How to Cook Fluffy Buckwheat
Fluffy fall-apart buckwheat from raw buckwheat groats that makes a nice side dish, or can be incorporated with mushrooms or beef.
Ingredients
- 1 cup buckwheat groats raw, or toasted from European food section of your grocery, don't get toasted from bulk section
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter or ghee how to make ghee
Instructions
- If your buckwheat is not toasted, preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC), rinse buckwheat in a bowl of water changing it several times until it's clear. Drain, add a tablespoon of melted ghee or butter, and transfer to a jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper. Toast for 20-30 minutes, until buckwheat browns and smells pleasant.
- Place 2 cups of water in a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan, and bring to boil. Add salt.
- Add buckwheat groats, cover tightly, bring to strong boil again, reduce the heat to low. Simmer covered (without opening the lid) for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat (even if there is still some water remaining), add butter or ghee, stir gently with a fork, cover with a lid and a tea towel, and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes.
Notes
- If you are looking for fluffy buckwheat but don't want to toast your own, get European imported varieties. They are steamed, then roasted, which allows them to hold shape without turning into dusty mush.
- Most pre-toasted varieties that I bought at Whole Foods and health food stores do not become fluffy, and do not cook evenly. I gave up on those completely.
- Buckwheat is a drier 'grain' so adding a fat like butter or ghee is strongly suggested to get the best flavor and texture.
- Do take time to wash buckwheat in a bowl of water (rather than rinsing through a sieve), it allows broken particles and dust to come afloat leaving us with whole intact kernels.