With the intention of hitting up the Union Square farmer’s market and tackling a long list of miscellaneous errands, Clark and I headed into the city last Saturday with a friend. Clark and I were about an hour late to get out the door because, of course, we were making a recipe. We had the brilliant idea of making quinoa nuggets a few weeks ago and it’s been all I could think about ever since.
At first, the idea was simply to create crispy, nugget-shaped quinoa bites. That probably would have been good enough. But as I’ve said before, we have a thing for goat cheese. When Clark suggested that we stuff the nuggets with it, I laughed at first. He’s always suggesting uses, both practical and absurd, for goat cheese. Then I stopped laughing and realized that he was a genius. GOAT CHEESE STUFFED QUINOA NUGGETS.
So we finally got around to making them last weekend and they are now a new favorite. We made a small batch and I ate two before we headed out the door. 6 hours later, I was still full. Not even sushi tempted me. These little nuggets powered me through an overcrowded farmer's market, the flea market, Bed Bath & Beyond, Container Store, and Trader Joe's. Forget protein bars. These quinoa nuggets are where it's at.
If you’re not feeling the goat cheese, just skip it. We made a couple of nuggets without and they were plenty delicious. These are great for so many reasons. They are easy to make and very filling. Great for dinner, great the next day, great for packing in your lunch, great for kids, great for dipping.
Goat Cheese Stuffed Quinoa Nuggets
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6
Description
Quinoa bites stuffed with goat cheese, greens, and herbs. They're a protein-packed filling meal and they make great leftovers.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of cooked quinoa
- 2 eggs [whisked]
- 1 c. chopped greens [spinach or baby chard work well]
- 2 tsp. sea salt
- 2 tsp. fresh black pepper
- ½ Tbsp. dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp. brown rice flour
- ⅓ c. gluten-free breadcrumbs
- 3 cloves of garlic [minced]
- 2 oz. goat cheese
Instructions
- Cook quinoa – you'll need two cups for the recipe. After it is cooked, set it aside to cool in a large bowl.
- Preheat oven to 350º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk eggs then add salt, pepper, and thyme. Add eggs, greens, and minced garlic to the bowl of quinoa and mix together.
- In a separate bowl, mix together brown rice flour and breadcrumbs.
- Form the quinoa mixture into balls, about ¼ c. in size.
- Stuff with small chunks of goat cheese, about the size of of a grape.
- Rolls quinoa balls in the breadcrumb/rice flour mixture to lightly coat.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Appetizer
Nutrition
- Calories: 1801
- Sugar: 5g
- Sodium: 5359mg
- Fat: 45g
- Saturated Fat: 14g
- Unsaturated Fat: 26g
- Carbohydrates: 270g
- Fiber: 29g
- Protein: 79g
- Cholesterol: 398mg
I really enjoyed these. I had some leftover quinoa in the fridge and a bit of goat cheese on the brink of going bad, so it was destiny really:). I just have to say that something just was not right for me in the recipe. The mixture absolutely would not form a ball, or hold itself together *at all*. I kept adding a few spoonfulls of each flax meal, oat flour, whole spelt flour and breadcrumbs. I didn't know what I was doing or which did the trick eventually, but I just kept going at it until it got cohesive. I also added an extra egg white too.I just have no idea how your mixture held together.
I made them real big, so extra cheese could fit it. I also think that a stronger cheese would fit in here nicely, like gorgonzola for ex. Will try it next time.
I enjoyed how crispy they were. I oiled them up a bit before baking to make sure of that, though since you didn't do it, maybe they would have crisped up on their own?. Also, I baked them at a higher temperature, 195 celsius.
Popped 2 in the freezer, let's hope they do well defrosted.
Anyways, thanks for the recipe, the nuggets are very cool and creative.
I am allergic to eggs but this sounds and looks so good, can you substitute something for the eggs? Like apple sauce? Thanks a lot! great recipe!
You could try using flax eggs! It's 1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons of water, mixed together. That will make up for 1 egg. Hopefully that works! Apple sauce may work as well… but it would change the flavor up a bit.
Does this only make 6 nuggets? or 6 servings?
It makes 6 nuggets, and they are about 1/4 c. each. Not small nuggets at all!
I was wondering what you used for dipping? Mustard?
Yes, we just used some stone ground mustard for dipping. They can be dipped in anything though! We wanted to create a dipping sauce for this recipe but ran out of time. Feel free to try something new and get creative :).
This looks fantastic! Will have to try soon. Thanks for the inspiration :)
Let us know what you think!