My neighbour gave me a beautiful cookbook for my birthday. It's written by Donna Hay, an Australian chef, and it's called Fresh and Light. I've been poring through it to decide what to make first and came upon these Quinoa fritters with zucchini, peas and mint...yum!
Detail on a white Eva plate, the food photography in Fresh and Light is gorgeous. I'm always in a bit of a hurry to take my food photos so that I can eat my creations hot!
I've been cooking more with quinoa over the past year, and now that my son has a vegetarian girlfriend who comes over all the time, I'm looking for ways to add protein to my vegetarian dishes. Quinoa is considered a complete protein because it contains so many different amino acids that our bodies need. Quinoa is also really fast and easy to prepare, but it's a little boring plain, so this recipe was the perfect way to add some crunch and interest to this plain grain.
In Donna Hay's book, her fritters were smaller, but I made a couple of large ones instead. Here is the recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of quinoa (cooked)
2 cups peas (cooked)
1 egg white
2 tablespoons of rice flour
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 additional tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 zucchini (diced)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup mint leaves
2/3 cup yoghurt cheese (I used Greek yoghurt instead, it's so rich and creamy)
lemon quarters for serving
Cooking quinoa is pretty basic, I rinse the grains and then drain the water and cook the quinoa in double the amount of water as grains, (2 cups quinoa plus 4 cups water). Once the water is at a low boil, I cover the pot and cook for 10 minutes with a low flame. After 10 minutes, remove the lid, turn off the heat, fluff the quinoa, and let it sit for a few minutes.
Cut the peas into halves or thirds and mix them well in a bowl with the quinoa, egg white, rice flour, oil, salt and pepper. Form them into flat patties. Donna Hay recommended small patties using half a cup of this mixture, I made mine larger so they filled most of a medium frying pan.
Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the patties for 3-4 minutes on each side until crispy and slightly browned. Serve hot with yoghurt (or yoghurt cheese) on top with a slice of lemon.
Serves 4 people.
