Sometimes life doesn’t go your way, and sometimes, when you think life isn’t going your way, you find out you were wrong.  Like this week: I had planned to make red lentils, and because I bought a huge bag of quinoa from Costco, and I need to find more ways to eat it, I decide that I’m going to throw some of those into my lentils.  Quick trip to the pantry and find that I have no red lentils.  The bag I thought was red lentils is in fact yellow split peas. I shrug and start cooking those instead.

Half an hour passes and I check on my peas, only to have it hit me… Yellow peas take much longer to cook than lentils.  I leave those cooking and hurriedly put on something else for my children who are expiring from hunger.

We’re just wrapping up dinner when I realize I never took the peas off of the stove.  I leap up from the table and run to the kitchen to find… thankfully, that the peas have not burned.  All the water has cooked off and there will be some choice words when I go to clean the bottom of the pot, but that is still ahead of me.  Right now I have a yellow, spotted mush, that they would have called a pulse in medieval times, but in modern times… my children won’t touch anything that mushy.  I put the mush into the fridge, figuring I’ll do something with it tomorrow, when I’m not so tired.

Next evening rolls around and I have had an inspiration.  I will fry up the mush in little fritters.  Some eggs, cheese, and spices later… and we have golden little cakes that send the carb-lover in me into back flips of joy, but pack a substantial protein punch as well (10g per serving).  The quinoa gives it a nuttiness that is nice and a contrasting texture.  Served with spinach greens and a balsamic mayonnaise dip… Yum.  I think the cheese could probably have been left out of the recipe, and it wouldn’t have suffered much.

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow split peas
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 2 tsp ranch powder or other spices
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• olive oil for frying

Soak the yellow peas according to the directions on the package.  Cook the peas and quinoa until the peas turn to mush ~40 min.  Cool the pulse until it will not cook the eggs.  Add the flour, eggs and spices.  Form into little patties by dropping spoonfuls into a thin layer of hot oil over medium heat.  They can be cooked in a dry cast iron skillet, but the texture and flavor are improved by a little oil.  Flip over when golden and repeat for the other side.