. The salads are great but I wanted something a bit heartier and more savory.
I really didn’t even know if I would post these babies, but let me tell you, not only are these post-able but they are going into my “favorite file.”
I’m never going to go exclusively meatless, but I could totally see myself setting one of these patties on a bun in the place of a burger and being totally satisfied (dude, who am I and how did I get here?).
In the meantime, we’ll continue to enjoy them dipped in ketchup with lots of fresh fruits and veggies on the side!
What To Serve With This:
Tender Grilled Salmon or Maple Pecan Crusted Salmon
Vegetable Saute with Simple Cream Sauce or fresh, cut up veggies
Cranberry-Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip or Hot Chorizo and Cheese Dip with crackers or chips
One Year Ago: Pumpkin-Maple Hazelnut Bread
Two Years Ago: Classic Marinara Sauce
Three Years Ago: Blue Cheese and Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes
Little Quinoa Patties
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cooked quinoa, room temperature
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 cup finely crushed saltine or Ritz crackers or bread crumbs, plus more if needed
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Combine the quinoa, eggs, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the parsley, cheese and garlic. Add the cracker or bread crumbs. Stir the mixture until combined. If the mixture seems overly wet, add a tablespoon or two more of cracker or bread crumbs. If it seems too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water or broth. Let it stand for about five minutes so the liquid can be somewhat absorbed. Take small handfuls of the mixture and form into little patties, about 1-inch thick, yielding about 11 or 12 patties.
- In a large, nonstick skillet, heat the tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until it is hot. Add a single layer of patties (about half of them if you are using a 12-inch skillet) and cook until the bottoms are well-browned, about 5-7 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent burning (or increase heat if the patties aren’t browning well). Flip the patties and cook about 5 minutes more until the second side is golden brown. Remove from the skillet and repeat with the remaining patties (adding a bit more olive oil, if needed). Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe a reader, Melanie D. sent me, originally from Whole Living
Delicious!!! I liked them best with a nice fresh slice of tomato. I felt like the meal was lacking…what would be some good dishes to go with these?
Delicious! I used mozzarella as I had no parmesan. The very picky kids loved them, and thus I love you. I am hoping you can supply some other veggie burger recipes.
I cooked some up when I made the gluten free switch and didn’t know how well they’d go over with the crew. I loved them, especially with some Greek cucumber sauce.
Great recipe!! Made these last night and we all loved them, including the 5 and 7 y.o. I even noticed belatedly that I only had 3 eggs so used 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce in place of that last egg and they were superb. (To the commenter, Sai, you might try applesauce (1 cup for 4 eggs) or a combo of applesauce and an egg replacer like . My littlest went the food allergy route and we used that for a time with fairly good success. Good luck!)
Anyway this recipe is second only to the pumpkin scones with white chips as tops! And yes, I’ve already baked 2 batches of those scones this fall! Mmmmmm… :-). Thanks for all the effort you put into the blog. It would take me a staff of 10 to keep it running! Ha.
I made these last night and they were delicious! These will go into our regular rotation and I can’t wait to make them with different variations. Thanks! Another winner!
Remarkably, as someone who only rarely uses quinoa, I happened to have just over two cups of the stuff leftover in the fridge. These were quick and easy to assemble, and my 11 month-old AND two year-old devoured them! Absolutely delicious. THANKS!
Made these tonight and they were delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Amber – Panko should work just fine…but I’d start with 3/4 cup since panko has a different texture than normal bread crumbs. The salt should be fine. If you are worried, add another 1/4 teaspoon or sprinkle a touch of salt over the cooked patties. Hope you like them!
So do you think I could use panko in place of the crackers? Would I need to add more salt? I’m making these for dinner tonight! Thanks Mel.
I’m making this tonight, I’m always looking for more ways to use quinoa!
Mel,
Almost deleted this before reading…glad I didn’t…they sound wonderful and I will make them this week.
Also, wish you wouldn’t have pandered to those who called you out because of your use of the terms, “crazy” etc. This is your blog and you need to post what you feel. These people think they are better than everyone because they think eating quinoa is “just so normal how could it be called crazy?” Well, I am sure they are smart enough to know that it IS something new that most of our society is just starting to try. I feel like they should realized this and keep their thoughts to themselves and enjoy the post for what it is. Now I will get off my soapbox.
