Quinoa, Feta & Cauliflower Cakes

Quinoa, Feta & Cauliflower Cake

In anticipation of my imminent pescatarianism, I was bought Green Kitchen Stories for Christmas. Green Kitchen Stories is a wonderful vegetarian & vegan cookbook, written by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl, who are determined to make vegetarian and vegan eating inventive, healthy and tasty. I had discovered the blog previously and loved the recipes I came across and the ethos shared by the authors, so was thrilled to get the book. It seemed only fitting that, given my love of all things Scandi, and my newfound dislike of meat, this book act as an introduction to vegetarianism, and a source of inspiration for my own culinary exploits.

Today’s recipe is a Green Kitchen Stories recipe, and one that I tried for the first time last night. It takes a bit of time to make, but the end result is delicious – it’s fresh, filling, simple and has a wonderful combination of textures. I served these with a simple green salad, and some soy sauce to dip them in, but they would be just as delicious on a bed of garlic spinach, or in a wrap with some humous or pesto. What’s more is that the amounts I’ve provided here make enough for lunch the next day too, which is never a bad thing! One more thing, I think these would be even more delicious with a few pine nuts thrown in, although haven’t tried it myself as I can’t stomach the exortionate cost pine nuts go for these days, but if you can then give it a try! 

Ingredients (makes 6 cakes)

200g white quinoa

Large handful of fresh spinach

100g cauliflower

100g feta cheese

2 garlic cloves

60g rolled oats

2 eggs

Salt and pepper to season

2tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil

Place the quinoa in a pan with 1 litre of water and 1tsp salt then put the lid on and bring to the boil. Once boiling, take the lid off and turn down the heat to a gentle simmer. Leave the quinoa to cook like this for around 15 minutes, or until little tails emerge from each piece of quinoa and you are faced with a pan of tadpole lookalikes.

Whilst the quinoa is cooking, wilt the spinach – place it in a bowl with enough boiling water to cover it and leave for 30 seconds. Drain the water out of the bowl, and transfer the spinach to a large mixing bowl. Once the quinoa is cooked, drain any excess water from the pan and place the quinoa into the same large bowl. Finely chop the feta and garlic cloves and add these to the bowl, followed by the oats and a dash of salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then add to the mixture.

Chop the cauliflower into small florets, making sure to remove all the leaves, and place in a food blender. Blend the cauliflower until it looks like uncooked rice, and then add this to bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix everything together, and place in the fridge to set for half an hour.

Whilst the mixture is cooling, how about watching this wonderful video of Doc Brown speaking to a group of London school boys about how uncool misogynism is, in order to get them talking about gender equality, and encourage them to challenge the stereotypes about men and women that they encounter in everyday life. Doc Brown is an ambassador for Great Men, which is a brilliant charity set up to promote gender equality, with the specific aim of getting men and boys involved in the discussion and action surrounding this hugely important issue.

Once half an hour is up, take the mixture out of the fridge, and using your hands, shape it into six equally sized patties. Heat up two tablespoons of vegetable/sunflower oil, and once hot, place however many patties you can fit in the pan into the oil, so that they can get sizzling! On a medium heat, fry the patties for about 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they develop a good brown crust. Flip over and fry on the other side once this is achieved! If you can’t fit all the patties in your frying pan, put the oven on a low heat and place the ones that you cook first in the oven to keep warm.

Uncooked patties

Once crispy and cooked, serve with some soy sauce and a green salad, and enjoy!