Savory Veggie Quinoa Muffins

I’ve been seeing these veggie quinoa bites on my newsfeed for a while now so yesterday was the day I decided to make them. Let me tell you, they are delicious! This is the perfect hand held pick me up or lunch.

The best thing about them is that you can add whatever you wish! This is also perfect way to have your leftover quinoa. For this particular one, I used corn, scallions and chives. Oh and there were some addition of cheese because…why not?

NEWS FLASH! Have you ever had Franklin Foods Greek Cream Cheese? It’s half the fat, high in protein, and way better than your typical reduced fat cream cheese. Kroger has their own which is cheaper and tastes just as good as Franklin Foods. Plus, you know, the craze currently is throwing greek yoghurt into everything and I tend to follow that trend. Nope, not a plug, just something I am in love with since I can give my bagel a good shmear and not feel guilty about…as guilty.

BACK TO THE QUINOA MUFFINS! I call them muffins because I do not own a mini muffin tin and did not feel it was necessary to go buy a tin for quinoa bites. I promise you, the taste will be just as great if you use a regular muffin tin. Use whatever quinoa you have in your pantry. I threw in some frozen corn kernels into the quinoa while it was boiling since I did not want to wash another pot.I used 1/2C of quinoa which made about 7 regular size muffins.

I’ll post my recipe for what I did but to be honest, you can add whatever you want from veggies to meat. For the sauce, I just made a greek yoghurt (I told you I was obsessed) sauce with yoghurt, dried dill and dried mint.

Ingredients:

• 1/2C uncooked quinoa, rinsed
• 1/2 tsp each onion and garlic powder
• 1/4C frozen corn kernels
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1C veggie or chicken stock, or water
• 1/4C chives
• 1/4C scallions, all parts of it, diced
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp crushed red chili flakes or to taste, optional
• 1/4C panko bread crumbs (my mixture was too wet and I wanted to add some extra crunchiness)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp greek yoghurt cream cheese or any cream cheese of your choice
• 3 tbsp part-skin mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, heat up the olive oil
2. Add the garlic and onion powder followed by the quinoa
3. Toast the quinoa for about 5 minutes and then throw in the frozen corn
4. Add the stock or water and season with salt. I used a veggie base which already has salt in it, so I skipped this step
5. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked and all the water has been absorbed.
6. Fluff the quinoa with a fork and pour into a bowl to allow to cool for 10-15 minutes Add the chives, scallions, salt (if needed), pepper, smoked paprika, red chili flakes and mozzarella cheese. Mix well to combine
7. Add the cream cheese and mix well
8. Add the egg and stir well
9. If the mixture seems to wet, add panic bread crumbs a little at a time. Make sure to not add too much of it. You don’t want the “batter” to be dry.
10. Pour the mixture into a greased muffin tin almost to the top
11. Bake in a preheated 350F for about 20 minutes
12. Serve as is or with a sauce