Oh my goodness! So cool! I just hopped on to you site and saw this 🙂 I am so glad you tried them AND loved them! It’s funny because my 7 year old son wants these cold in his lunch…they are that kind of good! Oh, and beautiful, sweet, witty compliment…I am pretty sure that just goes for all Melanie’s 😉 Thank you again!!
Wow! I made these TONIGHT and they were great! Thanks so much for this recipe. I was out of ketchup so I whipped up my homemade tarter sauce recipe — oh my! Yummy with these patties. Thanks again … and blessings on finding a house soon.
I would love to try this for my daughter but she is allergic to eggs. Can you recommend a substitute for the eggs? I would love to try this recipe.
I wasn’t offended by the crazy comment–just wanted to say how excited I was to see the recipe!
As a side note, I am so impressed that you continue to blog (so frequently) such a great variety of recipes. My own blogs have greatly suffered with each additional child, and I think it’s fabulous that you are still going strong with your fifth baby, AND blogging from a hotel room! Hope you find a great house soon!
I made these tonight for dinner. They were great!
Thank you for this recipe. I bought a bag of quinoa recently, but hadn’t gotten over the hump to actually cook it and try it. Your recipe inspired me to try it tonight. We both really liked it. I see much more quinoa in our future! Thanks for blogging!
These look delicious! I was introduced to the awesomeness that is quinoa just last year, and I’ve been itching to try using it more! 🙂
Quinoa is sold at Winco Foods in bulk for cheap if you live in any of the West Coast states that have Winco.
I totally love that you take the time to respond to your reader’s questions and comments when possible. And, judging by the amount of comments in just this one post alone, you must have a large following. So many blog owners (small and large) never respond at all and I just wanted you to know this reader appreciates it. It’s nice to see the interaction. 🙂
@ Sarah – Brrrrr…. stay warm there in Minneapolis. I’m in Charlotte and we’re having our first cool snap today. A brisk 44 degrees right now and loving it.
Oh man. I LOVE quinoa and cannot wait to make these!
Yumyumyum!!!! I’m eating right now!
I thought your crazy comment was hilarious- like all of your posts. Which is 50% of why I come back (the other 50% is the food! 🙂 I can always count on you for a good laugh. I can’t wait to try these- we are always looking for a meat-free night entree. We love meat, but everything in moderation. I have fussy eaters too, so can’t wait to try this. Thanks!
P.S. Hope you are warming up this week and out of the hotel soon! We are in a suburb on the north side of Minneapolis/St. Paul and it’s getting mighty chilly here at night! 🙂
I just tried this for lunch for my almost two year old and myself. She is super picky, but I told her they were quinoa nuggets, like chicken nuggets… well she ate and loved it. Thanks for a healthy child friendly recipe… I really don’t know what I’d cook if I hadn’t discovered your site years ago!
We had these for lunch. I had cooked the quinoa in chicken stock with some granulated garlic and parsley added to the water. Didn’t have parmesan so I used Asiago cheese and some whole wheat bread crumbs from some artisan bread I had baked this morning…so they were more damp than dry. Also added some sausage seasoning….but, with the previously added salt, it was too much salt. Nevertheless, my husband ate three of them! Yay! Thanks for this recipe.
My brother-in-law makes quinoa burgers and makes a special sauce to go on them. DELICIOUS! I will be making these this week. PS I know just what you mean about people thinking you are crazy for eliminating processed foods. A lot of people think I am too anal. But I feel good about my decisions.
Things sound great. I’ve been making “cheesy quinoa bites” the past few weeks from some recipes I found online and tailored to how I liked them. We made them in mini muffin tins. My kids gobbled them up too. It’s a snack everyone can really enjoy. Thanks for sharing this – it will be fun to try a different variation.
On the dinner menu for tonight – perfect to try with all the kids and the hubby out of town. Jackson’s comment sold me!! Birthday dinner-requests HAVE to taste good!!
