New Mum’s Food Adventures

Above is the veggie version. It would be easy to make a vegan version. Mine however are not as my family and I are not vegan. All you would have to do to make it vegan would be to use vegan cheese as a binder.

I made a beef version to encourage my toddler. He is more likely to eat veggies if there’s beef or lamb involved. The first bite he gagged but it was how it looked. The second bite with some meat in it and he was interested. He ate almost a whole ball and fell asleep soon after for an after lunch nap.

My food experiment needs improvement and measurements. I winged it. I had to. I had an idea to execute and I did. The meat one was too wet and floppy and needed mashed potatoes. The veggie ones held form but needed a bit more flavour. They look ugly but the flavour is good. But it needs improvement. So I will mention what ingredients I used but I eyeballed the amounts. When I figure out what works I will come back with a real recipe but for now I’ll just talk about it.

So I soaked white quinoa over night. It was a I had. Maybe about a cup. Overnight soak was very necessary for the best flavour. I cooked over stove top a bit of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil with one and a half cups water. Then I pan fried half a diced brown onion. Any onion will do. Then I added spinach. I buy a good frozen spinach and that’s what I used. I added a very small amount of garlic as baby is still getting used to garlic. Added just enough to make the spinach fragrant. I added salt as well and a dash of olive oil. combined the cooked ingredients and dumped in frozen peas, corn and carrots. I had limited time and added frozen fries to add potato chunks. It didn’t work out right. It should just be mashed potato next time. One big one would do. I used egg for binder. Two eggs. Vegan cheese would be better as an egg alternative if you wanted to make a vegan version. Then salt and pepper and a good amount of chives. I used dried chives. Gave it a good stir with a wooden spoon and the frozen veg cooled the quinoa and spinach. I still had to let it rest for about ten minutes to be cool enough to touch. I used one hand to make them into balls and placed on a tray lined with baking paper. Then I sprinkled with smoked paprika. I preheated my oven to 180 degrees Celsius and cooked for 25 minutes.

Next time I try this I want to try it with cheese and mashed potatoes. The all veggie version held shape but they were fragile. This is why it needed some mash. I am going to eat them cold throughout the day. My toddler ended up liking the meat version best. So I plan to experiment with other variations. Rosemary garlic would be a good one to try. I think next time I should try adding salmon with lemon juice. As long as there’s enough quinoa to roll it and a binder the recipe is forgiving if you don’t measure anything. There’s a lot you could do to this to make it better. When I figure out a good recipe it might make it into our regular rotation.

This side dish addition is gluten free and a good addition to any meal you feel like making more interesting. Any questions, drop a comment below.