Tuesday 30 September 2014

Quinoa Burgers - Healthy 'Junk Food'





Quinoa is an excellent source of low fat, cholesterol free protein as well as being gluten free, so a good choice for anyone trying to cut down on meat.  When you mention quinoa, people often think oh no it's going to be one of those boring healthy things that 'hippies' eat.  Well yes it's healthy but it doesn't have to be boring.  Both my sons are vegetarian and like most young men when they were growing up wanted something that didn't look too different from what their friends were eating.  So I have developed all sorts of ways to make 'normal' food that was also giving them the protein they needed.  I haven't tried these on them yet, but it is the sort of thing they would love. The secret with quinoa is to get as much flavour in it as possible.  I made these with what I happened to have in the cupboards, you can adapt them to your own tastes once you have the cooked quinoa.

QUINOA BURGERS

40g quinoa
200 ml boiling water
1 stock cube
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder (medium)
1 tablespoon mango chutney
1 to 1 1/2 slices of bread made into breadcrumbs (I used g.f. bread)
Salt and pepper


Wash the quinoa and place in a saucepan with the water and stock cube.

Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 15 - 20 min until all the liquid is soaked up.

Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and leave to cool.

At this stage I put it in the fridge until I was ready to cook them later in the day.  It makes it easier to shape once they have cooled completely.

On a floured plate (I used g.f. flour) shape into burgers.

I fried mine as I like them to have a nice crispy texture,

Makes 4 burgers.  Simple, with not too many ingredients.


In other news, I am having a battle of wills with our cat.  I hid the worming tablet in her food and she sussed out that it is in there so will not eat it.  I used to hide tablets in a piece of cheese for our dog, but miss fussy pants cat is having none of it. Any tips for getting her to take it?  I'm not up to force feeding it to her.

I don't know whether to tell you this, oh well I might as well, you have probably realised I have lost the plot.  I bought a new bird feeder and some seeds yesterday.  I tried to fill it today and the seeds kept falling out through the mesh.  So I scooped it up and tried again several times before reading the label on the PEANUT feeder!!!!

Chickpea xx

I will post the pinwheel tutorial tomorrow.







15 comments:

  1. This sounds lovely and quick and easy. Thank you x

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  2. Oh dear, you made me smile with the bird feeder story. Its the kind of thing I would do! Lol...
    The burgers look great, chickpea. Yay to the tutorial tomorrow!!

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  3. so funny! now you need a seed feeder and peanuts = happy birds

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  4. Those burgers look absolutely delicious. I've never tried the Q-protein as I call it in the absence of the ability to spell it! x

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  5. fab idea, might try those on the boys, could be a fridge snack.

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  6. Oohh Thank You for sharing your recipe will be having a go at these,more recipes like this please Chickpea( i am an ageing hippie after all)!! Can't offer advice on tablet and cat but we did similar with our dog
    Take Care Chickpea
    Sue xxx

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  7. Ha ha! now you just need some nuts. We have Qunioa here but I have to disguise it well or they just will not eat it x

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  8. thanks for the recipe idea, they look really nice, and I have some mango chutney hanging around.

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  9. Pity you are so far away, the birds here don't seem to like peanuts & much prefer sunflower hearts! I have a small sack of peanuts not doing anything. Those burgers sound good, I don't like much meat & my eldest used to be vegetarian so we eat quite a lot of meat free meals still.

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  10. They look delicious. It's always good to find some meat-free, tasty meals. x

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  11. Thank you for the comments about the burgers. They are my usual no fuss cooking, nothing fancy about me I'm afraid :)

    I have also bought the appropriate feeders and peanuts now. I don't know where my brain was yesterday!!

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  12. I love making things like this. I used to have a mix for chickpea burgers, I wish I could find more of that. This looks very good, thanks for sharing.

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  13. Those burgers look lovely, very healthy. I had to smile at the bird feeder :-) i bought a piece of apple and sultana flapjack at the Apple Day on Saturday to bring home, it was so terrible I put it into the fatball feeder for the birds and guess what...it's still there, solid as a rock!

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  14. This is a great idea, although I have been looking for quinoa in the supermarket for the last 2 weeks now with no luck! xx

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  15. Ha! That's funny about the peanut feeder. The good news is if you have squirrels they are going to be very happy. :-)

    Your burgers look terrific. Unfortunately I developed an allergy to quinoa several years ago and can no longer eat it. It's too bad because i really liked it.

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