Quinoa Jeon

A few weeks ago, my husband cooked quinoa. It was the first time that either of us tried it. We wondered what this healthy, but curious, grain would be like. For those who don’t know, quinoa is one of the few plants that is a source of complete protein. The flavor and texture were much better than we expected. We both liked it. We ate it with tilapia fried in hot sauce and olive oil. It was a great match. Anyway, he made quinoa than we could eat for that meal, so I came up with the idea of making jeon with the leftovers. This is my recipe using it. It was a big hit with my husband. I grabbed different things I had on hand to make a Korean-style jeon. Instead of using wheat flour, I used quinoa. Not only does it give good flavor, but it also has a unique texture that normal flour doesn’t have. This can be great for people who cannot eat wheat. It is healthy and very delicious. Try it someday. 🙂

Yield: 30 Pieces

Short Korean Lesson

• DalRyeok (달력) = Calendar
• SiGye (시계) = Clock

Video Instructions

Main Ingredients

• 2 Cups Cooked Quinoa (1 Cup Uncooked Quinoa + 2 Cups Water)
• 4 Eggs
• ½ Cup Chrysanthemum
• ¼ Cup Zucchini
• ¼ Cup Green Onion
• ¼ Cup Onion
• ½ Tbsp Garlic
• ½ Tbsp Red Hot Pepper
• ½ tsp Salt
• Some Grape Seed Oil (or Cooking Oil) for Frying

For the Haddock

• ½ Cup Haddock
• 2 Pinches Salt
• 2 Pinches Black Pepper
• ½ tsp Cooking Wine (Optional)

For the Dipping Sauce

• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Water
• ½ tsp Vinegar

Directions

Obtain 1 Cup of uncooked quinoa.

Add it into 2 cups of boiling water.

Cook covered for 10-12 minutes on medium high, or until all the water is gone.

You will get about 2 cups of cooked quinoa. As I mentioned earlier, leftover quinoa is good to use too.

Chop ½ cup worth of haddock finely.

Marinate haddock, and all the ingredients for haddock, while you are preparing the other ingredients. If you are a vegetarian, you can just skip the haddock and follow the rest of the recipe.

Finely chop all the vegetable ingredients: ½ cup chrysanthemum, ¼ cup zucchini, ¼ cup green onion, ¼ cup onion, ½ Tbsp garlic, and ½ Tbsp red hot pepper. All the ingredients I used for this recipe matched well with each other, however, depending on your tastes or what you have, you can make substitutions.

Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa in a large mixing bowl.

Add 4 eggs, the marinated haddock, and the chopped vegetables in the bowl.

Mix everything together.

Heat a non-stick pan with a generous amount of grape seed oil (or normal cooking oil). Put a spoonful of the mixture into the pan in a round shape. Tip: using 2 spoons will make it easier to get a nice round shape. Use one spoon to scope out the batter, and the other to help push the batter into the pan and form the round shape.

When one side of the jeon becomes golden brown, flip it over.

When both sides are golden brown, it is done.

For extra flavoring, you can make a dipping sauce. Combine all the ingredients for dipping sauce: 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp water, and ½ tsp vinegar.

 

The slightly crunchy and chewy texture, along with the nice flavor from the combination of ingredients, is just awesome. It is always so exciting making a new kinds of food, and very rewarding if the result is good. I am very glad to share this delicious recipe using healthy ingredients with you. If you have any chance to try it someday, please let me know how you liked it. 🙂 Enjoy!