When my husband and I married 20 years ago, he rarely ate vegetables, let alone salad. He was a self proclaimed meat and potatoes guy. We have bantered back and forth a joke between us about food in general.
The food joking began in those early years when he would ask me what I preferred for dinner, or why didn’t I want more of some food, and basically just pushing food to the top of my priority list. I would typically answer “no, food really isn’t that important to me”. So that was the joke. He would frequently state emphatically (with humor) “well, let me tell you Mary, FOOD is very important to me”.
Therein began my journey, to introduce a different kind of fresh, nutritious food to my darling husband.
I don’t go to extravagant lengths to prepare dinner, but I learned to cook as a girl from my grandmother, and I became quite proficient in preparing meals that my husband really liked.
So when it came to spaghetti squash, I felt that it was a food item I could purchase at the store and toss in the pantry where it would keep for a good while until it became part of my dinner menu.
I tried the “spaghetti and sauce dish” with parmesean cheese and lots of garlic and some butter. He didn’t go for that AT ALL!. So I started thumbing through my favorite app on the ipad – YUMMLY – and scanned through the variety of recipes that popped up for spaghetti squash. Yummly is where I found the original recipe for Spaghetti Squash and Quinoa fritters.
My recipe evolved in that I try always to prepare foods with products from Gluten Free Things. After all, I’m a digital marketer and Gluten Free Things is one of my favorite clients.
This recipe is not vegan because I do use eggs. But with Gluten Free Things brand White Bread Crumb Stuff, I can deliver a quality product and share with our audience of gluten-free consumers.
Gluten-Free Vegan White Bread Crumb Stuff
Here is the ingredients list:
- One medium to large spaghetti squash
- One cup of cooked Quinoa
- 3-4 scallions chopped
- 3 mini sweet peppers chopped (optional)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1/2 cup Gluten Free Things brand White Bread Crumb Stuff
- 1/2 cup pecorino parmigiana cheese – grated
- 2 eggs
Directions
Early in the day or even the day before, get your spaghetti squash cooked. You can remove the seeds first or cook and make it easy on yourself.
Some bake it in the oven cut in half. What I find is the easiest, least amount of fuss is to poke a couple of sharp knives slots in your spaghetti squash to release steam, place in your slow cooker with a 1/2 cup of water in the bottom, turn the dial to high and let it cook slow and tender for an hour and a half to 2 hours. When you can pierce the skin easily, its done.
I also typically cook my quinoa early to get that all done and cooled. I put 2 cups of water in a saucepan, one cup of quinoa, bring to a boil, drop the temp to low, and put the lid on. Set the timer to 20 minutes. You’ll end up with an extra cup of Quinoa so if you don’t like it too much, just cut the water to one cup, with a 1/2 cup of Quinoa and you’ll use it all in the recipe.
Now, get a large bowl and start to measure out all the ingredients into the bowl. I just spoon the spaghetti squash out of its skin and into the bowl. You can cover the other half with plastic wrap or in an airtight container and save for another batch. Freezing the extra half spaghetti squash would work just fine as well.
Get your hands clean and start squishing all the ingredients together until well mixed. Pre-heat your skillet and drizzle with a little olive oil to just cover the pan.
Now begin forming the fritter patties and placing on the skillet on medium heat or if using an electric skillet, I typically set it to 300 degrees. Don’t crowd them. I put six fritters in the electric skillet to start. Let them cook until the bottom is golden brown, around 8-10 minutes. Flip with your spatula and allow to cook the other side another 8 to 10 minutes as well. I like to sprinkle some himalayan sea salt on the side thats cooked.
Once the other side is golden brown, remove from the pan onto a plate and serve. Some recipes serve with a dollop of sour cream. I think that sounds good but we don’t eat our fritters with sour cream. I definitely eat a fritter with dinner and sometimes, if I’m extra hungry, I ‘ll eat a second one. They’re also really yummy cold too.
Servings – Approximately 9 fritters
Enjoy!
SaveSave
