Good And Good For You

Here’s another random FYCE installment. A little while back I picked up a couple of pounds of buckwheat, which is one of those things I like but don’t remember to cook very often.

Now of course before we begin, it’s important to wall this off from Li’l Rascals, because some of that is racist as hell. We don’t need to go there. But back to the grain. Or technically, it’s a seed and not a relative of grass.

It’s good! It’s cheap, it’s quick and easy to cook, and it has a nice flavor, less neutral than white rice but not something dense that seems like punitive hippy health food.

Here’s how I made it recently.

This cost maybe $4 at an Eastern European grocery? It has the whole kernels, but you often see the smaller cracked kernels sold as kasha in the ethnic food aisles of big grocery stores.

Cooking is simple. You can cook it in a rice cooker if you have one, or you can do what I did, which is just boil it in salted water, then drain off the excess water when it’s done.

I measured out a couple of cups of buckwheat.

I brought four cups of water to a boil with a few teaspoons of salt, and then added the buckwheat. It cooks pretty quickly – maybe 10-15 minutes to a point where it’s soft but you might call it al dente, where the grain still has some texture. Cracked kasha cooks even faster. You can also cook it in broth for more flavor if you want. You’ll probably want to stir it a few times to make sure it’s not sticking.

When it’s done to your preferred texture, you can just dump it in a strainer and pour off any excess water.

This is an optional step I took to dress it up a bit. First I took an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, and chopped them up fine.

Those got sauteed over medium-low heat in a tablespoon or so of oil with a few dashes of salt from a shaker until they were nice and soft. It’s fine to use butter, chicken fat, bacon grease, or any other fat instead of oil if you want.

Then I added to the onions and garlic to the drained buckwheat. Done.

I like it as it is, but it’s also really good with a couple of tablespoons of butter or olive oil stirred in, and adding a bit of chopped herbs is a nice touch, and definitely makes it look prettier than above.

What Do You Do With It?

As you can tell by the Cyrillic on the bag above, buckwheat is popular with Eastern Europeans, so it’s good starch to go with kielbasa, German sausages, cabbage, and beets. But I think it’s also great with a broad range of food. The French eat it, the Danish eat it, and buckwheat noodles are popular in Korea and Japan, so it’s not out of place as a rice substitute.

It works well as a replacement for cracked wheat, so it can be used as a substitute for bulgur in taboulleh or stuffed grape leaves.

Why Else Should You Try It?

Like I said, I think it has a pleasant, fairly unassertive flavor. It’s somewhat nutty, without being overwhelmingly grainy. I like it a lot more than brown rice, which I think tends to be chalky, and also more than Quinoa, which taste like dirt to me. I like barley, but that tends to have a sticky consistency which some people find offputting. Wild rice is great, but’s much more expensive.

It cooks pretty quickly, not taking much more time than pasta and much less time than a lot of whole grains.

Besides the taste, buckwheat is a pretty earth-friendly starch. It grows in mediocre soil and doesn’t need a ton of fertilizer, which is why it’s often grown where wheat and corn don’t thrive. It’s also grown as a cover crop to help stop fields from eroding.

Despite the name, buckwheat isn’t related to wheat, and it’s gluten free (although sometimes it can contain cross contamination from packaging which might cause problems for people with extreme gluten sensitivities). Because it’s an unrefined starch, it has a lot of fiber and complex carbohydrates, and it’s a decent source of protein.

Complex carbs also help limit blood sugar spikes, they tend to limit hunger pangs, and they have probiotic benefits. Beneficial bacteria in the gut seem to like them, and in turn they help reduce inflammation and may improve your immune system and even mental health.

So maybe give it a try if it’s not something you’ve had before. It’s a good starch to add to the rotation with rice, pasta, potatoes and bread.