Recipe: Sweet Potato-Quinoa Cakes

These cakes can be served as an appetizer or as a main course, depending on how big you choose to make them.

Yield: 8 cakes (4 main course servings) or 24 appetizer servings

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated or finely chopped ginger
• 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups cooked black quinoa* 
• 1 1/2 cups grated sweet potato
• 1/2 cup (1/4-inch) diced pineapple
• 1/4 cup diced orange bell pepper
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped cilantro, plus extra sprigs for garnish
• 3-4 tablespoons grape seed or canola oil

*Approx. 1/3-1/2 cup dry quinoa cooked according to package instructions yields about 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa.

Directions

1. In a medium-sized bowl combine eggs, curry, ginger,garlic,salt, cayenne and flour. Stir in cooked quinoa and sweet potato and thoroughly combine with wet ingredients. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Make a salsa by combining pineapple, bell pepper, brown sugar and cilantro. Reserve.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large, nonstick pan over medium heat. For appetizer-sized cakes, drop heaping tablespoons of the quinoa mixture into the pan; for main-course servings combine 3 tablespoons quinoa mixture for each cake and place in pan. As cakes cook, flatten each cake into a pancake shape with a spatula.
4.Cook cakes, in batches, adding more oil to pan if pan becomes dry. Cook 1-3 minutes on one side, carefully flipping cakes with a spatula when golden brown then cooking on other side until cooked through, and golden brown.
5. As cakes are done, place on a paper-towel lined cooking sheet in warm oven until ready to serve. Garnish cakes with a dollop of pineapple salsa and cilantro sprig before serving.

 This recipe was written by Peggy Lampman and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on April 12, 2011.