Buckwheat Porridge – recipe by DukeLupus
Posted By admin on July 14, 2007
(Updated November 27, 2008)
Buckwheat used to be hugely popular in the United States – 
it 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.
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.
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This recipe was shared, and picture taken, by DukeLupus (Sander Säde) – his blog …meie igapaevast IT’d anna meile igapaev… and ..pühapäevafotod..
I’m looking for a recipe for Buckwheat Pasta….everything I’m finding includes all-purpose flour. I need to avoid spelt, wheat, oat, and rye flour. Any suggestions???? Also, any bread recipes-the kind that I can make a sandwich with….I’ve already got a lot of good banana bread recipes.
Thanks so much
Hi Holly,
I posted a recipe – Buckwheat Pasta – Gluten Free here for you.
And here is a recipe for Gluten Free Bread.
Hope those will help you out.
:)
LM
Oh, also….
Here is a link that has a lot of information about GF flours, and substitutions.
Ellen’s Kitchen
:)
LM
Russian way of cooking buckwheat porridge is a bit different. You do not need to roast it with butter – just toast it on a hot pan until it gets slightly golden brown (need to shake the pan often.) Make sure not to burn it. In a mean time, bring water to boil, and when done with toasting, put buckwheat into boiling water. It might make light popping sounds.
The proportion of water to buckwheat is about the same as for rice – one even can use rice cooker for buckwheat, too. Put it to light boil and cover with a lid, loosely . The porridge is done when all water is absorbed. Usually takes about 15 -20 minutes. Fluff it with a fork, add salt and butter to taste.
You can eat it plain, or as a side dish (goes really well with meat and poultry), or Russian way – by adding milk, like cereal.
Sometimes, you can get pre-roasted or pre-cooked buckwheat from Russian or Polish stores.
Pre-cooked variety is similar to Minute Rice and can be done in a microwave.
Buckwheat porridge made with almond or hazlenut milk is gorgeous..
Toast groats then add plenty of nut milk. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 mins.
Add chopped fruit/maple syrup/extra nut milk and serve!
Good to see this under-utlized food get a good prep recipe. In our impoverished family (parentage of Polish Jewish and Irish) back in the 70s as we moved around both urban and coastal Britain, our ‘buckwheat’ cakes were a staple: dry-roasted as in the Russian style above, then some were mashed and the mixture then made into patties with something a crunchy like sunflower seeds or chopped nuts added. Mushrooms were a favourite when we could find them. We fried the cakes in dripping, schmaltz, lard or bacon fat . We also had laverbread (oatmeal mixed with lavar seaweed into little cakes and fried with bacon). Many health food shops opened in British coastal towns back then and the proprietors were not often business-savvy. My ma could always get our bulk stuff like the grains for pennies as the softie hippies and politically- fired-up couldn’t resist her clever sob stories that always seemed to hit just the right note! That, markets and doing a few odd jobs for friendly farmers and market-gardeners keep the tribe of us wonderfully fed for years at a fraction of the food bills most others had. Anyway, I as astonished as a child to read of buckwheat cakes in American kids books like “Little House” etc – I thought they were the invention of my ma! Of course I later found out they were made of the flour and weren’t nothing like ours…
Buckwheat Recipe from India
Buckwheat flour can be used to make an excellent flat round bread called Kuttu Paratha.
You will need:-
Buckwheat Flour,rock salt,corriander,cummin seeds,mashed potatoes,butter or ghee and some water.
Mix the mashed potatoes and the buckwheat flour in equal proportion,then add the corriander leaves chopped, and cummin seeds to the mix, rock salt to taste, and make a thick dough.Use well oiled hands, or it sticks to your skin and dries up fast, making a mess of your hands.Now place this dough on a flat surface and flatten it into a round shape, and then place it on a hot plate (tawa) with some butter or ghee to keep it from sticking to the hot plate. Cook till it begins to harden , overturn the paratha and cook again on the other side, applying some ghee or butter. Make sure it is cooked well, or the raw taste will bug you.as it is dark in color, it is hard to tell when it will turn brown (well cooked) so use a timer to determine when to take it off the heat. This Indian dish is commonly used during fasting days, when devout Hindu people in India avoid using wheat flour in their deit for a week or so.
Another dish that can be made from Buckwheat flour is the Pakora ( a fried dumpling with potato slices inside).
I grew up with kasha (roasted then boiled buckwheat groats) as a filling for knishes or as a side dish with butter and salt. Now I cook it almost weekly as a base for the home-cooked mixture (with meat and greens, etc.) I make for my diabetic pet. I don’t roast it. Cooking for my doggie, I now have the excuse to eat kasha again! I had been away from it all these years. Just the wonderful smell in my house as it is cooking makes me light-hearted. The porridge recipe above is much appreciated.
