Thanksgiving week is here! This week, we will all be stuffing ourselves silly with delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pie. I’m not sure about all of you, but I can’t wait! But, in an effort to try to help make your dinners a little less carb-heavy, I came up with these quinoa cakes. Packed full of protein and flavor, they would make a good substitute for potatoes or stuffing. I topped them with some sugar-free cranberry-orange sauce to make these more Thanksgiving-y. But, these would be great any time of the year. A lemon aioli sauce would also be great to dip these in!

Quinoa Cakes

Makes about 20 cakes

Ingredients:

– 1 cup uncooked quinoa (rinse if not already pre-washed)

– 1 cup water

– 1 cup chicken broth

– 1/2 tsp. salt

– 1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped

– 1/2 cup shredded carrot

– 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

– Zest of one lemon plus the juice, reserved

– 2 tbs. parsley, chopped

– salt and pepper to taste

– 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

– 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

– 4 eggs

– 2 tbs. parsley, chopped

– Extra virgin olive oil for frying

Directions:

1. In a pot, add the quinoa, 1/2 tsp. salt, water, and broth. Cook about 10-15 minutes until the quinoa is cooked and liquid is absorbed. Set aside and cool to room temperature.

2. In a large bowl, add the quinoa, onion (you can saute the onion first if you prefer for it to be more cooked), carrot, lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl. Add to quinoa mixture and mix well. If the mixture still seems to dry, you can add some water, 1 tbs. at a time.

3. Heat a medium non-stick fry pan on medium-low heat. Add olive oil (I did about 2 tbs.). Use your hands to form small patties and gently place each cake in the pan. Fry on each side approximately 4-5 minutes per side. Once they are done cooking, place them on a paper towel to drain them and then serve.

Tips for frying:
- Make sure your patties are an even thickness all the way around to ensure even cooking. Some of mine were thicker in the middle and it was harder to get the edges to brown since they weren’t touching the pan.
- Before you flip your cakes over for the first time, make sure they are fully browned on the one side. If they are not cooked enough, they will fall apart.
- Go easy on the oil. You should make sure there is some oil in the pan for each batch, but you really only need a little for each batch. I used a small pan and only did about 3-4 at a time so I only needed about 1-2 tsp. each time. If you drown these in oil, they will fall apart.

- Side note: As I was making these, I was also thinking that it might be possible to bake them in the oven and skip the frying, but I’m not sure if they would crisp up as much. If anyone wants to give it a try, please let me know how they turn out!

Sugar-Free Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Ingredients:

– 1 bag whole, fresh cranberries, rinsed

– 1 cup water

– 1/2-1 cup Splenda (add more if you want more sweetness. Any sugar or sugar substitute will do.)

– 1 orange (use all the juice) and zest from about half of the orange

– Optional: pinch of cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan on medium heat, add the water and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the orange juice and sweetener of your choice. Add the cranberries and zest. Cook about 10 minutes or until the cranberries start to pop. Pour the sauce into a bowl and the sauce will thicken as it cools. Once it is cooled to room temperature, you can stick it in the fridge until you are ready to serve.