Buckwheat with Mushrooms

Name: Buckwheat with Mushrooms and Fried Onion Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Buckwheat 1 cup (170 g); Fresh chanterelles or other wild mushrooms 400 g; Onion 2-3; Vegetable oil 2 tbsp; Broth or water 2 cups (400 ml); Salt, black pepper to taste

☆ Rate it

45 mins

To stay full until lunch, I recommend making pasta or buckwheat for breakfast, varying the dish with tasty additions such as seafood, mushrooms, chicken and so on. These dishes are easy to make and take no more than half an hour. Everyday grains cooked with fried mushrooms work in any season.

In summer and autumn you can use fresh wild mushrooms. In winter and spring, store-bought button or oyster mushrooms work well, as do summer preparations, such as frozen or canned wild mushrooms you picked yourself. Buckwheat stewed with chanterelles is especially good – it is a traditional family dish that we make with fresh mushrooms.

Buckwheat is easy and quite quick to cook. When I was little, buckwheat was in rather short supply. I did not even know that it is green, and that it gets its familiar light brown color after roasting. Buckwheat porridge with milk and honey is exceptionally tasty – I loved it as a child, and buckwheat merchant-style. By the way, buckwheat is not a cereal grain, although it is considered a grain-like crop.

In mushroom season, if you can get out to the forest for some quiet mushroom hunting, buckwheat with mushrooms can become a much-wanted dish. It is exceptionally good with chanterelles. I know from experience that you can pick a lot of them, and, importantly, you should stop in time. One of the tastiest dishes of the season at our house is chanterelles fried with onion, sprinkled over boiled young potatoes.

Usually, to get fluffy buckwheat, roasted buckwheat is cooked in twice its volume of water. Simply put, the ratio of water to grain is two to one. Many people do not stick to this proportion, but you can bring the grain to doneness by steaming even if you use less water.

For this dish it is better to use small wild mushrooms – chanterelles are ideal. These small yellow-orange mushrooms have always been a coveted forest trophy. We actually go out looking for them on purpose. They are never wormy, and even beginners can tell good ones from inedible ones. They cook quickly, and in most cases we do not even boil them before frying, just pour boiling water over them for 10-15 minutes.

More with wild mushrooms

Bulgur with Vegetables and Mushrooms: A Fluffy Butter Side Dish

1 h

Rice with Mushrooms

2 h

Potato Zrazy with Mushrooms

1 h 30 min

Potatoes with Fried Mushrooms

50 min

Mushroom-Stuffed Peppers

1 h

Ingredients

2 servings

Buckwheat 1 cup (170 g)
Fresh chanterelles or other wild mushrooms 400 g
Onion 2-3
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Broth or water 2 cups (400 ml)
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Turn on cook modeKeeps your screen from turning off while the recipe is open

Buckwheat with mushrooms is perfect for a good breakfast. If you have no chanterelles, you can use button or oyster mushrooms, pieces of porcini, or any other kind. In winter you can thaw mushrooms you put away earlier. Buy light brown buckwheat with undamaged grains. By the way, you can use plenty of onion – it makes the dish even tastier.
Cover the chanterelles with cold water in advance and rinse them. Thoroughly clean off any soil and leaves. Soaking also gets rid of sand and the little forest dwellers that often turn up among mushrooms. After cleaning, put the mushrooms in a deep bowl and cover with boiling water for 10-15 minutes. If in doubt, you can boil the chanterelles briefly.
Peel the onion and cut it into thick strips. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until soft. Stir it so it does not burn, or the buckwheat with mushrooms may get an unpleasant aftertaste. Drain the chanterelles in a colander and let the excess liquid run off. Add the mushrooms to the fried onion.
Season the onion and chanterelles with salt and pepper. Do not add too many spices – mushrooms are very aromatic and have a unique flavor of their own. Stir the onion and chanterelles and keep frying over medium heat for 5-6 minutes. To fry evenly and keep everything from burning, stir constantly with a spatula.
Add a cup of buckwheat (170 g) to the pan. Stir the grain with the onion and chanterelles. Fry for 2-3 minutes, then pour in the liquid. I add 2 cups of liquid (400 ml). As a rule, it is plain water. But the best result comes from chicken or mushroom broth. We sometimes cook a big pot of broth and then freeze it in plastic bags of 400 ml each – very handy for risotto or soft-cooked grains.
Buckwheat cooks – or rather stews – for about 15 minutes over low heat. During that time it absorbs all the liquid. After that, stir the grain with the other ingredients. Turn the heat down to the minimum, cover the pan with a lid and keep heating. This stage is important – the buckwheat with mushrooms steams. That is what makes the dish fluffy, close to pilaf.
Divide the finished dish among plates or bowls. If you like, add 1 tsp of butter on top – it is very tasty. Serve right away while hot. In principle, this is a dish in its own right. But it can also be a side dish for meat patties or braised meat.
If the dish uses button mushrooms or other mushrooms with a neutral taste and aroma, I recommend adding a little ready-made mushroom sauce along with the broth or water. By the way, in such cases it is also very good to sprinkle a little grated cheese over the buckwheat just before serving.