Buckwheat Porridge – recipe by DukeLupus

(Updated November 27, 2008)

Buckwheat used to be hugely popular in the United States – buckwheat.jpgit was grown on more then 4000 km2 in 1918, but then its popularity declined sharply. It is still extremely popular in North and East Europe.

If you live in the U.S., it might be a problem finding buckwheat at the market – most markets don’t carry it or have just the pre-cooked stuff – stay away from that, it tastes like someone already ate it once and didn’t like it. You might get lucky in stores that specialize in health foods or Russian/Eastern Europe food; ask for full buckwheat groats, not flour.

Easiest and most common way to prepare buckwheat is to make buckwheat porridge – which is really, really delicious.

What you’ll need is 300 grams/10 ounces of buckwheat, some salt and butter. Heat an empty pot on the stove, wash the buckwheat with cold water and pour it into the empty pot. Add a big spoonful of butter and roast the concoction for five to ten minutes while mixing it every few minutes – it will smell delicious while you do that. You can skip the roasting, but that way the porridge doesn’t become too soft – babies will like it without roasting more, I think.

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Buckwheat Porridge – Photo by Sander Säde, 2008

Add salt and then carefully pour water into the pot. I recommend that you pre-heat the water, that way it will boil faster. You?ll need about 1 liter/0.25 gallons of water.

Boil the porridge for about 30-40 minutes, mixing it every once in a while, especially towards the end. You can add some more butter, too. The porridge is ready when all of the water has been absorbed. Let it sit for five minutes or so and serve with butter on top.

This amount will serve 3-4 people, but you may want to make more of buckwheat porridge than that. Not only does it stay fresh very well in the fridge or windowsill, it will taste even better afterwards when fried in a pan – you can add bits of sausages when frying. I recommend frying it with corn oil, but try it with bacon as well.

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Besides the porridge, you can make buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat noodles (both require buckwheat flour, not full groats) – and they even do gluten-free buckwheat beer.

This recipe was shared, and picture taken, by DukeLupus (Sander Säde) – his blog …meie igapaevast IT’d anna meile igapaev… and..pühapäevafotod..

About Michie

I write two blogs - This Food Thing, (www.thisfoodthing.com) and This Life I Lead (www.thislifeilead.wordpress.com).
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5 Responses to Buckwheat Porridge – recipe by DukeLupus

  1. Anita says:

    Michelle, I am looking for a gluten free recipe for buckwheat pancakes. You mention them above, do you have a recipe you can forward on to me?

    Much appreciated

    Anita

  2. Ineta says:

    My mom used to make buckwheat porridge with milk. It is still one of my favorites! She would soak the grain over night, and then in the morning she would pour drained grains in a pot, add some milk and heat it up. We would then later add some sugar and sometimes butter (if it was available) for taste. Yummy! And it does smells so good when it’s cooking :)

  3. David Pelly says:

    Keep it simple. Cook buck wheat like brown rice.

    1 part buckwheat to 2-1/2 to 3 cups water.

    I think 3 cups water is better.

    (It seems that some buckwheat, like more water than others.)

    Put your buckwheat in a sieve and rinse it under running warm or even hot water while shaking the sieve to roll it, to wash the outer coating of starch off, as well as any contaminants. (I like to wash my food when ever possible.)
    Do this for a couple of minutes.

    For 1 cup buckwheat use about 3 cups water.

    Put 3 cups water in a pot, add salt ( I use about a small teaspoon) .

    Add a good dab of butter.

    Add buckwheat.
    Bring to boil. Boil boil for a couple of minutes.
    Reduce heat to simmer.

    Cook until tender- 40 to 50 minutes. Keep an eye on it. If you need more water add some boiling water as required.

    Eat like any cereal with milk.

    If you want to use a sweetener, use buckwheat honey for best results. The darker the better. I love buckwheat honey.

    The flavor is out of this world.

    My dad grew buckwheat on his farm and buckwheat porridge was a regular at our house and became my favorite porridge. We used almost every grain for porridge, a different one every day.

    Cook millet the same way, for another taste and nutrition adventure.

    Both can be used as white rice is used for starch sources with any meal. Both are gluten free.

    Buckwheat and millet are two foods that under under known and under utilized.

    Tell your friends about these amazing, delicious and nutritious foods.

    Read up on them on wikipedia.

  4. liannallama says:

    Wow! Thanks for the precise and clear instructions! I can’t wait to try this!

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