Chickpea quinoa cakes are like a grain salad in crispy-patty form

These crispy-edged cakes — like a grain salad in patty form — are light and tasty on their own, and outstanding with spicy, creamy pumpkin seed salsa on top.
Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Gina Nistico

What’s in your cooking repertoire? Do you have one?

When colleagues Becky Krystal, Aaron Hutcherson and I talked to host Cristina Quinn for the third season of her Post podcast, “Try This,” the subject came up quickly. The podcast’s goal is to help listeners learn how to overcome a common challenge, and this season is about finding joy in cooking. Becky (The Post’s recipes editor), Aaron (our Dinner in Minutes columnist) and I found ourselves beating the same drum: We made the case for cooks to learn a handful of dishes you can make over and over again.

The benefits are many. You take some of the guesswork out of the nighttime dinner scramble, you get so comfortable with a recipe’s basics that you can tweak it to your (and your family’s or guests’) desires and, perhaps most importantly, you increase your kitchen confidence every time you cook it.

Sometimes, a dish is so appealing that it enters your repertoire immediately. And sometimes, it can take years and several iterations before a dish makes the leap from “Let’s try this” to “When are we having that again?”

The latter is the case with this recipe, based on a concept I first started playing with a dozen years ago, when I was looking for ways to improve my opinion of quinoa. One of my favorite cookbook authors, Heidi Swanson, combined it with egg, cheese, dried bread crumbs, chives, onion and more to make little patties you pan-fry until crispy. I really liked them, but I felt the need to add cooked barley to make them more toothsome. And I spiced them with curry powder, among other changes.

Fast forward several years, and I revisited the concept through an America’s Test Kitchen recipe that followed a similar outline, but with freshly made bread crumbs, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, and topped with a little yogurt. So good. But something still kept them out of my regular rotation. What was it? I’m not sure.

Recently, I went back to the idea, this time adding chickpeas to the quinoa instead of barley, plus fresh cherry tomatoes and scallions. I wanted to veganize the recipe, so instead of eggs, I used a go-to substitute (at least when it comes to binding): vegan mayonnaise. The chickpeas added texture and protein, but not as much of the latter as I wanted, so I started thinking about a nut-packed topping. I remembered loving a pumpkin seed salsa I had tried years ago from chef Hugo Ortega, so I simplified that to go on top.

While still delightfully crispy-edged and savory, these cakes are more delicate than the previous versions, so I like to roast rather than pan-fry them, making them less messy to get on the table. Maybe that’s what made the difference, or maybe it’s just the appeal of the universal combination of beans and grains, but I’ve already cooked these several times since I first developed them.

Actually, that’s only part of it. This recipe has entered my repertoire because it’s two dishes rather than one. You can eat this salsa with a spoon, so its uses seem virtually unlimited. I know I’ll find plenty of other directions to take it.

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You may have a little more of the salsa than needed for this recipe, but you can spoon it on any roasted or steamed vegetables, or use it as a sandwich spread or dip.
Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Gina Nistico

Chickpea Quinoa Cakes With Pumpkin Seed Salsa

These crispy-edged cakes — like a grain salad in patty form — are light and tasty on their own, and outstanding with spicy, creamy pumpkin seed salsa on top. You may have a little more of the salsa than needed for this recipe, but you can spoon it on any roasted or steamed vegetables, or use it as a sandwich spread or dip. The cakes are too delicate to eat as veggie burgers, but that’s OK; they’re more elegant this way. This is a great use of leftover cooked quinoa, or you can cook some just for this recipe.

Storage: Refrigerate the cakes and the salsa separately for up to 4 days.

For the salsa

1 plum tomato, cored and halved lengthwise

½ jalapeño pepper, stemmed and halved lengthwise (see Substitutions)

½ cup roasted, salted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

¼ cup water, plus more as needed

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves (see Substitutions)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1 lime), plus more as needed

Fine salt

For the cakes:

Olive oil, for greasing the sheet pan

One (15.5-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 cup cooked red or white quinoa (see Notes)

1 cup plain panko

½ cup grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, quartered

½ cup vegan mayonnaise, such as Sir Kensington’s

6 scallions, trimmed and finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, pressed or finely grated

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1 lime), plus more to taste

¼ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

Make the salsa: Heat a large (12-inch) skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat until just starting to smoke. Add the tomato and jalapeño and cook, turning frequently, until charred all over, 5 to 7 minutes total. Transfer to a food processor.

Add the pumpkin seeds, water, cilantro and lime juice to the food processor, and purée until smooth. Add more water as needed to create a thick but pourable consistency. Taste, and season with more lime juice and salt as needed.

Make the cakes: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a large sheet pan with oil.

In a large bowl, use a fork to very lightly mash the chickpeas. Add the quinoa, panko, tomatoes, mayonnaise, scallions, garlic, lime juice and salt, and stir until thoroughly combined. Taste, and season with more lime juice and/or salt as needed. Divide into eight portions (a scant ½ cup each), and form into patties no more than ½-inch thick.

Transfer the patties to the prepared sheet pan and roast for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and crisp on the edges. Flip them over and continue roasting for another 10 minutes, or until deeply browned on the edges.

Transfer the cakes to a serving platter or plates, spoon the salsa on top, and serve hot or at room temperature.

Substitutions:

Want to increase or decrease the heat in the salsa? Use the whole jalapeño or substitute serrano to increase the heat; remove the seeds (or omit entirely) to decrease the heat.

If you don’t like cilantro, you can substitute mint or parsley.

This can also be made with white beans, black beans, or kidney beans.

For lime juice, you can use lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

Notes: To cook the quinoa for this recipe, rinse 1/3 cup quinoa and combine with 2/3 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the quinoa has swelled and absorbed the water, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely before forming the cakes. (You can refrigerate the cooked quinoa for up to 3 days before making the recipe.)

Serves 4 (makes 8 cakes)

Nutritional Facts per serving (2 cakes plus ¼ cup salsa) | Calories: 558; Fat: 36 g; Saturated Fat: 4 g; Carbohydrates: 45 g; Sodium: 666 mg; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Protein: 18 g; Fiber: 8 g; Sugar: 3 g

— From Washington Post Food and Dining editor Joe Yonan, with recipes inspired by cookbook author Heidi Swanson and Houston chef Hugo Ortega.