Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Buckwheat Salad

This is a quick but helpful entry, because this salad is oh-so-easy and good. I served it yesterday to my pal Rosie who stopped over for dinner.

Buckwheat is actually not a grain; it is a fruit seed, akin to rhubarb. But it is cooked and eaten like a grain. Buckwheat is rich in manganese and magnesium and contains plenty of insoluble fiber. A cup of cooked buckwheat has almost six grams of protein.

I made this salad with cooked buckwheat, but if you have uncooked stuff, just cook it and add the vegetables in the very last minute of cooking.


Buckwheat Salad

2 cups cooked buckwheat
1/2 onion
3 garlic cloves
4 carrots, grated
2 zuccini or summer squashes, grated (the food processor is truly a great invention)
2-3 tbsp water or vegetable broth

Heat some oil in a wok. Add onions and garlic and sautee for a while. Add the grated carrots and zuccinis, and sautee for about five minutes, adding broth if stuff sticks to the wok too much. Then, add buckwheat and mix well together in the wok, adding more broth if necessary. Enjoy.

4 comments:

Shunra said...

I found out this weekend that buckwheat (ever one of my favorite grains or legumes or whatever those yummy things are) has a reputation for having a bad smell and an odd texture.

It's strange - I love it to pieces and eat it frequently, but some other members of my household (such as the one I actually married) truly dislike the texture.

::shrug:: more for me!

Hadar said...

It *is* bizarre. Buckwheat joins okra and cilantro in the "love 'em or hate 'em" food club.

I find that most people who dislike buckwheat are happy to eat it as soba noodles. Does that work with your family?

Shunra said...

Indeed, when we call it soba (noodles, pillows...) it is far more popular with Da Man than in its original form.

But I like it better in its unprocessed form, with plenty of fried onions and slightly wilted parsley.

Okra is fab, too... ...cilantro is ok in some applications...

Just call me Orangie said...

mmm...that sounds really good. And gluten-free (I'm a celiac), I'll defiately have to buy some buckwheat next time I'm near a health food store.

Also you've got an awesome blog too :)