If you spend much time poking around in the food blog world, you may come away thinking that January is National Quinoa Month. I’ve noticed that, in particular, there are a lot of vegetable quinoa burger recipes popping up.
Great idea, I thought. What I tried to take away from all of these recipes was some sort of quinoa burger that was hearty, kid friendly and super tasty. Most of all, I wanted a healthy veggie burger. If you’ve ever looked at the ingredient list on frozen veggie burgers, you’ve probably wondered if they were really food, or the output of a university science class.
Like a lot of my recipes, especially the ones I scrap together on the weekends, there’s a heavy influence from what is in our refrigerator that’s hitting the use-by wall. This time around it was red pepper and broccoli. So they’re in. And what goes great with both of those ingredients? Spinach. Garlic too. What I came up with was a pretty tasty veggie burger recipe that’ll trump anything in the frozen food aisle.
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For the vegetable mixture, I was pulling together leftovers to get about 1 cup of vegetables. I put a sliced medium red pepper, a handful of steamed broccoli and some cooked spinach into a food processor and pulsed until it was well chopped. Put the vegetables into a large mixing bowl and add the breadcrumbs, cheese and herbs
Basically, you want to get to about 1 cup of chopped veggies.
These have some serious next day appeal too as the garlic really popped when I had them as a snack. The next time around I’ll double up what I make so that I’ll have some healthy lunch meals throughout the week.
Make a healthy veggie quinoa burger that your kids will love. They're easy to prepare and loaded with spinach, broccoli and peppers!
- 2 cups Cooked Quinoa
- 4 Garlic Cloves
- 1/3 cup Frozen Spinach
- 1/3 cup Frozen Broccoli
- 1/3 cup Red Pepper Chopped
- 2 Large Eggs, Beaten
- 1 cup Toasted (Panko) Breadcrumbs
- 2/3 cup Cheddar Cheese
- 2 tablespoons Fresh Herbs Basil, Cilantro or Parsley
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper optional
- 1/4 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika optional
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Cook the frozen spinach and broccoli according to package instructions. Then drain them and place them in a food processor with the garlic and red pepper and pulse until they are chopped thoroughly.
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Add the beaten eggs and breadcrumbs to form a batter that you can scoop onto a hot pan. It won't be as firm as burger meat, but it shouldn't be runny like pancake batter
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Season with salt & pepper, optionally add the cayenne and paprika.
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Bring a large skillet up to medium high heat and add a small amount of olive oil. Place the sliders into the skillet and gently press them down. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side until browned and crispy.
Featured on:
Oh My Veggies: 40 Vegetarian Quinoa Recipes, March 2013
Featured Recipe on Cooking Quinoa, April 2013
Acting Balanced: 25 fabulous Back-To-School lunch ideas, August 2013
Hello, Wonderful: 10 Yummy Ways for Kids to Try Quinoa, September 2014
These sliders look so simple, healthy and delicious! Definitely trying these little babies.
Thanks, Kari! Hope they turn out just as well for you.
Hi ya,
I am popping over from the grow your blog links hop. What a cool site. I am now folling you on pinterest and G= so I dont miss anything. I need me some of these……
Hi Bintu, Thanks so much for following and checking out the sliders!
I love this kind of patties and make them regularly! These quinoa sliders look delicious!
Thanks, Katarina!
Looks Yummy!!
Hi Inessa, thanks a bunch for the comment!
Quinoa rocks! Love how versatile it is. I've been collecting lots of quinoa recipes to try. Yours looks fantastic and I will add it to one of my Pinterest boards so I don't forget about it.
Hey Christin, I've got a few more quinoa posts I'm going to try and sneak in over the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by and pinning the receipe!
These sound awesome!
Thanks, Andrea!
I just discovered quinoa and thi sounds great!
I am always looking for new and creative ways to use quinoa, these look great! I am going to try them out but substitute goat cheese for the cheddar, I will let you all know how they turn out!
That sounds like a great substitution! Will be good to hear how they turn out and if there are any other fun changes you make.
These sound great, I love the colour of them. I need to use quinoa more often!
Thanks, Caroline!
Love these quinoa sliders Tom, which reminds me I haven't cooked with quinoa in awhile. Love this super food!
Geez did I call you Tom?! I meant Tony! Sorry!
No worries at all! I've become a big quinoa fan as well and am enjoying finding more and more fun ways to use it. Thanks for stopping by!
These are fantastic! I subbed out edamame for the broccoli also used a shredded romano cheese with a little mozz instead of cheddar. Also crushed oyster crackers as filler instead of bread crumbs. Used cilantro and creen onion as my herbs. So good!!!!!! Served with a remoulade of sratcha green onions amd spicy honey djon. These will be a regular menu item at my house.
Hi Lexi – I love how you made this your own…using the recipe for guiderails and customizing it with your favorite ingredients. The spicy remoualde sounds great too.
Thanks for sharing the results!
I can't wait to try these! Do you think they could be prepared and frozen individually and still be tasty?
Don't see any reason why not. Not a bad idea, I may give that a try this weekend. Let me know if you do the same and how they turn out when reheated.
I guess I can switch cauliflower for the broccoli????
Yes, that would probably be just fine.