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All About Buckwheat and Why This ‘Pseudo-Grain’ Deserves a Place in Your Pantry

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When it comes to superfoods with compelling misnomers, you’re not going to get any more bang for your buck(wheat) than with — you guessed it — buckwheat. But what is buckwheat, exactly?

A gluten-free, vitamin-rich seed, buckwheat belongs to a group of foods commonly called pseudo-cereals, because buckwheat seeds they are consumed in the same manner as cereal grains; think quinoa and amaranth, for example. Not only is buckwheat a plant in the rhubarb family, and not a wheat product at all, but its pyramid-shaped seeds offer even more health benefits than many whole grains, such a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes! To learn more about buckwheat and how to incorporate it into your diet, read on!

Buckwheat Benefits

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Buckwheat is packed with vitamins and minerals; not only is it a bountiful source of rutin, which is a flavonoid that acts as an antioxidant, but it is a rich source of fiber, copper, and magnesium.

Because buckwheat is high in fiber, it also rates low to medium on the glycemic index, which indicates that after consuming buckwheat, your rise in blood sugar will happen gradually and slowly, rather than spiking sporadically and making you crash later.

Buckwheat provides eight essential amino acids, making it an excellent protein source. Specifically, buckwheat is rich in the amino acids lysine and arginine.

A half cup of raw buckwheat will run you 343 calories and will provide 13.3 grams of protein, 71.5-grams of carbs, and 3.4-grams of fat.

Where to Buy Buckwheat

Two types of buckwheat are commonly grown for food: there’s common buckwheat and Tartary buckwheat. Both crops are mainly grown in the northern hemisphere, and particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, and China.

You can actually buy the two kinds of commonly edible buckwheat in a variety of forms. A buckwheat kernel in its entirety is referred to as a “groat”; a hulled, roasted buckwheat groat is also commonly referred to as “kasha.” You should be able to locate groats (the raw, hulled whole kernels) and kasha in your local grocery store.

Additionally, buckwheat flour is widely available for purchase, and soba noodles, which is a type of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat, should be available in most supermarkets or else your local Asian grocer. Check out this recipe for Zaru Soba: Japanese Cold Buckwheat Noodles to get an idea of how to enjoy soba noodles.

How to Cook With Buckwheat

Buckwheat and kasha both have smoky, nutty flavor profiles, making them nutritious substitutes for rice, and great additions to pasta, burgers, grain-based salads, and more. This Hearty Buckwheat Salad is bright, refreshing, and showcases off buckwheat well; and you can’t go wrong with these Cajun Burgers, which call for kasha.

When ground into flour, buckwheat can be used for baking or in foods like pancakes or waffles. This recipe for Pizza-Flavored Potato Waffles uses buckwheat. The waffles are crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside, and go great by themselves or with a little vegan yogurt sauce.

You can also use the soba noodle form of buckwheat, and make recipes like this Peanut and Lime Thai Soba Noodle Salad or this Szechuan Tofu With Soba Noodles. You could also buy 25.40 ounces of soba noodles online on Amazon for $6.20 here.

Buckwheat For Breakfast and More

There are so many different and unexpected ways to use buckwheat, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out a few of our Food Monster App‘s more innovative recipes to get an idea of just how versatile and handy this ingredient truly is.

If you’re looking for breakfast inspiration, why not try this Caramelized Buckwheat Muesli With Fresh Fruit? In this recipe, buckwheat is dehydrated until the outside begins to caramelize, leaving it with a sweet and roasted flavor that perfectly contrasts the fresh fruit. This is a breakfast that’s sweet, crunchy, and satisfying!

More of a savory breakfast person? These Buckwheat Breakfast Doughnuts aren’t your traditional, pillowy doughnuts, thanks to the buckwheat flour. They’re dense, which is what you need for a breakfast that’ll fuel you when you’re on the go.

Got a sweet tooth? Why not try your hand at these Buckwheat and Almond Brownies? Made from a combination of buckwheat flour and almond meal, they’re sweetened with dates, raisins, banana, and just a little bit of coconut sugar. You’ll fall in love at first bite.

If you enjoy articles like this and want more, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App. For those that don’t have it, it’s a brilliant Food app available for both Android and iPhone, and can also be found on Instagram and Facebook. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to cut out or reduce allergens like meat, dairy, soy, gluten, eggs, grains, and more find awesome recipes, cooking tips, articles, product recommendations and how-tos. The app shows you how having diet/health/food preferences can be full of delicious abundance rather than restrictions.

The Food Monster app has over 8000+ recipes and 500 are free. To access the rest, you have to pay a subscription fee but it’s totally worth it because not only do you get instant access to 8000+ recipes, you get 10 NEW recipes every day! You can also make meal plans, add bookmarks, read feature stories, and browse recipes across hundreds of categories like diet, cuisine, meal type, occasion, ingredient, popular, seasonal, and so much more!

Lead image source: mama_mia/Shutterstock