Mediterranean Veggie Cakes

When eating gluten free, you really start to miss fried food.  There are certain foods I'd like to cook but I have to find substitutes to make it work.  I had a brilliant idea to pulse rice crackers or rice cereal in a food processor to create bread crumbs and it happened to work really well!  This recipe was inspired by a recipe from VEGANOMICON called 'Greek Fritters'.  My non-vegan, non-gluten free partner gave these babies 5 stars.  Yummy!!

Mediterranean Veggie Cakes


8 to 10 oz Extra Firm Tofu
1/4 cup pecans
1 clove garlic
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 handful of fresh Basil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups ground rice crackers (or ground rice cereal)
1 large zucchini, grated (squeeze out excess water)
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced (remove excess water)
1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup kalamata olives, chopped
Peanut Oil for frying


In a food processor, blend the tofu, pecans, garlic, lemon juice, tomato paste, basil, salt and pepper until well combined.  In a large bowl, mix the tofu mixture with about 1/2 cup of the rice cracker crumbs.  If the mixture seems moist then add more crumbs.  Add the zucchini, tomatoes, artichokes, and olives.


Heat a large skillet on medium heat and pour in the oil so there is a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan.  While the oil is heating, form the veggie mixture into balls the size of ping pong balls an roll into the rice crumbs then flatten into little cakes.   Fry each cake in the oil about 5 minutes per side and cool on a wire rack with paper towels to drain.  Cool a few minutes before serving.  Serve warm!