All I can say is thank goodness I banked a few recipe posts earlier this summer because my inspiration has been pretty dismal during this kitchen reno. Combine that with the dreaded 3rd tri “preggo brain”, and my recipe mojo just isn’t flowing like it normally does. Then there was that disaster of a crock pot recipe I made on the weekend for Eric’s birthday. The pot is still soaking in the laundry tub because when you mess up a slow cooker recipe, you pay the price. I might have to chisel it out. Thankfully, I’ve been sitting on this recipe gem since June. I don’t know how I waited that long to share it because it’s a great one! When I first made these crispy quinoa cakes they disappeared at a record pace. I think I recall eating 5 of them straight from the pan. [Then I made you wait for the recipe for 2 1/2 months! Pure evil.] The next two batches were also quickly enjoyed and made easy meals for us without much fuss. We served them as part of a weekend brunch with home fries and avocado toast, for lunch on top of a salad, and for dinner tossed into a wrap or served with roasted veggies. Oh, and I also love them for a snack, straight from the fridge (yes, cold!) slathered in hummus. So unbelievably satisfying.
For those of you who can’t tolerate beans you will be happy to know these veggie cakes don’t have a bean in sight. In fact, I think this might be the only bean-free veggie patty on my entire blog! The quinoa provides a complete protein source and gives them a wonderful chewy texture at the same time. The oven bakes them up golden and crispy – no frying required. I also made the recipe gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free so almost anyone can enjoy these delightful crispy cakes. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, snack time, or dinner, they make a great addition to any meal. Just don’t be surprised if your favourite way to enjoy them is straight from the baking sheet…
Crispy Quinoa Cakes
Yield
1 dozen cakes
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Crispy quinoa cakes packed with vegetables like kale, sweet potato, sun-dried tomatoes, and more! Enjoy these as part of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They are great with roasted home fries and avocado toast, on top of a salad, in a wrap, or enjoyed all of their own. It's important to make sure the vegetables are finely chopped for this recipe. If the pieces are too large, the patties won't stick together as well. Recipe inspired by Vegetarian Times .
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
- 2 tablespoons ground flax + 6 tablespoons water
- 1 cup destemmed and finely chopped kale
- 1/2 cup rolled oats, ground into a flour (use certified gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/2 cup finely grated sweet potato
- 1/4 cup finely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely diced onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon runny tahini paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons red or white wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- 3 tablespoons gluten-free all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur) or regular all-purpose flour
- red pepper flakes, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the ground flax and water in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes or so to thicken.
- Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl, including the flax mixture and the 1.5 cups cooked quinoa. Stir well until the mixture comes together. Don't forget the flour because it helps bind the patties.
- Shape mixture into 1/4-cup patties with wet hands. Pack tightly so they hold together better. Place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then carefully flip cakes, and bake for another 8-10 minutes until golden and firm.
- Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet and then enjoy!
- Store leftovers in a container in the fridge for up to 5-6 days. To reheat, preheat a skillet over medium heat, add a bit of oil, and cook patties for about 3 minutes per side, or until heated through.
Tip:
Tips: 1) To cook quinoa, rinse 1 cup uncooked quinoa in a fine mesh strainer. Place quinoa in a medium pot and cover with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and then cover with a tight fitting lid. Simmer covered for 14-17 minutes until most of the water is absorbed and the quinoa is light and fluffy. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and then place lid back on to steam for another 4-5 minutes. Note that this makes almost 3 cups of cooked quinoa and you only need 1 1/2 cups for this recipe, so you will have leftover quinoa (which is never a bad thing if you ask me!).
2) To make oat flour, add the oats into a high speed blender and blend on the highest speed until a fine flour forms. You can also use store-bought oat flour if desired.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Great recipe! Is it possible to post the nutritional info? Thanks!
I made these last night and they turned out fantastically well! Thanks Angela :)
The only sub I made, was adding shredded zucchini instead of sweet potato, as I have vast amounts of zucchini at the moment. I made sure to squeeze out the excess moisture so that I could ensure they would still be crispy. Lovely recipe!