Quinoa and faro are my favorite grains and have been for years. Quinoa (in lieu of rice) is a great everyday food, while faro (or even wheatberry) is great for special salads. I’d never thought of using them this way, like a substitute for potato pancakes. What a great idea!
I have seen several different versions of quinoa patty recipes over the past few months but have yet to try them. I don’t know what is holding me back though; I love quinoa and we try to eat at least one meat free meal a week so these would be perfect for our meatless meal!
Still never tried quinoa and I think I need to soon! These look so delish!
These look yummy! I hope you and the family are doing well.
Whitney – I prefer these warm but I suppose you could test them out on your kids cold and if they like them, it would be a great lunch solution!
I can’t wait to make these! I’m wondering if these would be good to pack in the kids lunch boxes. Have you tried eating them cold?
OMG, Melanie – these look fabulous. My kids are picky and almost unwilling to try anything new no matter how much I try. But I’m going to give these a whirl. I’m with you – the more quinoa we can get into their diets the better we’ll be. (And they won’t eat the salads). Thank you!!
I hereby make the following vow: thanks to bloggers such as yourself I realize how important it is to vary one’s ingredients and broaden one’s culinary horizons with such things as quinoa, mung beans, and wheat berries; I WILL cook them 1/2 of the time minimum from now on.
I’m definitely putting these on my “to try” list. I have some quinoa in the cabinet. 🙂
Oh, I love this! I’ve been wanting to figure out a way to introduce Baguette to quinoa, and this seems like something she’d find interesting.
Rather than “crazy people” I believe you could have said “health-foodies”.
For those that have taken offense at my perspective on this post, let me assure you that the term “crazy” was used in a loving, endearing way. I apologize for apparently being politically incorrect in my reference to crazy people food but I didn’t mean it in a derogatory way. I have often been called crazy myself for eliminating processed foods and eating healthier, and to be honest, I take pride in being crazy that way. I have millions of readers; each are on a different place on the food spectrum, ranging from ultra-healthy to extremely processed. My point of this post was to convince those who have never tried quinoa or who really do think of it as “crazy-people food” that it isn’t crazy at all. For all of you who already love quinoa, well, to be honest, I didn’t tailor this post for you because I figured you would already be enticed by the recipe. Enjoy the recipe, either way!
What is the ratio of dry quinoa and broth that you use to get 2 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa?
Lindsay – the ration is 1:2 (so 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups water). Keep in mind that one cup of dry quinoa will yield about 3 cups cooked.
I would truly love to see more dishes like this on your site–I love your recipes, but my family is definitely more along the quinoa spectrum than the meat-lovers. Please keep the whole foods and meatless options coming! 🙂
I am quite surprised the way you presented these; quinoa is amazing, why would you be apologetic rather than positive sharing this? They sound delicious::thank you for sharing the recipe.
I just tried quinoa for the first time, but in a casserole with egg,shredded zucchini, cheese and ham. It was delicious! I will be sure to try this.
I have never heard of Quinoa, so I’m learning something new this morning. Do regular grocery stores carry it? Would some chives be good in this? What a testimonial if your little 8-year-old loves them — that’s a pretty good indication they are pretty fantastic!
AHOP – yes, most grocery stores carry it although you can get more bang for your buck buying it from a place like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, if you have one close. I’ve found that Costco carries large bags of it, too. And yes, chives would be delicious in these patties.
PS can anyone suggest a website where I can find a conversion from cups to grams????? I’ve found different weights!!!!!!!
Disregard this post?!? Are you kidding! It looks amazing! Always looking for a way to slip a meatless meal in to the routine! Thanks!!!
I definitively will try these. I have an unopened bag of quinoa and if your 8 year old loves it, that´s really a good sign! That comment should be framed
I’ll definitely give them a try!!!!
I’m in love with quinoa patties! They’re so much more delicious than they look!
Yum! I love quinoa, and I am always looking for more ways to serve it. These perfect, crunchy little patties remind me of potato cakes, only SO much healthier for you! This is a must try recipe for me. Thanks for sharing Melanie and Melanie! 😉