Chickpea Quinoa Cakes

*I made this for dinner and thought I'd love it since it's made with quinoa and chick peas...two of my favorites!  It was REALLY good!  Even my teenage son liked it.  The avocado dip is a must with it.  The only problem I ran into was the cooking time was WAY off!  I ended up turning the oven up to 400 degrees and they browned much quicker.  The picture on the left is before I cooked them..the right is after.  Enjoy!


Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

For the cakes:
1 10.5 ounce can chickpea, drained and liquid reserved
4 stalks green onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tbsp chickpea liquid (plus additional, as needed) I used extra
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

For the Lemon avocado dip:
1 avocado, halved, seeded and mashed
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
1 heavy pinch fresh ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 (I did 400 because they never browned at 350).  In a food processor, pulse together the chickpeas, green onion and garlic until coarsely pureed, about 2 minutes

Transfer chickpea mixture to a medium mixing bowl and stir in quinoa, tahini, whole wheat flour and chickpea liquid until well combined.  The resulting mixture should be moist but not too wet.  You may need to add another tbsp of chickpea liquid.  Stir in paprika, salt, and pepper.

Add the panko bread crumbs to a small plate.  Form the chickpea quinoa mixture into equal size balls (I used a large melon scoop).  Roll each ball in the bread crumbs and transfer to a parchment or silicon mat lined baking sheet.  Flatten slightly to form 3/4 inch thick discs.  I used the bottom of a glass to flatten cakes.  Bake in the oven until light golden brown, about 18-20 min.  This depends on the oven.  Keep an eye on them if you decide to bake at a higher temperature.

While the cakes are cooking, make the avocado dip.  In a small bowl, mix the mashed avocado, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper.

Serve the cakes warm or at room temperature with a side of dip.