Loved these cakes. It does take a bit of time to prepare but is worth the wait. I used mixed red and white quinoa. I also probably made them a little big as I got 10 instead of 12. I’ve frozen 6 of them after cooking. Hoping they taste just as good the second time round.
Thanks for the recipe and great blog.
Thank you for this recipe. My teenaged son has gone vegan, so I am always looking for good recipes, preferably soy-free. I made this last night, following the recipe exactly except for two changes. I used buckwheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, and I used cooked sweet potatoes because I had some in the frig. They were the pale-colored variety, yellow instead of orange. They were delicious! Everyone loved them.
These look so yummy! I don’t think I’ve ever put sweet potato in veggie burgers before, but it sounds like I’m missing out. Love the crispy texture idea through quinoa!
youtube.com/sparklesandsuch26
I love quinoa but have never tried making cakes with them before. This looks so delicious and filling! I like how you used fresh basil in this recipe! Basil is one of my favorite herbs!
Hi Angela-
Just curious- for the sweet potato in the quinoa cake itself: did you roast it first, or did you use a raw potato?
Thanks! Robin
I have not tried this combination I am looking forward to making them. I am a new Vegan still learning how to eat and get everything I need. I have your cookbook, speaking as a new Vegan I love it !!! So easy to follow and the recipes are great.
Hi Angela,
Theses look amazing, I can’t wait to try them! QQ – is the sweet potato raw or cooked?
Thanks for filling my life with so many delicious and healthy recipes!
Will be trying these soon!! Looks so so delicious!
I just made these for dinner. Absolutely fantastic flavour and texture.
It’s obviously a good recipe as it can stand up to a little “oh no I’ve run out of….” subsitution. I used finely chopped broccoli as I had no kale, left out the onion, added more garlic and a good spoonful of my beloved piment de Espelette.
Thanx very much for a bean-free burger option :)
This looks amazing!!! So many good ingredients in there… yum!!
My kind of lunch/dinner/ snack ;)
I can’t wait to try this out.
btw. I think holding out on sharing recipes will be your secret to have something to share once the baby comes ;)
I am adding things to my blog that I cooked/ baked back in early spring.
Just a tip mama – shoot now and keep a supply ready ;)
xoxo ella
Made these tonight with a black bean/corn/red pepper salad, fresh quacamole, and tortilla chips. The husband was very appreciative and said the sundried tomatoes is what made them :)
Christine, what a great combo. I was in hurry making the recipe and just didn’t have time to come up with the “sides”. I will have to try these out.
Never commented before – but had to this time round because this is the first time I’ve tried something the day you posted it (normally I wait a while to see if other people experiment with replacements since not everyone in my family is strictly vegan, or even vegetarian. And since we’re not, sometimes if I buy something specifically for a vegan recipe and only use a tbsp, well, sadly it often goes to waste before it gets used again. I digress). These are amazing! I did end up substituting the tahini with sesame oil 1:1 (our tahini had gone bad). Even my dad, who was at first disappointed there was no meat with dinner tonight, loved them. So so good!!
Thank you Alexandra! I’m so happy you enjoyed it so much. Thanks for your quick feedback too!
Made these last night… amazing! There was one that was a little thinner (end of the bowl) and it was rather dry; so be sure to keep them more on the plump side.
I usually don’t leave comments but… these were fabulous!
I made them last night when I had my grandmother over (a strict believer in “vegetarians still eat lamb… right?”) and even she was impressed.
For those of us like me who still dream of a food processor and a vitamix this recipe was easy and approachable. A sure to be staple in my fridge from this point forward.
I made these, subbing short grain brown rice (which I already had cooked) for the quinoa. The rice was nice and sticky, so the cakes held together incredibly well and developed an amazing crispiness, even though they were oven-baked. I followed the recipe otherwise to a T, and they came out perfectly! My meat-loving finance even said these were his favorite veggie burgers I’ve made to date :-)
Tried then, loved them. The whole family loved them (they are not completely veggie either). Even my picky pants son says, “mum, these are really great.”
Thanks Angela
Can I make these ahead and freeze or refrigerate them? Trying to save time before a party! :)
I’m planning on making these tonight with grated red potatoes instead of the sweet potatoes. Any thoughts on whether or not this could work?! Either way, I’ll keep ya posted! (My bf doesn’t like sweet potatoes, which is complete madness to me! Just doesn’t make sense!)
