My mint plant hates me now

Finally, it feels like spring has come to town! The trees are getting green and the sun is (sometimes) shining! And mainly it stopped being so damn cold all the time, especially at night!

The best part is finally I am able to hide away the heavy winter clothes and taking finally out the summerish ones. I’d really like to live in a all-year-round-summer place 🙂

Just think about how much time and effort it takes when you have to go out just 5 minutes, but you have to put on 4 different shirts and sweaters, coat, gloves, scarf, beanie. Then since my feet are always cold, if I know I have to stay outside a lot of time I also wear leggings inside my jeans and 2 pairs of socks! I mean it gets really HEAVY moving in all those things!

Is it not CONVENIENT when you just have to put on shorts, a tank and sandals and you’re good to go? I mean, even if you’re a winter person you have to recognise that!

So on my balcony there is now a cute little mint plant and a dying basil plant. It’s already the second one, I don’t know why but this year they keep on dying… Anyway, I’m now putting mint everywhere I feel it could taste good, and it usually does! As much as I love minty desserts, I’m becoming more and more addicted to savoury minty recipes!

I also happen to have a peculiar desire to eat chickpeas lately. Is it really REALLY weird? So these patties have both, and a little salad on the side to accompany them. It’s a very healthy and skinny dish, and the crunchiness makes it satisfying, like eating fries! But better. The kind that makes you think “ok, I’ll take just another one!”

Quinoa & Chickpeas Patties with Minty Salad

• Servings: 15-20 patties and 2 servings of salad
• Time: 45 minutes cooking, 30 minutes waiting!
• Difficulty: pretty basic stuff
• Print

While cooking…

Listen to: Bruce Springsteen – Girls in their summer clothes

Drink: Mojito – Because for mistake we had too much mint! Yeah, mistake…

Ingredients – patties:

• 50 grams uncooked quinoa
• 125 grams canned chickpeas
• 1 egg
• 100 grams feta cheese
• 1 green onion
• 1 + 1/2 tbs chopped fresh mint
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• bread crumbs
• olive oil, salt, pepper to taste

Preparation – patties:

1. Cook your quinoa according to package instructions (usually, rinse it and then boil it in water for about 15 minutes, then drain)
2. Chop the green onion finely and sauté it in a bit of olive oil
3. Add the quinoa to the onion and stir-fry for 1 minute, then remove from heat
4. In a blender, blend (d’oh!) the chickpeas with 2 tbs of water
5. Chop finely or crumble the feta cheese
6. Mix together all your ingredients (quinoa with onion, mint, feta, chickpeas, lemon juice, egg) and add salt and pepper to taste, then let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes
7. Prepare a bowl with breadcrumbs, divide the mixture in 15 to 20 balls (mines were 17, actually) and roll them in the breadcrumbs, then push them down to form patties instead of balls. They should not be thicker than half an inch, to cook properly
8. Place your patties in a good non-stick pan without anything else, not oil nor butter, and cook them at medium-low heat for about 10 minutes on each side, until they get a nice brown and form a little crust

Ingredients – salad:

• 1 bell pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 100 grams fresh baby spinach
• 2 tbs mint leaves
• 2 tbs basil leaves (opt)
• 1 green onion
• salt, pepper, vinegar and sriracha, to taste

Preparation – salad:

1. Chop all the ingredients and mix them together. Yeah you really didn’t need directions, right?

Now for the final touches:

• Calories: for the patties is 1105 total, that means between 55 and 74 each. Salad is 157 per serving
• Fridge: 2 days
• Freezable: yes to patties, put them in the toaster or broiler to re-heat
• Next day: still awesome
• Cold: they taste ok, but taking them out of the fridge 30 minutes before consuming is better
• Hot: warm patties are heaven.
• Re-heating: yes, see freezable tips