Quinoa and Wild Garlic Cakes with Salbitxada Sauce from "Plenty More"

It's no surprise that I am a huge quinoa fan. And not a bandwagon fan - this has been a love that has been forming over several years now - well before the day that I went gluten free. It has this lovely nuttiness and toothsome texture (if cooked correctly) that makes it a great substitution to rice or couscous - or even potatoes. And the funny thing is, though it often takes the place of carbs on a plate, it actually has a good bit of protein - about 6g per 1/4 cup serving. Also, it doesn't have to just be pushed to the side of the dish. It is more than capable of being the star of the plate as we see here with Ottolenghi's masterful recipe (found on page 203 in Plenty More).

The cakes are not purely quinoa and a binder. No no. They are so much more than that as you can see in the image above. Cheese - but not just one kind - two kinds of cheese, onions, spice. And it all comes together to form a harmonious flavor that accentuates the nuttiness and texture of the quinoa itself. 

Quinoa and Wild Garlic Cakes with Salbitxada Sauce
from Plenty More

Serves 4 (~16 cakes)

1 1/2 cups/250 g quinoa
16 wild garlic leaves, thinly sliced (1 1/2 oz/40 g), or 6 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced (2/3 cup/60 g)  -- note: wild garlic is in season from late winter to around May
1 small red onion, finely diced (about 1 cup/100 g)
2 eggs, lightly whisked
2 green chilies, seeded and finely diced
1/2 cup/120 g cottage cheese
1/4 cup/30 g coarsely grated aged Cheddar
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp/60 g dried bread crumbs
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup/60 ml olive oil
1 large lemon, cut into wedges (optional)
salt and black pepper

Salbitxada sauce (optional)
1 medium red pepper (5 oz/ 150 g)
2 red chiles
5 cloves garlic, skin on
1/3 cup/40 g sliced almonds, toasted
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped (scant 1 1/2 cups/250 g)
2 tsp sherry vinegar  (I added a bit more, to taste)
7 tbsp/100 ml olive oil
salt (I used about 1 teaspoon, more than the 1/4 teaspoon it called for)

Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C.

First make the sauce. Place the red pepper, chiles, and garlic cloves on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Remove the chiles and garlic, turn the red pepper, and continue cooking for another 20 minutes. Once the skin is blistered and the pepper roasted, remove it and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. When cool, peel and seed the pepper. Do the same with the chiles and also peel the garlic.

Lower the oven temperature to 400 F/200 C.

Place the almonds in the bowl of a small food processor and grind to a coarse powder. Add the pepper, chile, garlic, and tomatoes and continue to process to a paste. Add the sherry vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon salt and then slowly pour in the oil until you have a thick sauce.

Throw the quinoa into a saucepan with plenty of boiling water and simmer for 9 minutes, until tender but still with a bite. Drain in a fine sieve, refresh under cold water, and set aside until completely dry.

Place the garlic leaves (or green onions), red onions, eggs, green chiles, cottage cheese, Cheddar, bread crumbs, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and a good grind of pepper in a large bowl. Add the quinoa, stir well, and form the mixture into 2 oz/60 g patties (approximately the size of a 1/3 measuring cup) each about 2 1/2-inches/6-cm wide and 3/4-inch/2-cm thick.

Place a nonstick pan over medium heat and add half the oil. Fry the patties in batches for 3 minutes on each side, until golden, adding oil as needed. Transfer to a baking sheet and finish off in the oven for about 8 minutes. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon juice, or with the sauce spooned on top or alongside.

Served over a simple salad with avocado

Substitutions: 

• I used green onion instead of wild garlic as wild garlic is not in season and no where to be found
• I had a roasted poblano in my refrigerator that I had roasted the night before and barely used due to the uncharacteristically high level of heat so I used that instead of the green chiles in the quinoa cakes
• I used gluten-free breadcrumbs. See my TIP on this below.
• For the sauce, I only had a jalapeno so I used that plus a little dried red pepper instead of the red chile
• I added extra sherry vinegar and salt to the sauce (measurements listed in the recipe) as it needed just a bit more zip.

Tips:

• If gluten-free, add an extra egg (maybe also for non gluten-free). If you are using gluten-free breadcrumbs, you may need to increase the number of eggs in the recipe to 3. I found that my cakes didn't quite stick together as they should have which lead to a frustrating time during the cooking process.
• Use a measuring cup to form cakes. To form the quinoa cakes, I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup and packed the mixture in there before un-molding it onto a baking sheet. While from my last tip, you can see that this still didn't quite suffice in the "binding" of the cakes, I think with an extra egg it would have worked well as the cakes were staying together relatively well after forming them.
• Chill formed cakes. I put the formed cakes (uncooked) in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes in hopes of further setting the mixture into its shape. Again, with a well-binded cake, this may be a helpful step.
• Know your pan - and your stovetop. I used two non-stick skillets to cook these cakes and while I thought that the temperatures were similar, I found that, despite my best efforts, one pan was making the cakes quite dark (not burnt though) and the other was hardly working at all. Perhaps test a single cake on a pan to test the level of golden brown that you are able to achieve before getting yourself deep into the frying process.
• Don't get too frustrated. I will admit, I had a moment during the frying process that I was ready to throw the cakes on the floor - literally. They weren't coming out "perfectly." So what! Even though they may not all photograph beautifully, they still tasted amazing. It all goes down the same anyway.
• Refrigerate quinoa mixture and not cooked cakes. If your plan on making extra for later, save some of the mixture and refrigerate it before you cook the cakes. They just aren't as good re-heated so cook them fresh as needed.
• Get to know Salbitxada Sauce. I found myself just eating spoonfuls of this delicious and complex condiment. It is like a red pepper sauce but with an amazing backbone created by toasted nuts and a hint of spice. If you don't want to just eat it on its own - it would be a fabulous compliment to an omelet, or roasted potatoes, rice....really anything savory where you want to "kick it up a notch."

Enjoy!