I can’t see why it wouldn’t work! Although I don’t think I have ever used grated potato in a veg burger recipes (need to fix this obvi!)
Angela, the recipe states grated sweet potato but the picture above looks like you cubed and roasted them – is it raw and grated or the other? Thanks so much
I used raw grated sweet potato in the quinoa cakes.
The roasted cubes are what I served on the side :)
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly . I just made two batches – love them.
The regular red potato worked great! Served these with your avocado basil cram and fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes from our garden, and they were awesome!!! Thanks for all your great recipes and inspiration!!!
I have to start by saying I am not vegan. I do eat meat occasionally, but am largely vegetarian. I made these for the second time tonight. Tonight I changed them up by substituting a mixture of spinach and kale, swapping cilantro for the basil, and adding finely diced jalapeño. We topped it all with mango salsa and blackened cod on the side. Amazing.
These look so yummy, I just restocked on quinoa so it’s perfect! yay!
I finally made them today, they’re SO GOOD! The combination of flavours is fantastic and they were rather quick to prepare as I had cooked quinoa on hand. I shared them with friends who tend to turn their nose up at vegetarian/vegan food and they also loved it. Another winning recipe which will be in heavy rotation over here. Thanks!
The weather has been so bleak in Toronto and I am craving sweet potatoes already! These look amazing, colourful and fresh. Here’s hoping the weather gets nicer but in the meantime, I am preheating my oven to make these. Thanks so much!
This Quinoa Cakes look phenomenal and I love that they are a bit different that the average go-to bean or lentil burger (haha, as much as I love beans sometimes I don’t feel like a whole bunch of beans for dinner!) :D I can imagine how great these burgers taste with a big bowl of crispy greens!! Yummyy!!
Made these tonight. Insanely good! I always keep cooked quinoa in my freezer so this was a cinch to make. I also used my food processor to chop everything finely and save on time. I also subbed hempseeds for the sunflower seeds due to allergies in our house. Thx for such fab recipes.
These quinoa cakes are sitting in the fridge waiting to be baked tomorrow. I had to substitute dried basil for fresh ‘cos when I pulled out the fresh basil….well it wasn’t that fresh….. Instead of the “runny tahini”, I used your Ultra Creamy Hemp Seed Dressing. I will have to freeze most of the burgers. Angela, could you remind me/us, why you choose to bake your burgers before freezing as opposed to freezing them raw?
So…I made them tonight with a twist.. I didn’t make burgers….I put the mixture in tart shells, to have sort of a “meat” pie experience. Quite good.
These look so good! How rude of you to make us wait 2 1/2 months though…I guess we’ll let it slide this time since you are preggers :) Love the recipe and your pictures are beautiful as always.
Made these Friday night and had leftovers for lunch on Saturday. We ALL loved them, and my 9 year old thinks they will be great for lunch at school, too. I was out of sweet potato and basil so used carrots and chives, worked well. So perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you :)
How tasty! I made these last night, and they were wonderfully crispy and savory. I added 1 cup of fresh sweet corn to the patties-tis the season after all! I served the patties with slices of avocado and sea salt, over a big bed of mixed greens from our CSA. Yum! Thanks for the recipe :)
Fantastic!!
My batch is still in the oven but I couldn’t help eating a few spoonfuls right out of the mixing bowl. YUM! I had a little bit of trouble getting them to stick together – wet hands helped for forming them – but oh so delicious even if they don’t look as perfect as yours :)
These are fabulous! Just made them tonight and they turned out great. Carnivore husband enjoyed them as well (with some cheese :)). Angela – such a fan of so many of your recipes!
What about the “politics” of quinoa, which is why some of my friends have stopped eating it. I say all food is political, but quinoa in particular us drawing more awareness and reaction. Your thoughts?
