These veggie-packed curried millet cakes make a fun, unexpected, and delicious vegetarian dinner! From The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get quinoa to stick together to form cohesive patties. With eggs, without eggs… I’ve made countless variations, some more successful than others, but now I have just one word: millet.
What is millet?
If you’ve never cooked millet before, you’re going to love it. One of my favorite grains, millet has a delicious nutty flavor and versatile texture. Depending on what water:grain ratio you use while cooking it, it can become a fluffy couscous-like grain or a creamy millet porridge. Like brown rice, it’s a naturally gluten-free grain, so even if you’re gluten-free, you can enjoy these yummy millet cakes!
After making them a few times, these little guys have become one of my favorite millet recipes. Luckily for me, millet is sticker than quinoa, so they bind together really easily. They’re packed with carrots, spinach, and fresh herbs and spiced with curry and garlic. This recipe is so flavorful and foolproof… as it should be since it comes from America’s Test Kitchen’s new book: The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook.
Millet Cake Recipe Variations
Because I knew this millet recipe was well-tested, I messed with it. I knew many of you would ask how to make the cakes vegan, so I tried them 2 ways. In half, I followed the recipe and used an egg and yogurt to bind the patties. In the other half, I used flaxseed and almond milk to veganize them. Guess what – both ways worked! The sticky millet was enough to bind the cakes together, with or without eggs, so it’s easy to make this recipe vegan and gluten-free.
I didn’t follow one other instruction: I baked my millet patties instead of pan frying them as was recommended. We loved them baked, so I can only imagine that pan frying them would make them extra tasty.
So back to the book – you’re going to want this one in your kitchen. Inside, you’ll find over 700 recipes, vegetable cooking tips, ingredient explanations, step-by-step chopping how-to’s, and more. It’s a great resource for vegetarians or anyone who just wants to incorporate more meatless meals into their lives. Many of the recipes are also vegan and gluten-free. Buy it here!
Looking for more millet recipes?
Try this tabbouleh, this millet salad, or this stuffed squash next!
Millet Cakes with Carrots & Spinach
- 1 cup millet, rinsed
- 2 cups water
- salt and pepper
- 3 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 shallot, minced
- 6 ounces (6 cups) baby spinach, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and shredded
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- ¼ cup plain yogurt (vegan version: ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon almond milk)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten (vegan version: ¼ cup ground flaxseed)
- 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
- any sauce or chutney you like - I topped mine with greek yogurt, mixed with salt, pepper, chile flakes and a squeeze of lime, or use this recipe and make a similar vegan version.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine the millet, water, and ½ teaspoon salt in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until grains are tender and liquid is absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, let millet sit, covered, for 10 minutes; transfer to a large bowl.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the shallot and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the spinach and carrots and cook until the spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic, curry powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to the bowl with millet.
- Add the yogurt, egg, (or flax + almond milk) and cilantro into the millet mixture and fold until well combined. Use a ⅓ cup measuring cup to scoop the mixture, then form into a ½-inch-thick cake, and place on prepared sheet. Repeat. Refrigerate cakes until chilled and firm, about 30 minutes. (15 minutes for the vegan version).
- Drizzle the cakes with olive oil and bake 25-30 minutes or until the edges are crispy and cakes are cooked through.
Recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen’s new book: The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, and is re-printed with permission.
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I’ve never cooked with millet before, but these look delicious! One of my favorite meatless meals is a roasted sweet potato topped with kale and black beans sauteed in some chile verde!
I have so many favorites! I love cooking mushroom bourguignon for non-vegetarians and surprising them with dish’s heft and depth of flavor.
I love a good vegetarian risotto, but I just made a vegan chili that is spectacular. Clearly, I am still enjoying the stick-to-your ribs food of winter.
My favorite vegetarian meal is homemade refried beans, rice and guacamole.
Favorite is probably black bean enchilada casserole. Because who has time to roll individual enchiladas?
I love cookbooks! They are my favorite bedtime reading. I love anything involving pasta or cheese. I am not a skinny vegetarian!
Oh gosh. Where do I begin? I love, love spicy black bean burgers. Pinto beans with a side of turnip greens — I’m a Southern girl after all. Quinoa/veggie salad…I should probably stop:)
As a New Mexican girl myself, my favorite meatless meal is pinto beans and ____. Pinto beans with eggs and avocado, pinto beans mashed in a tortilla with cheese, pinto beans in a bowl with corn bread. That’s just how we like it around here.
YUM! This looks delicious and I’m a huge fan of ATK. They know what they’re doing!
Almost forgot! My favorite meatless meal is spinach lasagna 🙂
This cookbook looks amazing! Favorite meatless meal? Baked apples stuffed with wild rice and quinoa with a light arugula salad as a side.
My favorite meatless meal is Stellar Salad, a spaghetti squash/spinach/roast red pep/chevre salad from a restaurant in Burlington VT. It is topped with a simple vinaigrette and toasted walnuts.
These look amazing, and the cookbook looks great, too! It would be hard to choose my favourite meatless meal, but I’m currently on an Indian kick so I’ll have to say either palak paneer or dahl with lentils and beans. Ultimate comfort food 🙂
Favourite meatless meal is cupcakes, obviously. Specifically, chocolate coconut. Sure, some people think cupcakes aren’t a meal, but they’re wrong, man. Haters gonna hate (while I eat all the cupcakes-cakes-cakes-cakes then shake it off etc.).
Also, Internet *high five* for the millet recipe.
A giant spinach/mixed green salad with nuts, salty cheese, roasted tomatoes, some kind of veg protein (tofu or beans) and sherry vinaigrette.
Do you have the nutritional information for this recipe?
My favorite meatless is Veggie Lasagna and black bean burgers! I do have a new veggie burger recipe I am going to try this Spring!
Hands-down my favorite meatless meal is my boyfriend’s spaghetti. He mixes Bertolli sauce with a Trader Joe’s olive tapenade, and it is as yummy as it gets =:)
Thanks Jeanine for your quick response. I purchased Frontier salt free curry powder – is there normally salt in curry powder? If you had to do it over again would you pan fry or oven bake them? Sometimes I find veggie cakes get too mushy pan fried but not brown enough in the oven. Decisions, decisions…
They were good baked, I pan fried one the other night and that worked out too (they got more browned, definitely). I’d start with less curry powder if you’re worried about it because you can always add more. As far as I know, they don’t usually come with added salt, that’s kind of strange 🙂
Hello, I’m all set to make these tonight but haven’t used curry powder in the past. Will these be spicy hot? If I cut down the curry to 1 tsp will that be too bland?
My favorite meatless meal is anything with chickpeas and lemon. My go to easy one pot recipe is diced baby red potatoes fried crisp in pan with a little oil, then adding chickepeas, cabbage, parsley, shallot and a huge squeeze of lemon at the end.
Hi Linda, it depends on what curry powder you have (what brand, etc). Most of the time general curry powder (unless it’s labeled spicy) is pretty mild. It has more of a warm spiced flavor rather than being super hot. (To me, these were not spicy at all).
If you’re worried about it, I would start by adding 1 teaspoon (in step 2) and then taste (before you mix it with the egg), and see if you want to add more. If it’s bland but you don’t want more curry, maybe add more garlic, salt and pepper. Hope that helps!
All my meals are meatless, so it’s really about what’s trending in my household right now! With the benefit of Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo, I’ve been making Jambalaya almost once a week. Okra, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, and whatever else I might have around, with soy chorizo, tomatoes, and brown rice. Easy, filling, delicious.
Currently I’m very happy with an Irish cheddar potato soup, with fresh bread and a green salad!