Preparation:
In a medium size saucepan sauté 2 ounces olive oil and shallots and sauté over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes more. Stir continuously to prevent sticking. Add red quinoa, salt, paprika and bay leaf and sauté for 3 minutes incorporating the shallot and mushroom flavors into the quinoa. Continue to stir.
Add vegetable stock and cook until simmering. Allow stock to simmer for 15 minutes before adding white quinoa. Simmer for 10 minutes more, then stir in kale ribbons and continue cooking for another 5- 10 minutes--until all of the stock is absorbed. (The texture you want is overcooked and sticky, this will help in forming the cake.)
Once the stock has evaporated remove the pot from the stove, but let it rest for 30 minutes stirring it 2-3 times to release some of the heat. Next, lay the mixture out on a tray to cool until it is just warm to the touch. Take 3 ounces of the mixture and form into cakes 3-inches in diameter, ¾ inch thick. The batch will yield 20 cakes.
Once the cakes are formed refrigerate and cool completely before cooking, this will set the mixture and prevent it from falling apart.
Place 2 ounces of oil in a 10” skillet over medium/high heat, once the oil is hot but not smoking, place 8 cakes in the skillet and cook for 5 minutes on each side until a nice crispy edge has formed.
Remove and serve with shaved vegetable salad.
This is an excellent base for many variations of quinoa cakes. The trick to learn is how to cook and how much to cool the quinoa so the texture is sticky enough to form the shape. Once you learn that, you can get very creative!
NOTE: Red quinoa takes longer to cook so when mixing red and white quinoa, cook red first then add white as above.
Perreault Magazine - 121 -
(c) Lisa Jane Persky