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/01/quinoa_bad_for_bolivian_and_peruvian_farmers_ignore_the_media_hand_wringing.html
I made this on Friday evening (without the sundried tomatoes because I didn’t have any!) and loved the recipe. I thought that they were a little dry on the first night I ate them and had a very strong taste of flour. I whipped up a little vegan tartar sauce and that really helped even out the dryness! However, like most (or all) vegetarian recipes, the cakes were so much better on the second and third (and soon-to-be fourth) nights after the ingredients could settle with each other and mix flavors. I also thought they were better pan fried (after being initially baked) to add the crunch and savory-factor. It was so exciting to be able to make quinoa cakes after years and years and years of making quinoa salads. The New York Times once posted a recipe for variations on quinoa cakes and their recipe did not have any binding agents (the cakes were supposed to stick together by the moistness of the hot quinoa alone – HELLO). It was a disaster. I am so glad to know how to make these cakes now and look forward to including different ingredients.
These are wonderful! I tried these over the weekend. I love the flavour combinations. What a great idea! In response to some of the comments, these froze really well. I just defrosted it and popped it under the broiler for a quick breakfast this morning. I had it with avocado and vegan sausages- definitely a keeper. I should mention, I made some alternations- I didn’t use oats or flour. I used 2 tbsp of almond flour and surprisingly it held together well! I used frozen spinach (defrosted) instead of kale because that’s what I had on hand. I didn’t add sunflour seeds but I definitely will next time, my sun-dried tomatoes weren’t oil packed and I used chives instead of onion! One last note, I grated raw sweet potato and added it. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be cooked but it worked and I think it would work either way. Thank you Angela!
I made these on Friday and we splurged and had them with french fries. So good. We had some of the leftovers on a big salad on Sunday and I had the rest in a wrap on Tuesday. There is no bad way to eat them!
Made these for dinner Saturday! Great recipe – they hold together well (used regular all purpose flour), taste great, and were good on salad as well as in a wrap or all alone. Even my toddler ate them (albeit with a bit of bribery to get her started!).
Just made these for dinner; my daughter and I loved them, but my 12 year old son prefers your chickpea yam burgers. Can’t fault him for that, they are delicious, too.
I made these tonight, and they are sooooooo delicious! I will be making them again and again! Thanks for the recipe!
My first comment, yay! So I made these last night, and I as I when I was shaping the patties, I was worried that they would fall apart. But once they were baked, they “gelled” perfectly together. The taste was fabulous too…well basically anything with tahini paste is fabulous. I’m writing from Israel, so tahini is staple product in our households! Thank you for this blog -OSG is the heart of our kitchen!
This recipe is four and a half. (I need to ‘save’ the half star for another recipe I love and which my husband raves about). Served them hot with fresh tomato salsa. There are a few left in the fridge – lunch today for sure!
Crispy, tasty. Thanks Angela.
I have loved many of your recipes, however, this one did not meet my expectation of wonderful. The cakes were bland and way too dry. I have tried making patties before (lentil, veggie) and always find the same problem. Either there is too little binding agent and they fall apart or they are dry. And they are always a lot bladder that I like. If you have any suggestions on improving, I would love to try again.
I found with the sundried tomato and sweet potato, it added a lot of moisture and flavour. I wonder if you need to up the sundried tomato or sweet potato content? Just a thought.
I am so excited to make these! They look and sound amazing. Quick question – I have sun dried tomatoes but they aren’t in oil. They are just dry, not in any liquid. Would those work okay, or should I buy oil-packed ones for best results/flavor? Thanks for all you do, and congrats on the little one!
Hi April, I tend to prefer the flavour of the oil-packed ones, but you can totally use dried too. Just be sure to soak them in water until soft before using. Hope this helps and thanks for your congrats!
I made these last night for my husband and I and they were delicious!! We are not vegans, but we still like to take a break from meat every now and then! The instructions were easy to follow and I feel like there could be so many things added to change the recipe up if we ever needed to in the future!! I know this meal is going to appear a lot more in our dinners from now on. Sometimes it is so difficult to come up with interesting meal choices, so I really appreciate your creativity in putting together this recipe!
Thank you!
These are amazing!!!!
These are absolutely awesome! Can think of a whole lot of different ways to enjoy them. I think this is one of my favorite recipes, though there has been many!
I love this bean-free cake. Almost like a quinoa falafel or something.
Yum!