Buckwheat

tattykitty

I recently bought some buckwheat groats as an alternative to gluten-based grains and wondered whether anyone here had tried them. They have a nice texture but don't taste of much - I assume they go well in soups and salads but wondered if anyone had recipe suggestions to perk them up a bit?

Second question: if I ate oats in the morning (50g in homemade granola) and buckwheat (50g) at lunchtime, would this be considered a fibre/carb overload?

Rasmus

tattykitty wrote: »

I recently bought some buckwheat groats as an alternative to gluten-based grains and wondered whether anyone here had tried them. They have a nice texture but don't taste of much - I assume they go well in soups and salads but wondered if anyone had recipe suggestions to perk them up a bit?

Second question: if I ate oats in the morning (50g in homemade granola) and buckwheat (50g) at lunchtime, would this be considered a fibre/carb overload?

Cooked buckwheat can be lovely tossed with chopped or pickled vegetables, green onions etc and/or a goat's cheese or feta. Harissa spices it up a bit. I agree it can be a bit bland. I would have a look on the cornacopia website or book for ideas - also, maybe some Polish or Russian recipe sites.

tattykitty

I know a lot of you H&F Boardsies are anti-grains, and I was wondering what you thought of buckwheat in one's diet as an alternative. Technically it's not a grain (relative of rhubarb, gluten free), but would those of you who avoid grains also avoid buckwheat from a carb point of view, in the way that you'd perhaps avoid rice?

El_Dangeroso

I'm not anti-grain per-se, I'm anti-eating-grains-that are-just-processsed-crap which is 99% of the grains people eat unfortunately.

My contribution to the thread.

Sourdough buckwheat pancakes, super expensive to make but so nice as a treat!

danlen

Is buckwheat actually that much better than a common grain like oats though?

The biggest argument against oats would seem to be the presence of phytate.
Is the supposed appeal of buckwheat just that it doesn't contain phytate or other common "toxins" found in grains?

tattykitty

I'm new to all this grains = bad business, because I was brought up to believe the infamous food pyramid was healthy...as far as I know, the main appeal of buckwheat is the fact that it's gluten free, so it appeals to those with intolerances. I believe it's high in fibre as well but I don't know a great deal more about it. Which brings me back to my original (second) question about whether it was considered carb-heavy in relation to other grains like rice etc., and whether those generally against grains would consider it a similar light.

I'm beginning to feel like I should exist solely on veg and eggs...

El_Dangeroso

danlen wrote: »

Is buckwheat actually that much better than a common grain like oats though?

The biggest argument against oats would seem to be the presence of phytate.
Is the supposed appeal of buckwheat just that it doesn't contain phytate or other common "toxins" found in grains?

Buckwheat has a lot of phytate, but it has a lot of phytase as well, in combo with the soaking and the yoghurt the phytates are reduced to almost nothing.

Buckwheat is one of the richest food sources of magnesium there is, a mineral which is hugely important and lacking in many of our diets.

El_Dangeroso

tattykitty wrote: »

I'm beginning to feel like I should exist solely on veg and eggs...

Please don't do that, there's tonnes of food you can eat, you just have to make it all yourself with fresh ingredients, hence where the pain of healthy eating lies (for me anyway!)

tattykitty

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Buckwheat has a lot of phytate, but it has a lot of phytase as well, in combo with the soaking and the yoghurt the phytates are reduced to almost nothing.

That's interesting. I didn't soak my groats (lady in the shop said they could just be boiled/simmered for 20 mins as per the packet instructions). I boiled it for 20 minutes and ate it cold for lunch - yesterday with an omelette, and today with chicken and tomatoes. I did notice that my tummy wasn't too happy after eating it...could this be anything to do with the phytate content? I know nothing about this at all, sorry.

Soaking stuff in yoghurt sounds expensive (though your pancake recipe sounds tasty) - would soaking the groats in water do the same job?

danlen

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Buckwheat has a lot of phytate, but it has a lot of phytase as well, in combo with the soaking and the yoghurt the phytates are reduced to almost nothing.

Buckwheat is one of the richest food sources of magnesium there is, a mineral which is hugely important and lacking in many of our diets.

So would fermenting oats (and perhaps then mixing with some buckwheat to make use of the phytase?) practically remove most of the phytate from the oats?

I'm just trying to work out exactly where oats rank on a scale of not-so-bad to as-bad-as-wheat!

El_Dangeroso

tattykitty wrote: »

That's interesting. I didn't soak my groats (lady in the shop said they could just be boiled/simmered for 20 mins as per the packet instructions). I boiled it for 20 minutes and ate it cold for lunch - yesterday with an omelette, and today with chicken and tomatoes. I did notice that my tummy wasn't too happy after eating it...could this be anything to do with the phytate content? I know nothing about this at all, sorry.

Soaking stuff in yoghurt sounds expensive (though your pancake recipe sounds tasty) - would soaking the groats in water do the same job?

Yep, it just takes longer and is a two-step process:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ie/2010/07/real-food-xi-sourdough-buckwheat-crepes.html

Soaking buckwheat makes it way more digestible, sometimes I have regular buckwheat crepes in town but I never feel great after them.

El_Dangeroso

danlen wrote: »

So would fermenting oats (and perhaps then mixing with some buckwheat to make use of the phytase?) practically remove most of the phytate from the oats?

I'm just trying to work out exactly where oats rank on a scale of not-so-bad to as-bad-as-wheat!

You can just soak the oats with yoghurt, but you can also use the buckwheat batter as a more potent starter.

Lots of healthy people eat oats but they seem to always ferment them, and they do it before cooking, most commercial oats are cooked by the time you buy them. Not a clue as to where you'd procure raw oats though.

I have a bowl of porridge the odd time but I definitely don't base my diet on them, mainly because I'm too lazy to ferment them.

tattykitty

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

You can just soak the oats with yoghurt, but you can also use the buckwheat batter as a more potent starter.

Lots of healthy people eat oats but they seem to always ferment them, and they do it before cooking, most commercial oats are cooked by the time you buy them. Not a clue as to where you'd procure rat oats though.

I have a bowl of porridge the odd time but I definitely don't base my diet on them, mainly because I'm too lazy to ferment them.

Not sure I like the sound of rat oats! :P

I'm fine with oats myself - I mix them with a little honey, olive oil and cinnamon and oven bake them for an hour until crunchy. Easy granola!