Little Quinoa Patties

I really don't know how to rate these - if someone else was cooking them and I was doing the eating then I would definitely give them an easy 5 stars, but alas, I am the cook, consumer and last but not least, the cleaner! The mess I can make (with quinoa especially??) is ridiculous, so should I knock off a star for trouble? I didn't make it any easier when I decided to split the recipe in half - doing Heidi's version and a cilantro/ jalapeno /cumin version. I didn't have trouble with them falling apart though they are very fragile going into the pan. However, with all sorts of variations knocking around in my brain (spicy harissa, sun dried tomato, black olive) I'm sure I'll be making them again soon. I baked a couple patties about 30 minutes (flipped after 20) in the oven at 400 on a greased pie plate. These were less brown, a touch less crispy but just as satisfying.

These were super easy to make and I followed the quantities exactly. I made 14 patties. While they were pretty good, they did lack flavor and were actually much denser than I expected. Maybe I mixed them too much? I added some mustard to the mix for flavor. They definitely needed a sauce so I mixed some whole grain mustard with veganaise and lemon juice and it was great with the patties.
I don't know if my mixture was too dry or too wet, but hey were a bit hard to hold together so once I got them in the pan, I let them brown on one side, then flipped them and flattened them out. If you flatten them right as they go in the pan they fall apart.
With some tweaks they could be quite tasty. Maybe I won't use so much bread crumbs next time. Also, it says that there is goat cheese in it, under the title, but it doesn't mention it in the ingredient list, only parmesan or Gruyere. Goat cheese might make it less dry.