Hummus Rice Fritters: Recipe

Last night Ian had to work really late -- he didn't end up getting home until about 11:30.  I don't know about you, but the moment I find out I'll be solo for dinner, the thought of cooking an elaborate meal sort of flies out the window.  Basically, I start thinking "Do we have any cereal in the pantry?"

I did remember a recipe I pinned the other night and I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand.  Bingo.  These hummus rice fritters were so easy to put together!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups precooked brown rice
1 cup prepared traditional hummus
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 large egg white

Directions:
Heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan on medium heat.  Combine brown rice, hummus, flour, cayenne, and egg white in a food processor and blend together.  Drop heaping tablespoons of the mixture on the heated pan and flatten slightly with a spatula.  Flip when golden brown to cook the other side.

We had hummus in the fridge, and our Chinese takeout from Friday night left us with a box of cooked brown rice in the fridge just waiting to be used.  Perfect!

I actually halved the recipe, which made four large fritters.  Halving the recipe is easy except for when it comes down to the one egg white it calls for.  I just chose the smallest egg in the carton and used that entire egg white.  

You don't need to pan-fry these in a lot of olive oil, just a small amount to keep them from sticking to the pan.  I flipped mine a few times just to make sure I wasn't cooking them too long.

I used the "Recipes" feature of my My Fitness Pal app to add the ingredients for calorie count.  Assuming that all was added correctly, each fritter is about 150 calories.  Being that this counted as my protein (hummus) and complex carb (rice), and the shredded lettuce I served it over is about 5 calories per cup, it was still a low-calorie meal for me when it was all said and done.

While I was perfectly fine eating this as is, Ian is a sauce man and he would definitely prefer this with a sauce added.  I think it would be really great paired with a mixture of plain Greek yogurt, lemon juice, pepper and garlic.

I will definitely be making these again soon since they are easy, quick, and healthy!  What other sauces would you add to yours?