Rice and Vegetable Cake

I really liked these. I actually ended up needing 10 holes of my muffin tin rather than 6 - probably because I upped the quantities of the veggies a bit, and my cakes had flat tops. This decreased the cooking time a bit, too.

Ingredients:

• 150g (2/3 cup) rice
• 140g (1 cup, lightly packed) grated zucchini
• 20g (1 tablespoon) butter
• 90g (1/2 cup) finely chopped onion
• 1 small red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
• 4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 90g (1/2 cup, very firmly packed) grated carrot
• 40g (1 cup, lightly packed) finely chopped baby spinach leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 2 large eggs (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
• 44g (1/2 cup) grated parmesan cheese
• 36g tasty cheddar cheese, cut into six equal pieces
• 3 cherry tomatoes, halved (or 6 small slices of tomato)
• Sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (180 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
2. Grease 6 holes in a muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity holes). Line the base of each hole with a circle of baking paper.
3. Boil rice according to directions on packet. Drain cooked rice and set aside.
4. Squeeze excess moisture from grated zucchini (we do this over the kitchen sink).
5. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. 
6. Add onion, chilli, and garlic and cook for two minutes, without browning, stirring occasionally. 
7. Add carrot, and cook for another two minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Add zucchini, baby spinach, parsley, salt and pepper. 
9. Stir to combine and cook for another minute.
10. Remove saucepan from heat and transfer vegetable mixture to a large bowl. Stir in rice. Allow mixture to cool for 10 minutes.
11. Stir eggs and parmesan cheese into rice mixture. Fill the prepared muffin holes with the rice mixture, pressing the mixture down so that the cakes hold together.
12. Top each vegie cake with a piece of cheese and a piece of tomato.
13. Bake for about 24-30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce.
14. Store vegie cakes in a covered container in the refrigerator. They are suitable to reheat in the microwave or oven. If you are reheating the vegie cakes in the oven, cover them so they don’t dry out.

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