Buckwheat

Not a compelling title to be sure. I am short on time. Buckwheat is a SEED and has nothing to do with wheat, so is suitable for gluten free diets. You can:

•  sprout it  (Follow this link for instructions)
• Plant it over winter on your raised beds- it’s an excellent “green manure”, it “fixes” nitrogen into the soil for your spring plantings. Just dig in your green buckwheat plants into the soil before spring planting.
• Grind it into flour
• Soak/sprout it and then dehydrate it, it makes for a great gluten free crunchy cereal, just add sweetness and other flavourings such as cinnamon before dehydrating. Here is a gorgeous snack I made once with buckwheat when I discovered I didn’t like it sprouted. You need a dehydrator though……….
• Cook  it.

This time I cooked it. You can use it as a base for a grain salad, and the next day with the leftovers, I mixed it into Apple and Cinnamon Breakfast bowl instead of oats. I don’t know if I can express how addicted I have become to this breakfast bowl, and am loving these amazing flavoursome English apples every day.

P.S. Buckwheat has this amazing compound called RUTIN which serves to strengthen capilliary walls and reduce micro-haemorraging in people with high blood pressure.

P.P.S Isaac is throwing monkey nuts around the room. Time to sign off.

Bombay Buckwheaties

I found some buckwheat at the back of the cupboard. Obviously I bought it; I just don’t know why I did, as I have never eaten it, and I was not sure what to do with it.

If I was a gardener… and it was autumn…. and I had big empty vegetable plots…I could have planted it as a “green manure”. You sow it all over your beds over winter, and it kind of harvests and fixes nitrogen in your soil, and the spring plants benefit greatly. But wait…let me see… no, no and no, to all of the above. Perhaps one day 🙂

As I was in sprouting mode, I sprouted some…… and….. it was gross. But in case (after that introduction) anyone ever wants to sprout it, the instructions are below.  So anyway, facing this large mug of icky sprouts, I had an idea. I dehydrated them into a Bombay Mix, and, oh yes, it was good. I am trying to save some for my husband but it’s really moreish.

Buckwheat Bombay Mix

• 1 1/2 cups of baby buckwheat sprouts (see below)
• 1/8 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/8 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/8 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup date paste or liquid sweetener of choice
• 1/2 tablespoon soft coconut oil OR  alternative oil plus 1/8 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• If you like spiciness, add something hotter….

Mix well, and dehydrate until crunchy, or failing that, bake at 180 C until golden and toasty. (How many minutes, I do not know, as I dried mine) Another way to dehydrate these is to mix with liquid sweetener like honey, and other nuts, seeds and flavourings of choice, for a granola. (Buckwheat is not related to wheat, and is gluten-free.)

One cup of buckwheat contains over 80mg of magnesium. Magnesium relaxes blood vessels, improving blood flow while lowering blood pressure. Rutin and other flavonoid compounds  in buckwheat help maintain blood flow, keep platelets from clotting excessively and protect LDL (“bad”) cholesterol from free radical oxidation into potentially harmful cholesterol build-ups. All these actions help to protect against heart disease.

Wonderful!

 

Sprouting Buckwheat

• Soak your buckwheat groats overnight.
• Rinse very well. When soaked, buckwheat groats go kind of slimey. This is totally normal, and all you have to do is rinse and rinse in a sieve until the water runs clear.
• Once completely clean, drain off all water, and leave your groats, covered.
• By evening you should see tiny tails emerging; it is very quick to sprout. However, you could rinse very well, and leave one more “cycle”- i.e overnight.
• In the morning, rinse again, and spread out between paper towel to dry thoroughly. You can refridgerate in a tupperware, or use immediately.