[...] – and will probably do so for a very very long time. At least I was able to teach her how to cook buckwheat porridge and semolina pudding – both delicious and simple dishes. First one is even the most read post in [...]
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I love the porridge with mayonnaise, garlic, fresh cucumber, basil and canned fish (eg. mackerel in oil)… but also with just a spoonful of butter and carrot salad. Or wild mushroom sauce.
Was interesting to see all this data as I have been using buckwheat for a few years since finding it may have had medicinal qualities to fight high blood pressure.
Interesting to see how it grows as I have been under the impression that it was a derative of rhubarb, that being the information on the packet which I bought at a supermarket
However, as I am not a lover of cooking, I thought some of your preparation methods a little too involved for my needs, although to a culinary adventurer they sounded tasty alternatives to my way.
I simply tip enough for a serve into a saucepan with warm water & let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then I crush the billy-O out of it with a potato masher then cook it, stirring constantly, until the water is absorbed & I have a thick porridge.
I love it with warm milk, yoghurt & fruit – NO sugar – NO salt……… the natural foods have their own distinctive taste without trying to disguise them with artificial flavourings.
Denis, very sorry to disappoint you, but salt really isn’t an artificial flavor – actually, as flavors come, you cannot get more natural then salt.
You should try the porridge in a way I describe it, I am sure you’ll like it much more than your method.
Thanks, Denise, I’m going to try your method! I agree that most of the other methods described take WAY too much time. Maybe when I’m retired, I’ll try them. Or someday I might just make a weeks worth and refrigerate.
I just want a simple, quick porridge and mashing it as you described (the billy-O!!) will make it thicker and finer grained, which I like.
I would have it with rice milk and perhaps a little Stevia. I also may try roasting the groats first and see if that changes the flavor.
I can’t wait to try this recipe, which I am doing tonight with a slight alteration: I am using our tiniest slow cooker. We do porridge of some sort most days for breakfast, but I’ve had bad luck with buckwheat, though I love it in other foods (noodles, cakes, pancakes…the list goes on). I think your roasting tip is probably exactly what I needed to make this work.
Thanks so much, I love the site. You’re now blogrolled on my food site, too.
This is sooooooo cool. As a young child I used to visit my grandparents (Polish/Jewish background) every week end. Grandma would serve a hot cereal(Porridge) Sunday mornings. My brother & I loved it. A couple years ago I was trying to find out from Mom what it was called. She said Grandma used to get it in a box. It was made by the Nabisco people. They no longer make it. I tried many, many cereal grains but could not find the same “taste”. Then I found buckwheats a couple years ago, but could not exactly duplilcate the flavor (very close thogh). I’m going to try this recipe. It certainly looks like it will prove to be just what Grandma used to make. Thanks very much for the info. And it’s healthy! Can you believe that!!
Also, anyone know who makes the beer that is made from buckwheat? Brand name, or producer?
buckwheat groats (light color, not brown-brown is no good)…prepare: roast for few minutes in dry saucepan,
ad water (ratio=> 1cup groats:1.5cup water), salt, black pepper for taste, 1tsp turmeric. Bring boiling,simmer gently 5 minutes, cover,turn off top stove and let stand in place for 20 minutes. Done
I have never tried buckwheat but from what I have read, it seems like im missing out on a lot. What I like is that there are different ways to cook it and theres different variations so its never just the same old thing
What great information on buckwheat!
One interesting thing about buckwheat is that it is softer than wheat, so is easily ground in a coffe grinder, for a fast-cooking breakfast or thickener for soups. It can be dry-pan roasted as a flour – it get orange; keep stirring it!. The toasted flour makes great dumplings to boil in a spicy dahl (an East Indian recipe)
I’m glad that i finally found some recipes for buckwheat, here there is something similar to it called Mgadara,made with lentil beans and watert cooked til soft and tender,add a bit of salt and burghol, and continue to cook til ready, then add onions fried in olive oil if on hand or other then pour the onions and oil into the pot and stir well, and eat with yougurt, salad and olives.
BON APPITITE !
Before you do the buckwheat “kasha” make sure to wash after the first boil. So first boil the grain, make sure the water boils, and then wash the grain a few times with cold water or until the water becomes clear. Don’t forget to add margarine or better of – a little ghee ( I personally think ghee has a lot more taste then margarine).
The most famous Russian combination is buckwheat kasha with milk!!!! You can pour cold milk right on top of the kasha.
i like my buckwheat porridge with vegs, fry a bit of carrots,zucchini, broccoli, whatever iu like, then add a cup of buckwheat, 2 cups of hot water, solt and a lot of corriander, let it simmer till ready, about 40 min. goes with meat and also as a separate dish, yougurt can be added.
Jana
leftover cooked “kasha” salad, serve cold, italian style: mix with olive oil, basil, oregano, and salt to taste.