Quinoa and sweet potatoes--if you know of a healthier marriage than this, I'd love to hear about it. I know I opened the gates by frying, instead of baking, them. But I only used a few tablespoons of grape seed oil for the entire batch and, to my palate, the resulting flavor is far better than the cakes I baked.

I recently had dinner at the delicious Indian restaurant, "Temptations." The tamarind and fresh cilantro sauces served with their "amuse bouche," complimentary appetizer, would be a wonderful substitute for the pineapple salsa in this recipe.

The goods news is these cakes can be served as an appetizer or as a main course, depending on how big you choose to make them. Healthy quinoa cakes are delicious and appreciated at a party, especially when flanked by chips, creamy dips and other cheesy, gooey (albeit tempting) fare.

Ready for more good news? These babies yield a big tasty health bang for the buck!

Yield: 8 cakes (4 main course servings) or 24 appetizer servings
Time: 1 hour
Cost: Approx. $5.50

Ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 1/2 tablespoons grated or finely chopped ginger
1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups cooked black quinoa*
1 1/2 cups grated sweet potato
1/2 cup (1/4-inch) diced pineapple
1/4 cup diced orange bell pepper
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon chopped cilantro, plus extra sprigs for garnish
3-4 tablespoons grape seed or canola oil

*Approx. 1/3-1/2 cup dry quinoa cooked according to package instructions yields about 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa.

Directions

1.In a medium-sized bowl combine eggs, curry, ginger,garlic, salt and cayenne. Stir in cooked quinoa and sweet potato and thoroughly combine with wet ingredients. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Make a salsa by combining pineapple, bell pepper, brown sugar and cilantro. Reserve.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large, nonstick pan over medium heat. For appetizer-sized cakes, drop heaping tablespoons of the quinoa mixture into the pan; for main-course servings combine 3 tablespoons quinoa mixture for each cake and place in pan. As cakes cook, flatten each cake into a pancake shape with a spatula.
4.Cook cakes, in batches, adding more oil to pan if pan becomes dry. Cook 1-3 minutes on one side, carefully flipping cakes with a spatula when golden brown then cooking on other side until cooked through, and golden brown.
5. As cakes are done, place on a paper-towel lined cooking sheet in warm oven until ready to serve. Garnish cakes with a dollop of pineapple salsa and cilantro sprig before serving.