Perfectly Cooked Quinoa

A huge shout out to my good friend Gwyneth Paltrow for this recipe...

Here is a photo of her on one of our coffee mornings (decaf, soy, of course) in Venice.

1 cup of quinoa

1 3/4 cups of water

Coarse sea salt

Rinse the quinoa thou roughly in a fine mesh strainer (although this may sound like an unnecessary step, it really makes a huge difference in flavour, since quinoa's natural coating tastes like soap).

Place it in a pot set over high heat with the water and a pinch of salt. Bring the quinoa to the boil, lower the heat, cover the pot, and cook until all the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa's germs look like lots of little spirals, 12 to 15 minutes. Turn the heat off, place a dry paper towel between the pot and the lid and let the quinoa sit for at least 5 minutes before giving it a fluff with a fork.

Shallow fried vegetable fritters

This week I have learnt a valuable lesson in feeding my family, particularly my husband, vegetables; SHALLOW FRYING!!!! 

Anything, rolled into a ball and shallow fried WILL BE EATEN!!! 

Quinoa and veg fritters.

These ones have mushroom and asparagus, but you could substitute any vegetables. 

Ingredients:

3 cups of cooked quinoa - you can refer to my perfectly cooked quinoa post 

1 onion, finely chopped (the smaller the better) 

Almost one cup of chopped veges (again, the smaller, the better)

3/4 cup spelt flour

Some sea salt (how much you put in is up to you, I put about 5 shakes of my grinder. You can add more if you are cooking for adults, less if cooking for kids)

About 1/4 cup of almond milk- this amount may vary, depending on your mixture

The juice of half a lemon

Oil for frying

Method:

Mix the quinoa, onion, veges, flour and salt in a large bowl until the mixture is consistent.

Add the lemon juice and milk, a small amount at a time, and mix with your hands, until the consistency is thick and moist when you squeeze it in your hand. If the mixture is too runny, add some more flour.

Roll into balls, footballs, patties, fritters, or shape you like, cover, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Heat up some oil in a pan, and add your fritters. Turn over after a few minutes, the cooked side should be quite solid, and golden brown.

When both sides are cooked, (it should take about 8 minutes, depending on the size) place on some paper towel and allow to cool slightly. This is the hard part! 

Enjoy by themselves, or with a sauce, we love it with soy sauce, or tomato sauce (ok, it wasn't my most creative moment- I was hungry ok?) you could experiment with any sauce though.

These can be kept in the fridge for a few days, in a container wrapped loosely in paper towel, but I can assure you, that unless you make a double batch, there won't be any left overs!