Buckwheat is an ancient grain that deserves more and better press than it gets. It’s gluten-free, chock-full of nutrients, and tasty. Plus, it retains its whole grain qualities even as a flour. While buckwheat is a common ingredient in some Asian and Eastern European cuisines, it hasn’t yet made much of a culinary or nutritional splash in the West. So what is buckwheat, and why should most people eat more of it?
The highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world is Venezuela’s Angel Falls. The world’s tallest tree is named Hyperion, a coastal Redwood growing somewhere in northern California. And the domesticated crop that grows at the highest elevation is buckwheat, which was first planted on the Tibetan peninsula around 6,000 years ago.
While gigantic waterfalls and trees can inspire awe, the humble buckwheat plant inspires pancakes, noodles, and crepes. And despite its name, buckwheat is unrelated to wheat, making it a wonderful comfort food ingredient for those intolerant of or allergic to gluten.
Buckwheat isn’t a major calorie crop like wheat or rice, but it does have a long culinary history in various regions.
In Eastern Europe and Russia, it’s called kasha and appears most famously in a Jewish noodle dish called kasha varnishkes. Buckwheat flour is the backbone of many Asian dishes, too — most notably soba noodles. Buckwheat tea is also popular in China, Japan, and South Korea. And if you’re in North America, you may have heard of, or tried, buckwheat pancakes.
Given how versatile and flavorful it is, and the fact that it can grow in challenging conditions, buckwheat may become more popular than ever before. So, it’s time we get acquainted with this “pseudo-cereal” (the word for a plant that isn’t technically a cereal grain, but we use it like one anyway).
We’ll cover what buckwheat is, if it’s truly appropriate for those avoiding gluten, its health benefits and nutrition, and any downsides worth considering.
What Is Buckwheat? Fagopyrum esculentum, is a flowering plant grown both for human consumption and as a cover crop to suppress weeds and add nutrients to soil. If you happen to be a gardener in the eastern US, you may be painfully familiar with a relative plant, (member of the same plant family) knotweed, which is an invasive and difficult-to-remove weed. But aside from botanical closeness, there are no functional similarities. You can safely plant buckwheat in your garden without it taking over. Buckwheat grows primarily in the northern hemisphere. Botanical historians believe that it originated in China, and from there, cultivars have spread around the world. There are two main types of buckwheat: common buckwheat and Tartary wheat (the latter is eaten more in central Europe and across Asia). Tartary wheat is also used as animal feed.
Is Buckwheat a Grain?
OK, this is where things get confusing. Like amaranth and quinoa, buckwheat is considered a pseudo-cereal rather than a true grain. Here’s the distinction: The starch granules in pseudo-cereals are stored in the so-called perisperm (surrounding the seed), unlike cereals, which have them in the endosperm (inside the seed).
If that was confusing, then we need not speak of it again. Let’s just pretend buckwheat is a grain, and cook it and eat it like a grain because we can!
Hulled vs Un-hulled Buckwheat
When you buy buckwheat seeds, you’re likely to find hulled ones, meaning they’ve been milled to remove the hard outer shell, known as the hull. That’s because most of the bitter-tasting compounds in buckwheat are in the hull.
The hulled seeds are called groats. You can also get groats from cereal grains like oats, wheat, rye, and barley.
Is Buckwheat Gluten-Free?
Lots of folks assume that anything with “wheat” in its name must contain gluten, which is the primary wheat protein. But as we’ve seen, buckwheat, like its pseudo-cereal buddies amaranth and quinoa, is a gluten-free grain. That makes buckwheat flour a good alternative for people who have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
If it’s imperative that you avoid gluten, you still need to be vigilant when sourcing buckwheat. While buckwheat is inherently gluten-free, it may still undergo processing on equipment that handles wheat. To avoid cross-contamination, look for certified gluten-free varieties.
And some buckwheat products may be mixed with other grain flours, so please read the ingredients and label to verify it’s a truly gluten-free product. For example, soba noodles are often described on the package as “buckwheat noodles,” but the ingredient list may show wheat flour as the first ingredient. That means the buckwheat is there partly for flavoring, as opposed to being the main grain in the product.
Buckwheat Nutrition
Like other grains and pseudo-cereals, the calories in buckwheat come mostly from carbohydrates. And even hulled buckwheat is a good source of fiber, which is important.
We care about fiber because it can act as a prebiotic, feeding your gut’s beneficial bacteria and promoting the formation of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These SCFAs perform a variety of health-promoting tasks, including supporting your gut and immune system, regulating inflammation, and facilitating communication between cells and tissues throughout your body.
Buckwheat is also a source of many minerals including magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium, as well as B vitamins. It’s rich in plant sterols and flavonoids including rutin, which has anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antioxidant activity, as well as helps to prevent cardiovascular disease.
Here’s the nutritional data for one cup of roasted and cooked buckwheat groats (aka kasha):
155 calories
33.5 grams of carbohydrates
5.7 grams of protein
4.5 grams of fiber
8% Daily Value (DV) for niacin (B3)
6% DV for folate
21% DV for magnesium
34% DV for manganese
12% DV for copper
12% DV for phosphorus
Is Buckwheat Healthy?
Buckwheat itself checks a lot of “healthy food” boxes. It’s a whole food, and it provides lots of fiber and micronutrients. Even when processed into flour, buckwheat compares favorably to wheat; it has significantly more amino acids, fatty acids, polyphenols, and flavonoids (including rutin) than wheat flour.
Now, any processed grain removes some nutritional benefits, and buckwheat is no exception. Specifically, when compared to an unbroken grain, flour enters your bloodstream faster and could spike your blood glucose levels, which in turn may increase your insulin requirements.
The main issue with buckwheat flour is who it tends to hang out with. Most buckwheat consumption is of flour-based products, including breakfast cereals; bakery products like bread, cakes, and snacks; and noodles. While the buckwheat flour itself will be whole grain, the other flours might very well be refined, with the bran and germ removed.
The healthiest way to eat buckwheat is as a whole, unbroken grain, or in the form of buckwheat sprout microgreens in salads and sandwiches. The sprouts also make a lovely and tasty garnish for soups and stews.
As is always the case, certified organic helps avoid the usual pitfalls of food crops such as the chemical applications commonly utilized in production.
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