Buckwheat with minced beef

What is buckwheat?

Next time you enjoy soba noodles at your local Wagamama’s, have a savoury galette in Brittany or are fortunate enough to taste some caviar on blinis – you’ll be having buckwheat. Japanese soba noodles, French galettes and Russian blinis are all made from the pseudocereal which is neither wheat nor cereal.

Buckwheat, in fact, is a seed not grain and it’s closer related to sorrel or rhubarb than wheat or rye. It has been cultivated since ancient times, first in Asia, then in Europe. The seeds are called groats and they are used in their raw form (often fermented or sprouting), toasted or roasted (commonly known as kasha though the original word in Polish or Russian has a wider meaning, to encompass barley, spelt and semolina as well) or milled to a flour.

Buckwheat and its uses

It is used very widely, especially as flour. Because it’s naturally gluten free, it’s popular to feature in gluten-free bread flour mixes though you can make naturally leavened bread from fermented buckwheat groats only. The flour can be used in biscuits and cakes for an interesting nutty flavour, or made into pancakes.

Kasha or toasted groats may be cooked like grains: boiled or simmered to add to salads, or cooked like rice to make porridge or pilafs, like in the recipe below.

And it’s very well worth including in your menu, since buckwheat is low in calories and dense in nutrients, with high protein and fibre content.

How to cook buckwheat?

It depends on the dish you want to make and your taste, but I like buckwheat with a bite, ever so slightly chewy rather than mushy and soft.

For salads, the best way is to rinse it (increases the chance of fluffiness) then pour it into a pan of vigorously boiling salted water. Turn down the heat, let the groats simmer for twenty minutes or so, then drain.

Don’t start it off with cold water unless you want porridge (and use milk in that case anyway). In fact, steaming buckwheat is a great method too, and in this recipe it is effectively steamed over the base of minced beef.

And if you want some real bite and chewiness, purely soak buckwheat in hot water until absorbed, like bulgur or couscous.

How to cook buckwheat with minced beef

This is a dish roughly based on Ukrainian hrechanky, frugal meatballs made from a mix of meat and buckwheat.

But instead of shaping and frying patties, we cook beef mince like for a chilli or a ragu, then top it with a layer of buckwheat to steam over the meat.

It starts just like cooking minced beef for a ragu (aka spagbol): a soffritto of carrot, celery and spring or ordinary onions softened with a little olive oil.

Once that’s soft, beef is added and heat turned up so the beef can be thoroughly browned, with spices and herbs. Those are rather mild, thyme and marjoram with some cumin and paprika, since it’s an Eastern European dish – a cuisine fairly benign in flavour (to put it gently).

I also add some frozen peas to the meat because I do, for extra fibre, in all suitable dishes. And then, having poured in some water (as little or as much depending how saucy/soupy you want the dish to be), sprinkle the rinsed and drained buckwheat evenly over the surface, put the lid on and adjust the heat to medium-low.

Cook it for fifteen minutes without peeking. Then dot some small knoblets of butter over the buckwheat and let it rest, covered, off the heat for ten minutes.

It’s now ready to fluff up, stir through with parsley and serve.

Variations

You can use minced turkey, chicken or pork instead of beef. Feel free to boost the plant content by sweating chopped mushrooms, peppers or fennel with the soffritto before adding meat.

If it sounds far too bland, up the spices and/or sprinkle in some chilli flakes. Alternatively serve it with crisp chilli as well as yoghurt or soured cream.

More buckwheat recipes

Gluten free cookies with dark chocolate and brown sugar made with buckwheat flour. I call them black hearted cookies because their centre is like lava, dark and gooey.

Striped cake with a pattern of mixed berries has the look of summer. This berry cake recipe uses a mix of buckwheat, wholemeal and almond flour and it can be made gluten-free if the wheat flour is replaced by more buckwheat and almond.

Galettes au sarrasin, buckwheat crêpes, with a classic topping of ham, cheese and an egg. The type of pancakes best suited to savoury toppings, galettes from Brittany are healthy and easy to make.

More minced beef recipes

Chilli is my favourite dish to cook with beef mince. It’s marvellously easy to cook and, depending on the seasoning, can be as hot or mild as you wish. Serve with plain rice, tortillas and soured cream.

Meatballs are a kind of domesticated burgers, with the meat content tamed by breadcrumbs or in this instance ricotta cheese and oregano. And they are super delicious, with chunky tomato sauce, as per recipe adapted from Ottolenghi.

Kibbeh is a Middle Eastern dish of minced beef and bulgur wheat, seasoned and spiced, sometimes shaped into balls and other times, like here, baked like a pie. It takes a little bit of effort, but pays off hugely in taste.