Meat Free Monday: Cheesy Quinoa Cakes with a Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli

This recipe caught my eye on Pinterest, my new addiction.  I’m always trying to find new ways to prepare Quinoa and we have featured a few on this site already:

Black Bean Quinoa Burgers

Crispy Quinoa Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna

Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds

Red Quinoa Avocado Salad

Breakfast Quinoa

Okay, maybe it’s more than a few.  I didn’t realize we had featured so many (pat on our backs).  But I have yet another one.  This one was delicious.  The aioli sauce made the dish for sure.  I’ve never made an aioli sauce before, so I had to look it up on Wikipedia to see what makes a sauce an aioli:

Aioli  /aɪˈoʊli/; is a traditional sauce made of garlic, olive oil, and (typically) egg. There are many variations, such as the addition of mustard or, in Catalonia, pears. It is usually served at room temperature. The name aioli (alhòli) comes from Provençal alh ‘garlic’ (< Latin allium) + òli ‘oil’ (< Latin oleum).

Interesting huh?  Bring that up in your next conversation and you’ll sound like a professional chef, promise.

So the way this quinoa was prepared had the right flavors to be complimented by the tangy sauce.  The cheese was Fontina, another new one for me.

I loved the flavor…very mild and milky.  Reminded me a bit of Monterey Jack, but I’m not a cheese expert so my taste buds could be way off.

Ingredients were pretty simple and preparation was easy.

My only complaint was the patties were a little greasy.  After I fried them, I put them on a paper towel to absorb some of the oil.  Next time I will either reduce the oil, use coconut oil, or even just try a light cooking spray.

But they were still delicious.  Serve along with a soup or salad for dinner, or just eat alone for a light lunch (which is what I did with leftovers the next day).  Can’t wait to make this one again!

Recipe courtesy of SpoonForkBacon.com.

Print Recipe

Cheesy Quinoa Cakes with a Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli

Servings: 10 patties

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2/3 cup grated Fontina cheese
• 3 Tbs all purpose flour
• 2 green onions thinly sliced
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Aioli:

• ½ cup light mayonnaise
• 2 tsp garlic minced
• 1 lemon zested and juiced
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

For cakes:

• Place all ingredients, except for the oil, into a mixing bowl and stir together until well combined. Season with salt and allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes.
• Pour oil into a large sauté pan and place over medium heat.
• Form ¼ cup patties with the quinoa mixture and place in the heated sauté pan. (this will have to be done in batches)
• Cook quinoa cakes for about 5 minutes on each side. Repeat with the remaining patties until all of the cakes have been cooked. Set aside.

For aioli sauce:

• Place all ingredients into a food processor, season with salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Pour into a small bowl and serve alongside the warm quinoa cakes.