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Buckwheat Success and Failure

Published on December 17, 2011 By Emily. Updated on December 17, 2011

In September, I discovered the Whole Grain Council’s “grain of the month” calendar and have been trying out a new grain each month since then, just because I needed to add another goal to my life.

December’s Grain of the Month was buckwheat, a grain which I have very little experience with.  I checked out the recipes on the Whole Grain Council website, but nothing really grabbed me.  I looked around online and saw a lot of recipes for buckwheat pancakes, but since I made teff crepes last month I figured it’d be more fun to try something different.

Somehow I discovered that Soba noodles are made of buckwheat and, right around that time, Julie posted a recipe for Soba Noodle Soup.  Perfect! I’m always up for soup and this recipe seemed especially simple.  The soba noodles I purchased were only 30% buckwheat and 70% spring wheat, but I deemed them sufficient for my purposes.

IMG_0053

The soup was as simple and tasty as I’d hoped. I made a half batch of Julie’s recipe, which was really simple to do, and used frozen sugar snap peas that I’d defrosted in the microwave. All of the other ingredients (vegetable stock, soy sauce, garlic, rice vinegar and sesame oil) I already had on hand.

IMG_0060

All that to say, this recipe is going to go into the regular rotation. The buckwheat noodles reminded Brian and I of al dente whole wheat pasta, which is our usual pasta of choice. For that reason, it might not appeal to some people but we really liked it.  It will be perfect for those busy days when there’s not much time to cook something else.

I couldn’t be satisfied with just one buckwheat experience, so I also attempted making hot buckwheat cereal.  Twice.  It did not turn out as well as the soup.

I purchased some buckwheat groats from the bulk bin at our local co-op and followed Courtney’s suggestions in “An Ode to Buckwheat Bowls”. Because I’m lazy, I used the microwave instructions.  The result was a bowl full of hot milk with pieces of buckwheat floating in it.  The smell of the vanilla extract was almost overpowering.  For some bizarre reason, I ate a decent amount of it, knowing full well that what I had made was not at all what a buckwheat bowl was supposed to look like.

My second attempt involved following the 3rd, 4th and 5th steps of these directions which did result in something that actually looked like hot cereal:

IMG_0080

(If this does not look very appetizing to you, I understand. But it was a vast improvement over my first batch.)

Unfortunately, Brian and I both agreed that it still didn’t taste very good.  I didn’t toast the buckwheat, which may be the problem, but I haven’t been in any hurry to make another attempt.  I’m just not sure that I’m going to become a buckwheat cereal lover (sorry Courtney!).

So, to summarize: soba noodles are my cup of tea…or soup, rather.  Buckwheat groats, not so much.

Next month: oats.  Thank goodness for a month that features a grain that I’m already a fan of!

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Filed Under: food Tagged With: grain of the month, soup

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Comments

  1. Lisa Fine says

    December 17, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    Oh no. That’s too bad about the buckwheat. It’s not the same as kasha, right? Your photo makes it look more like barley, if they are the same. I find buckwheat makes a good breakfast cereal (or kasha does, anyway – with some maple syrup, banana, and walnuts), but it’s good savory as a dinner side dish.

    At least the oats will be an easier feat to tackle! :)

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Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

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It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
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New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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