Today I wanted to share a healthy, simple lunch idea with you guys: baked quinoa and millet patties. They taste so good inside a warmed pita bread alongside a simple salad with lemony vinaigrette.

I had a very virtuous Sunday this weekend. My plans to spend all day at the May Day Parade were scuppered when it got cancelled due to weather (we’re having April showers in May…) and so I was left with not a single plan for the day.

First, I made up a batch of Warm Breakfast Quinoa for the week. Halo shining, I decided while I was at it I’d prepare some healthy lunches too. This never happens – instead everyday I scramble around my kitchen trying to find something that my co-workers won’t judge me for eating as I rush out of the door (side note: bringing a LOT of cookies to work helps avoid the squinty-eyed weird looks from happening too often; being the Bringer of Baked Goods is a good thing).

I made up half of the recipe below, adapting Heidi Swanson’s original to use millet as well as quinoa and parsley instead of dill (which I hate). They taste excellent with a healthy dash of sriracha sauce and a couple of them would go down a treat at breakfast time with a fried egg and some wilted greens.

Baked Quinoa and Millet Patties
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups / 6 oz /170 g cooked quinoa, at room temperature*
• 1 1/4 cups / 6 oz/ 170 g cooked millet at room temperature*
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• 1/3 cup/ .5 oz /15 g finely chopped fresh chives
• 1/3 cup /.5 oz /15 g finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup / 1.5 oz /45 g finely chopped kale
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup / 3.5 oz /100 g bread crumbs, plus more if needed
• water or a bit of flour, if needed
• 1/3 cup / .5 oz / 15 g crumbled feta cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F / 200C.
2. Combine the quinoa, millet, eggs, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the chives, parsley, kale, onion, garlic, and cumin. Stir well.
3. Add the baking powder and bread crumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture.
4. Gently stir in the feta.
5. Form mixture into twelve 1-inch / 2.5cm thick patties with your hands. It seems best to err on the very moist side to avoid a not-overly-dry patty, but you can add more bread crumbs, a bit at a time, to firm up the mixture, if you need to. If the mixture is too dry then add a bit more beaten egg or water to moisten it.
6. Arrange the patties with a bit of space between each on a Silpat-lined (or greased) baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the bottoms are brown. Flip and bake for another 5 minutes.
7. Enjoy hot, or allow to cool to room temperature on a cooling rack. Makes about a dozen patties.

*To cook a batch of quinoa and millet: Combine 1 cups/ 6 oz/1700 g each of well-rinsed uncooked quinoa and millet with 3 cups / 700 ml water and 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, decrease the heat, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until the quinoa and millet mixture is tender and you can see the little quinoa curlicues.