During our nightly social network catch-up sessions while hubby and I were on vacation, I saw that Recipris (a fantastic vegetarian food/recipe blogger) had posted on her Facebook page that she was in Bali, which happened to be our next destination! I got super excited and asked hubby if it would be weird if I asked her to meet me while in Bali. He encouraged the idea and next thing we know is that we're sharing laughs with the newlyweds, Priya (author of Recipris) and her husband, Raman, over dinner. I'm so glad I took the initiative of reaching out to her because she is a sweetheart and so is her husband.
Priya invited us to her parents' house for dinner last month and I made this dish, inspired by Sprouted Kitchen's recipe, to bring with us. I made a few changes to add The Mess I Make's touch.
Patties
Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa - uncooked (cook as directed on the box. Usually 1/2 c uncooked quinoa is cooked in 1 c salted water)
3/4 cup Cannellini beans (or chickpeas)- canned
1/2 potato - boiled (instead of using egg)
1/4 small red onion
1/4 cup cilantro
1-2 Serrano peppers (depending on your spice level tolerance)
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin Salt, to taste
Steps
- Pulse onions, garlic, green chillies.
- Add Cannellini beans, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, ground cumin, and pulse for 30-45 seconds (until the beans have just broken down).
- Add boiled potato, cooked quinoa, and pulse until everything is mixed. Don't over-pulse the mixture or it will get too mushy.
- Make 1 inch balls and flatten them.
- Heat a non-stick or a ceramic pan on medium heat.
- Drizzle vegetable or extra virgin olive oil on the pan and carefully place the patties on the pan.
- Cook the patties for ~5 minutes on each side or until they reach a beautiful brown toasted color.
- These patties can be served at room temperature so let the patties cool off on a wire rack while you make the yogurt sauce.
Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup plain non-far Greek yogurt
1 tsp Lime zest (optional)
A drizzle of honey if the yogurt is too tart
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Steps
- Mix everything in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Topping
Ingredient + Step
Slice ~10 cherry tomatoes in halves or thin slices, whatever you prefer.
This slicing knife was my precious purchase from Aritsugu, one of the oldest knife shops in Japan. I HAD to visit this place because of its incredible history and of course, its a kitchen supply store so I couldn't pass. I also got it personalized with a [close enough] Japanese translation of "the mess I make".
Ok...back to the recipe.
Assemble
- Place patties on a serving platter.
- You can either dollop a small amount of yogurt on each patty (this could get messy) or use the sandwich bag technique. Transfer the yogurt mixture in a sandwich bag and cut a small piece at one of the corners and pipe the yogurt onto each patty. This made the dish mess-free and pretty at the same time.
- Place sliced cherry tomatoes on each patty.
Makes ~20 patties | Time: patties ~45 minutes | Yogurt mixture ~10 minutes
DIY "gourmet" gift wrap
I figured giving a cookbook to chef Pri would be the most appropriate gift. Sprouted Kitchen (a husband-wife duo) is a wonderful [primarily vegetarian] recipe blog, the pictures are simply beautiful and the recipes are delicious. I decided to wrap the book in a brown paper bag to have that rustic look. Using a bay leaf and a dried red chili as part of the wrapping decor added to the cooking motif.
- Gather your supplies: medium size brown paper bag ribbon bay leaf dried red chili tape scissors (You could also use a sprig of rosemary, sage, a cinnamon stick etc.)
- Cut open a brown paper bag. Cut off the handles so you have neat edges.
- Wrap the book with the paper bag.
- Tie the ribbon any way you want.
- Slip the bay leaf and dried red chili and secure with a double sided tape.
