Mmmm…. These quinoa cakes were a hit with my family and they would make a great addition to a potluck with friends. Simple and versatile, they’d do well being served with a variety of other dishes.

As I’m adding the photo to this blog post (early in the morning before my kids are awake), Leif has woke up and walked sleepily over to the picture and asked me to make this meal again. Okay then.

Here’s what I did:

Quinoa Cakes With Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli

Quinoa Cakes with Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli

  • 1 cup Quinoa, uncooked
  • 2 cups Water
  • 2/3 cup Fontina Cheese, grated
  • 2- 4 Green Onions, thinly sliced
  • 3 tbsp All Purpose Flour
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tsp freshly ground Pepper
  • 1 Egg, lightly beaten
  • Butter
  • 1 head of Garlic, roasted
  • 1/2 cup Mayo
  • 1 Lemon, zested and juiced
  • 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. Cut the top of a head of garlic, wrap in tin foil and roast in the oven at 400’F for about 40 minutes.
  2. In a lidded pot, put the quinoa and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or cooked all the way though.
  3. Grate the cheese into a medium bowl. Add the warm quinoa and mix while the cheese melts. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  4. Add the sliced green onion, flour, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Stir in the lightly beaten egg and allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes.
  5. Heat butter in a cast iron (or other) skillet.
  6. Form 1/4 cup patties with the quinoa mixture and place in the heated skillet. Cook cakes for about 5 minutes on each side. Repeat with the remaining patties until all of the cakes have been cooked. Set aside.
  7. Place the roasted garlic squeezed out of it’s skin, mayo, lemon zest and juice, cayenne, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth. Taste and adjust. Serve alongside the warm quinoa cakes.

Quinoa Cakes

12 Responses to Quinoa Cakes With Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli

  1. Bonnie says:

    They look delicious! I’m trying so hard to like quinoa! I think this recipe might be the ticket. Thanks for sharing.

  2. ~Chelsea~ says:

    These look delicious! I’ve never used (or even heard of?) Fontina cheese before . . . is it easy to find? Is there another cheese you could use as a substitute?

    ~C~

  3. Annie says:

    Fontina cheese was a common find up here at my grocery store. I wonder if you just haven’t had the occasion to look for it before, like me. There is a cheese section in the deli department with the less common cheeses and I found it there. I’m in no way an expert when it comes to cheeses but it almost tasted bitter (?) to me. I didn’t care much for it on it’s own but it was wonderful in these cakes!

    I hope you guys love them as much as we did!

  4. Kim says:

    I was stumped for dinner tonight, we are so low on groceries. Not anymore, we have these ingredients (with a substitute of mozzarella for the fontina), thanks for sharing this.

  5. erin says:

    to the question above, chelsea i believe a deli operator /staff personnel should be able to recommend a sub for fontina, but we use it in a soup and it’s lovely…worth seeking out!!

    can a blender do the work of making the sauce? or just by hand? (currently food processorless…)

    would the baja mayo work? i guess you could use anything? i think i’m trying these on the weekend :)

  6. Annie says:

    A blender would work great but then so would by hand I think. I’ll probably do it by hand the next time I make it and save the clean up.

    Baja Mayo could be good but you should consider trying the one. Lily and Leif so loved it!

  7. erin says:

    thanks annie, and do you think this will make about 4 patties? did you find that was satisfying or would you double it? we’ll be having it with soup too, but my guys EAT ALOT.

    ~erin xo

  8. Annie says:

    I think they made about 12 patties. The first time I made them, this was enough for my four (with just a little leftovers) and we only ate it with steamed broccoli. Other times I’ve made them with a bit more substantial side dishes and it felt like they went a bit further.

  9. Marlene says:

    Mmmm. Quinoa lovers here (also a great Scrabble word). Making these soon!

  10. ~Chelsea~ says:

    Made these tonight – and they were delicious! The deli was out of fontina cheese, but I bought a fresh mozzerella (the guy at the deli wasn’t sure what to substitute with . . . ).

    They turned out great, but I think the fresh mozza made it a bit more moist – either that or I didn’t cook enough of the water out of the quinoa perhaps.

    It made 12 patties – we just had some chopped raw veggies to go with it and we each happily ate 4 patties. I used a hand blender with a chopper bowl type attachment for the sauce and it worked great, and was less clean up than the food processor would have been.

    These will certainly make it on our plates again sometime!

  11. Bob Cotter says:

    Of course I heard from Chelsea how great they were. The photos look like they make a good veggie patty. Have you tried grilling them at all before?

  12. Annie says:

    Like on the bbq? I haven’t and wonder what that would look like. They are a little bit wet when I put them in the cast iron skillet by the 1/4 cup full so I’m not sure they’d grill well. They get a lovely crispy edge to them in the skillet though!

    xx

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