lemon herb quinoa patties

A while back I made a quinoa dish, and made way too much quinoa. Like probably quadruple the amount of quinoa required. Who knew it expanded so much? Probably you. Not I. Oh and did I mention that in our tiny apartment fridge, two large cereal bowls of said quinoa have been sitting, covered by a grocery bag, for over a week? No, we don't have containers here, and yes they have taken up at least 1/8 of the fridge.

Needless to say, I was on the look out for recipes to use up that quinoa. It really feels like I keep saying the word Quinoa and it's loosing all meaning.... Anyway, so many recipes were uninteresting to me. They all seemed to be the same version of Tabbouleh, and I wasn't looking for a cold salad as the weather in New York is finally starting to resemble Fall.

I stumbled upon a recipe for vegan quinoa cakes and heavily altered it (soy parmesan and tofu cream cheese? no thank you). The result was fabulous. We loved the texture, the lemony flavour, and they were very filling! Absolutely a recipe I'll make again. Probably soon, as one cereal bowl still remains.

In a large bowl, mix:
 - 2 cups cooked quinoa
 - 2 TB cream cheese (cream it in with a fork - this will take some elbow grease)
 - Zest of 1 whole lemon (if you don't have a lemon zester, use a cheese grater)
 - Sea salt and ground pepper to taste
 - couple glugs of olive oil
 - large handful of chopped parsley (do not use dried parsley, you can't compare the flavours!)
 - juice of 1/2 the lemon you zested
 - sprinkle of Italian bread crumbs until you get a texture you can easily pack (for me it was 1/8 cup)

Shape into four patties. The easiest way it to make a ball and once it's on the pan, then flatten it gently.
Bake on a non-stick (so you don't need to add oil or butter) pan at 375 for approx 15 minutes, or until top is slightly browned.

We served ours with some amazing organic boneless chicken thighs (buying organic meat is way cheaper in the USA and we're capitalizing!) that were pan-cooked with olive oil, S&P, and a sprinkle of bread crumbs. Then we tossed some steamed broccoli in the pan with the leftover chicken drippings. It was delicious! Give it a try! I'm filing this recipe away under {SUMMER} because the flavours fit that season best. Plus it was 75 F (over 20 C!) when I was making them, so the month doesn't really matter :)