Buckwheat is believed to have originated in South Asia and China over 6,000 years ago. It is widely grown in Russia, China, Ukraine, France, Poland, and some northern states in the United States, including North Dakota, New York, Maine, and Minnesota. Buckwheat is considered a pseudocereal, a seed masquerading as a grain, similar to quinoa and amaranth. After the outer hulls are removed, the little three-sided seeds or groats are cooked and eaten like grains, such as wheat berries, bulgur, spelt, and barley, and as a breakfast porridge. The groats are also milled into flour for use in baked goods. Other related products include buckwheat tea, beer, milk, and honey.
To clear up the most common misconception, buckwheat is neither a wheat nor a grain. It’s a flowering plant in the Polygonaceae family , related to rhubarb. The seeds are harvested for food and, while they resemble kernels of grain, they are not a cereal grain or grass crop.
Buckwheat is having its day in the sun. It’s a bright moment for this deserving, nutritious food that gets far too little recognition. As an ingredient in crackers, snacks, pancakes, and breads, and as a “grain” in salad bowls and side dishes, buckwheat offers plenty of good-for-you nutrition. And it’s gluten free.
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Iago Hale, a professor at University of New Hampshire in the department of Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Systems, explains there are two kinds of buckwheat: common and tartary. Most of what is grown and eaten around the world is common buckwheat. Tartary, a different species, is grown mostly in parts of Asia. Tartary buckwheat has a few more health benefits than common buckwheat, but the latter still has a great nutritional profile, “a meritorious food,” says Hale.
Buckwheat is a good source of complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, B vitamins, minerals, including phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and manganese, as well as antioxidants, notably rutin and quercetin. Its starch is absorbed more slowly than other carbohydrates and doesn’t contribute to unhealthy spikes in blood sugar levels.
Galette bretonne. Sally Pasley Vargas
A handy food to keep in your pantry, buckwheat cooks more quickly than most whole grains. Use a ratio of 1:2 buckwheat to water. Rinse the groats briefly under cold water, add them to boiling water and a pinch of salt, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. You can cook the groats with sauteed onion and/or other chopped vegetables for a healthful side dish or as a stuffing for bell peppers or squash.
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Roasted (or toasted) buckwheat groats are called kasha, which is traditional in Eastern European and Jewish foods, such as kasha varnishkes (kasha with bow-tie pasta) and as a filling for knishes and cabbage rolls. Kasha has a bold, dark-nutty-earthy, more identifiable flavor than untoasted groats. It pairs well with meat dishes, stews, and hearty soups. Buckwheat flour can range in taste from strong and grainy to mild and slightly grassy in pancakes, crackers, and breads.
Noodles made from buckwheat, known as soba, are a staple of Japanese cuisine. Buckwheat pancakes and crepes are popular in Europe, including France where galette bretonne (buckwheat crepes) may be filled with ham, cheese, mushrooms, and egg. Russian blini often contain buckwheat flour in addition to wheat flour, and thin buckwheat pancakes can be found in Asian countries, such as India and Nepal.
In Northern Maine, buckwheat flour is used to make ployes, a traditional French Acadian flatbread. Ployes (rhymes with toys) are thin, round crepes that cook quickly on a hot griddle; they’re typically spread with butter and rolled up to eat with a meal. The batter for ployes is simply buckwheat flour and wheat flour, baking powder, salt, and water, whereas crepes and pancakes are enriched with egg, milk, and butter.
Phil and Joe Bouchard of the Bouchard Family Farm in Maine. Kelsey Kobik
The Bouchard Family Farm in Fort Kent, Maine, grows tartary buckwheat, the variety introduced to the St. John Valley many generations ago. Like other farms near the US and Canadian border, the Bouchards stopped growing potatoes in the mid-1980s when the tubers became a difficult crop to grow, says Joseph Bouchard, the family’s fifth-generation owner-farmer. Bouchard and his son Philip harvest, dry, and store the groats, milling them into flour throughout the year. The farm sells buckwheat flour and the family’s ploye mix; they don’t sell buckwheat groats. (For more information on the Bouchards’ buckwheat and ployes, visit www.ployes.com)
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Over the last 20 years, buckwheat flour has been increasingly incorporated into crackers, breads, and other baked goods, driven by both its gluten-free status and nutritional benefits. The Bouchards’ largest buyer of buckwheat flour is Maine Crisp Company, a Winslow, Maine, maker of gluten-free buckwheat crackers. The crisps start out as a small loaf, then they’re sliced very thinly, and baked twice to yield super crunchy crackers, says CEO Lewis Goldstein. The popular Maine Crisps come in five flavors, including Wild Blueberry Walnut, Savory Fig & Thyme, and Cranberry Almond. The company, which makes all its products in a dedicated gluten-free facility, has a new line of Better with Buckwheat snacking crackers.
Another Maine company, Diggables, buys buckwheat flour from the Bouchards to make buckwheat puffs, similar in texture to cheese puffs but a more nutritious and gluten-free snack. The puffs come in three flavors: Sea Salt, Garden Herb, and White Cheddar.
In Montpelier, Vt., the 100 percent gluten-free Bonte Bakery buys Bouchard flour to make its buckwheat boule, olive rosemary boule, and buckwheat sourdough. Bakery founder and co-owner Anne Marie Shea swears by the farm’s quality buckwheat for her artisan breads.
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Field of buckwheat plants turn red when ready for harvest. Kelsey Kobik
In addition to buckwheat’s excellent nutritional credentials, it’s a useful rotation crop, growing quickly in 10 to 12 weeks in the summer after other crops are harvested in the spring. Bouchard plants buckwheat in early June and harvests it in the latter part of August. “If planted at the right time, buckwheat grows quickly, broadcasts, and chokes out a lot of weeds so we don’t have to spray pesticides or insecticides,” he says.
Professor Hale adds that, “As a cover crop, buckwheat catches nutrients that would otherwise be lost and keeps them in the soil.” The plant is drought tolerant, requiring minimal water and capable of surviving dry conditions that would kill other crops, he says. “No pests and diseases bother it.”
As climate change challenges farmers around the world, crop diversification is increasingly important. Hale, who has studied Himalayan tartary buckwheat, says buckwheat’s resiliency and other benefits fit right into the strategy of growing plant foods that suppress weeds, improve soil health, and can thrive under variable weather conditions.
As a nutrition-packed food and environmentally sustainable crop, the appeal of buckwheat is growing. No doubt, the increasing demand for gluten-free foods has helped both the Bouchards’ farm and producers of gluten-free buckwheat groats, flour, and other products. What’s old is new again.
Lisa Zwirn can be reached at lzwirn9093@gmail.com
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Lisa Zwirn can be reached at lzwirn9093@gmail.com.
What to know about buckwheat and how to use it
