What would've been my first post!

This was the first recipe I wrote down when I started creating a blog back in August, 2010! I don’t have a picture of the dish unfortunately, but I had really liked this recipe – so you here you go. The original recipe was in a Costco cookbook and I changed it a little bit based on what I had in my pantry. Hope you like it.

Spinach-Rice Cakes with Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup rice – I used thick sticky rice since it holds together

Your favorite wine to cook rice with

1-1/2 cups chopped spinach

1 small finely chopped onion

Chopped Cayenne pepper – I used the canned one

Minced garlic

Cumin powder

Olive oil

Bread crumbs

Grated Parmesan

Salt

Yogurt

Garlic-herb mix powder

Cracked black pepper

• In a pot, cook the rice in water and some wine. Cooking rice with wine was my addition to the original recipe – I used Sutter Home blush wine I had bought in Napa valley. The rice should be sticky enough so you can make patties/cakes out of it.
• Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and sauté minced garlic and onion until golden brown.
• Add the chopped spinach, cayenne pepper for some heat, cumin powder and salt for seasoning.
• Mix the cooked rice and spinach and let the flavors mingle. Let it cool. Make round cakes about an inch thick.
• Coat the rice cakes in bread crumbs and grated Parmesan mixture.
• Sauté the cakes in a pan using a little bit of olive oil (I believe the original recipe mentioned frying these cakes but who needs those extra calories?). The cakes are done when they turn golden brown.
• To accompany the cakes, mix yogurt, cumin powder, garlic/herbs mix powder, cracked black pepper and some salt. The yogurt sauce is a great pair to balance the heat from cayenne pepper.

I will make this again some time and post the pictures!