Buckwheat salad
This buckwheat salad is delicious, super nutritious and full of flavor made of buckwheat, tomatoes, olives, red onion and lots of herbs. It’s super simple to make, all you have to do is cook the buckwheat and chop the veggies. Buckwheat is one of my favorite grains to use in salads. In fact it’s not a grain, buckwheat has no relation to wheat at all. It’s really a seed, and the plant is a relative of rhubarb. However, it is very similar to a grain, so it usually gets included in that category. Buckwheat is ideally suited for gluten-free diets and is often milled into flour. Personally me, I grew up eating lots of buckwheat, my family used to make buckwheat as a side or for breakfast, but I find it too plain and my personal choice is to mix buckwheat into salad.
Why we need buckwheat in our diets?
This “grain” is packed with nutrients, and it’s also high in fiber and is a complete protein. Not bad for a humble seed, right? Also, some research says that this humble seed can be helpful for people with diabetes in keeping blood sugar levels healthy. For more on that, as well as other health benefits of this dynamo seed.
Why you’ll love this buckwheat salad?
I’m using the hulled seed, or groats, in this Mediterranean buckwheat salad. They cook quickly, unlike many other grains, and have a delicious toasty flavor, which is a great backdrop for the vegetables in this salad. The cooked groats are very light and fluffy in comparison to the denseness of many other grains. They have a great texture, and you can substitute buckwheat for rice in any dish. And, buckwheat cooks faster than rice, and has quadruple the nutrition, so why wouldn’t you?
You can serve this buckwheat salad as a side dish, but it’s hearty enough for the main, too.
Check out more recipes:
Cauliflower Potato Lentil Salad
Buckwheat salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup buckwheat groats
- 2 cups water
- 1 large tomato
- ½ cup olives of choice
- 1 small red onion
- 1 handful parsley
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup sunflower seeds
Instructions
- Add the buckwheat and water and a pinch of salt to a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until water is absorbed. The buckwheat should be fluffy and doubled in size. Let it cool down a little bit.
- Chopp all the vegetables into small pieces and add to a bowl.
- Add cooked buckwheat and drizzle with olive oil, vinegar and salt.
- Mix everything evenly and serve it. Enjoy!
My diet is based around whatever I can buy fresh every morning, so I no longer use a refrigerator. All shops are closed on Sundays in my country, so that is when I most often experiment with whatever is sitting around. This was today’s result:
250ml buckwheat
500ml water
1 vegan bullion cube
oil of your choice for sautéing (I use EVOO, but a lighter oil would work, too)
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (2 if you like hot/spicy food, like me)
2 teaspoons powdered ginger (I would have used thin slices of fresh ginger had there been some in the house)
3 large carrots
1 medium-sized Hokkaido squash (or a small pumpkin, in season)
1 very large red onion
1 large zucchini
125g baby spinach leaves
Buckwheat is one of the easiest things in the world to prepare. Bring 500ml water to a boil in a medium-size pot with a tight-fitting lid. Dissolve a vegan bullion cube in the water. When it reaches a rolling boil, dump in the buckwheat. Wait a few seconds till the water starts to bubble again, put the lid on, reduce the heat to low, and let it cook for about an hour. Turn the heat off and let it sit. Fluff it with a fork. You can do this several hours in advance, or the day before (which I did).
Get out your vegetable peeler, your best knives, a cutting board, and a bunch of small bowls.
Slice the nasty bits off the end of the carrots and cut them into circles about 1cm thick. Put them in a bowl and set aside. (I didn’t feel the need to peel them.)
Half, peel, and gut one half of the squash/pumpkin, and cut it into small pieces approximately the same size as the carrots. (Wrap the other half in plastic and use it when you want to make this recipe again in a day or two.) Put the pieces in another bowl.
Peel the onion, cut it in half, and slice into half-circles about 1cm thick. Separate the rings and put them in another bowl.
Remove the stalk of the zucchini and cut it into cubes about 1cm square and put them in another bowl.
Wash and dry the spinach if necessary (I didn’t), and have that on hand in another bowl or the container in which you bought it (mine came pre-washed in a thin plastic container).
Cover the bottom of your wok or pan with some oil. Don’t be stingy. Turn the heat on high and stir-in the chilli flakes and ginger powder.
When the oil gets hot enough, add the carrots and stir-fry or sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften. You may want to add a dash of sea salt.
Then add the squash/pumpkin and do the same. Next add the onions. When the onions soften and lose their shape, add the zucchini and sauté until everything is al dente. This will happen rather quickly. Don’t let everything get limp from overcooking.
When the thicker, denser veggies are cooked, add the spinach and reduce the heat to medium. Stir constantly, as the leaves will quickly shrivel and wilt.
When everything is cooked as desired and the spinach still bright green, use a slotted spoon to avoid adding unnecessary oil to transfer the veggies to a large serving bowl full of fresh-cooked buckwheat (I made the buckwheat the night before and stuck it, covered tightly, in the microwave for about four minutes).
Toss it all together and serve. This makes enough to feed two extremely hungry people, or more if you are serving a salad or soup or something else. It was 1°C today (in April) so this was the highlight of my day.