Quinoa Johnny Cakes

If you know me, you know my obsession with True Food Kitchen and specifically with their Quinoa Johnny Cakes. It all started last May when my friend Sandy suggested we get brunch their after the Santa Monica Classic 10k. The johnny cakes were amazing and the quinoa added the much needed nutrition since it is a good source of protein, iron, potassium, and B vitamins. Since breakfast is the hardest meal to eat out (I'm starving when I wake up) I scoured the internet and found what appears to be the recipe on NBC's website!

The recipe leaves a lot to be desired in directions and since I had a scare the other day where I thought the page had been taken down, I decided to immortalize it and provide the extra information. I try not to buy too many ingredients and instead use what I have on hand so I used vanilla extract instead of paste, almond milk instead of cow's, coconut oil instead of canola, and regular quinoa instead of red. They still taste very close to the original in my opinion.

Ingredients:

AP Flour 1 cup
Baking powder 1 Tbsp
sea salt 1/2 tsp
cinnamon 1/2 tsp
raw cane sugar 2 Tbsp

whole milk 1 cup
vanilla paste 1/2 tsp
organic eggs 2 each
expeller pressed canola oil 1/4 tsp (I used vegetable oil since coconut oil is solid at room temperature)
cooked red quinoa 1 cup

Expeller pressed canola oil 1 tsp (to grease the pan)
Blueberries 8-10 per pancake

Directions:

Don't forget to cook your quinoa ahead of time! (I hate when recipes call for pre-cooked items. Inevitably I'll forget until it's time to add the item and then have to stop everything to prepare it!) 

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Add remaining ingredients and mix after each addition.

Use your preferred oil (coconut doesn't burn and has no flavor so it's perfect) to grease a large pan and add batter. I made mine smaller than True Food but I'm sure it would work with any size. Just as with regular pancakes, when you see the bubbles start to pop it's time to flip them over.

You can always flip them back if you like them a bit darker.

When both sides are to your liking, remove to a plate and add maple syrup and blueberries. True Food also adds greek yogurt if you want to copy them exactly.

Enjoy!