How to Cook Buckwheat
Buckwheat is cooked in water at a ratio of 1 cup of groats (170 g) to 2 cups of water (400 ml) with 3 g of salt. Once it boils, lower the heat, cook for 6–8 minutes and let it finish under a lid on the lowest heat — 20 minutes in total.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Buckwheat groats 1 cup (170 g)
- Water 2 cups (400 ml)
- Salt a little less than 0.5 tsp (3 g)
- Butter, fresh herbs, etc. for serving
Step-by-step recipe
Preparing the groats
Familiar buckwheat, sold as green or toasted groats, is considered a diet food. It’s used for soups, porridges and side dishes, and it’s even brewed as a drink. Cooking buckwheat is easy and quick.
Take the brown groats: they’ve been toasted and are the most common kind in stores. Good-quality groats contain no debris, but it doesn’t hurt to check and, if necessary, even rinse them with water.
To improve the flavor of the finished dish, you can briefly toast the buckwheat in a dry hot skillet until it smells pleasantly nutty.
Cooking
For the cooked buckwheat to be fluffy, use twice as much water by volume: 1 cup (200 ml) of groats to 2 cups of water (400 ml). As with most grains, the usual cooking ratio is one part groats to two parts water. To keep buckwheat from turning mushy and sticking together, it’s best to stick to this ratio in general.
Bring 2 cups of water (400 ml) to a boil. Pour 1 cup of buckwheat (170 g) into the boiling water. Add salt, a little less than 0.5 teaspoon. Stir so it doesn’t burn: it often sticks to the bottom of the pot.
As the water comes back to a boil, skim off the foam with a slotted spoon. Once the water boils, reduce the heat and cook for 6–8 minutes.
For fluffy porridge or a side dish, turn the heat down as low as it goes, cover the pot with a lid and let the buckwheat literally steam until fully cooked. Be sure to keep an eye on it: buckwheat burns easily.
Serving
Buckwheat cooked in water is a dish in its own right. You can add butter, fried vegetables, meat or fish. Even mixing the fluffy buckwheat with good canned stewed meat gives you an excellent main course.
This is the simplest version of fluffy buckwheat. If the groats aren’t overcooked, they won’t turn mushy and will be tender, perfect as a side dish or for a main course with, say, braised meat: you can just mix them and serve. Before cooking buckwheat, it’s worth thinking about what you’ll eat it with.
Calories and macros
295 kcal
Serving ≈ 270 g
- Protein10 g14% of kcal
- Fat2 g7% of kcal
- Carbs55 g78% of kcal
100 g109 kcalProtein 3.7 gFat 0.9 gCarbs 20.4 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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To Get It Right
If the water is gone or left over
- The groats have absorbed all the water but aren’t cooked through: add a pat of butter rather than water and let the buckwheat stand for 10 minutes over very low heat or off the heat altogether. It will finish cooking.
- There’s liquid left: you can try draining it and keeping the buckwheat covered to steam.
Which pot to use
It’s best to cook buckwheat in a small heavy-bottomed pot of up to 2.5 liters.
How much heat
To preserve the nutritional benefits of buckwheat, keep cooking to a minimum: cook over medium-low heat and then turn the heat way down, so the groats cook through completely without falling apart or burning.
Fluffy or sticky
Buckwheat contains no gluten, so it’s tricky to make a sticky porridge with whole grains. For that, cracked groats are used and cooked until very soft.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
How long to cook buckwheat?
After the water boils, 6–8 minutes over reduced heat, then under a lid on the lowest heat until the groats have steamed through. In all, cooking takes about 15 minutes.
What is the ratio of buckwheat to water?
One to two by volume: 2 cups of water (400 ml) per 1 cup of groats. So for a liter of water, use half a liter of groats.
Should buckwheat go into boiling or cold water?
Into boiling water: bring the water to a boil first, then pour in the groats.
Should you cook buckwheat with a lid or without?
Without a lid at first, which makes it easy to skim the foam. After 6–8 minutes of cooking, cover the pot and steam the groats on the lowest heat.
How do you cook green buckwheat?
You don’t have to boil green, untoasted buckwheat. It turns out much better when soaked in boiling water or steamed.
How much buckwheat per serving?
1 cup of groats makes 2 servings, so about half a cup of groats per serving.