These cheatin’ croquettes do not need to be formed by hand and they freeze well for a quick meal on a busy day. Similar to tubed pre-made polenta, this millet can be sliced, pan fried and then topped with delicious veggies for an easy vegan gluten-free gourmet meal at home. This is a great way to get another meal out of millet when you have cooked too much.

Serves 2-3 

Prep and cook time: 25 minutes if millet is precooked and already thawed if frozen

Note about pre-cooking millet: If you cook 2 cups of dry millet with 4 cups of water for about 20 minutes, it will yield around 7 cups of cooked millet. That’s 6 big servings. You can eat 2 servings for dinner, have 2 servings for leftovers, and freeze the last 2 servings for a fun dish like this. 

Ingredients:

• Round 16 oz container (2 cups) packed tight with cooked millet (thaw before hand if frozen)
• drizzle of olive oil or enough water to cover the bottom of the pan
• 1/2 cup diced onion (mixing yellow and red onion is fun)
• 6 – 12 oz tofu (silken, firm, extra firm. They all work fine.)
• A dash of turmeric (just enough to turn the tofu yellow)
• 1 clove of garlic diced
• 1/2 cup carrots cut into matchsticks (I used baby carrots leftover from a party)
• 1/2 cup of any kind of mushrooms
• 1/4 cup of bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
• 6-8 olives pitted and chopped
• balsamic vinegar and sea salt to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped spinach
• 1 tsp nutritional yeast
• Optional: Rich Whipped Tahini Sauce (tahini, lemon, sea salt and water)

Artistry

You can either use 2 pans and have the millet heating up while you finish cooking the vegetables or use the same pan to cook the vegetables and then heat the millet. Make the Rich Whipped Tahini Sauce while the vegetables are cooking.

1. Heat the oil or water in a pan. A wide, flat-bottom non-stick pan is best.
2. Add the onions and cook a few minutes until translucent
3. Crumble the tofu with your hands in the pan, stir a little, and let it cook for a few minutes
4. Add the dash of turmeric and stir so that the tofu becomes a pretty yellow instead drab white
5. Stir in the garlic and carrots and cook for a few more minutes
6. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes
7. Stir in the tomatoes, peppers and olives and cook for a few minutes
8. Add balsamic vinegar and sea salt to taste
9. Set the cooked vegetables aside
10. Remove the millet from the container in one piece and slice into rounds almost 1 inch thick. You want to be able to flip these without them breaking.
11. Heat a wide flat-bottomed non-stick pan on medium-low heat.
12. When you can feel the heat with your hand hovering above the pan, drizzle just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
13. Set each millet round right where you want it in the pan. You want to minimize how much it is moved so it stays in tact.
14. After around 5 minutes, use wide spatula to flip each millet round
15. When both sides are lightly fried, remove from heat
16. Put 2 rounds on each plate and top with the cooked vegetables. Sprinkle on the chopped spinach and nutritional yeast. Top with Rich Whipped Tahini Sauce and serve.