First of all, our heart goes out to some friends who lost their granddaughter in a tragic accident last week. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for their whole family. Hearing of these types of things always brings back the feelings I had when I was told one of my children had a terminal cancer that would end his life within a year and a half. I was blessed to not have to deal with that particular circumstance, and I feel an overwhelming sense of compassion for anyone who does have to go through this.
I wanted to do a little piece on buckwheat. I am constantly amazed by this plant as it is one that I never had any experience with at all before becoming vegan. All I had ever heard of was buckwheat pancakes; I might have tried them at IHOP once but evidently did not find them too appealing as it isn't something for which I have much of a memory. Of course today I would never want to eat a seed or grain that has not been sprouted. (There was also that little fella on Little Rascals...wonder why they called him Buckwheat?)
Anyway, when I read Ann Wigmore's book on sprouting, she mentioned buckwheat lettuce. I already knew about sunflower greens and wheat grass, so I was intrigued by this other addition to the kitchen garden. I found some buckwheat with the hulls still on them and planted them, and the resulting "lettuce" was delicious. They are very easy to grow, as are all of the kitchen garden greens. I'll do more on that another day.
I'm not sure where I heard about hulled buckwheat sprouts, but now they are a staple at our house. We purchase hulled buckwheat in 25 lb increments! Each week, I soak about 3 - 5 pounds of them for a couple of hours. They become waterlogged very easily, so don't oversoak.
Drain these and rinse the heck out of them. They will have a lot of starch that will be washed away as you rinse. I try to rinse them every couple of hours. Drain well each time. You can use them as soon as you see a little tail appearing, or you can let them go a little longer, but don't let the tails get too long. If you can't get to them, refrigerate until you can.
Some people eat these sprouts as a cereal as is. You could probably put them on salads like you do other sprouts. My favorite application is to dehydrate them. We make buckwheaties by just dehydrating the sprouts at about 110 degrees with nothing added. Once dehydrated, they can be a nutty addition to a cashew yogurt sundae or as a cereal with almond mylk and some dried and/or fresh fruit. Roger loves to dip bananas in them. He can often be seen driving down the road with his jar of buckwheaties in tow along with a hand or two of bananas.
Usually we make a couple of breads with the freshly sprouted buckwheat groats. Everyday bread is a combination of buckwheat sprouts, flax seed, and carrot pulp from the juicer. Chili lime corny chips (corny cause there's no corn!) are sprouts mixed with zucchini and tomatoes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and chili powder seasonings. We also like pita chips which are made with cabbage. You can basically combine the sprouts with whatever veggies you have sitting around to make a unique and tasty bread. We mix them in the food processor to make a dough and spread them on teflex sheets. They dehydrate about 24 hours at 110 degrees. I try to turn them half way through if I can remember.
We also make crispy treats (reminiscent of that treat made with a crispy rice cereal) by mixing buckwheaties with our "marshmallow" ice cream topping. Yummy.
My personal favorite to make with the buckwheat sprouts is granola. I combine the sprouts with sprouted soaked and dehydrated almonds, dates, raisins, fresh pineapple, honey, sesame seeds, flax seeds, and coconut. The first time I made it, I added up the cost of the ingredients, and it was $60! I about had a heart attack, but it makes a lot (unless you're feeding my crowd!). This might be good without the more expensive pineapple and dates, but we really, really like it this way...
Hopefully this will inspire you to try some buckwheat. It is an inexpensive seed and very low in fat. Once sprouted, its chemical makeup is similar to that of a vegetable! How healthy is that! From a website on buckwheat:
"Sprouted buckwheat is an amazing food because it tastes like a grain but is actually gluten and wheat free and not a grain at all. It is one of the most complete sources of protein on the planet, containing all eight essential amino acids. This makes it perfect for diabetics and those who want to cut down on their sugary carbohydrates and to balance their blood sugar levels. It is also known to lower high blood pressure. Sprouted buckwheat also cleanses the colon and alkalizes the body.
"Buckwheat is a wonderful super food for people who have varicose veins or hardening of the arteries. One of the reasons is that it is full of rutin, which is a compound that is known as a powerful capillary wall strengthener. When veins become weak, blood and fluids accumulate and leak into nearby tissues, which may cause varicose veins or hemorrhoids.
"This healing food is also rich in lecithin, making it a wonderful cholesterol balancer because lecithin soaks up “bad” cholesterol and prevents it from being absorbed. Lecithin neutralizes toxins and purifies the lymphatic system, taking some of the load off of the liver.
"Sprouted buckwheat is also a brain boosting super food. 28% of the brain is actually made up of lecithin. Research suggests that regularly consuming foods rich in lecithin may actually prevent anxiety, depression, brain fog, mental fatigue and generally make the brain sharper and clearer.
"Buckwheat is high in iron so it is a good blood builder. It also prevents osteoporosis because of its high boron and calcium levels.
"Sprouted buckwheat is high in bioflavonoids, flavonols and co-enzyme Q10. It contains all of the B vitamins, magnesium, manganese, and selenium, as well as many other health giving compounds."
Boy, you can't beat that with a stick. How can you go wrong? Please let us know if we can get some for you either in their fresh state or sprouted and dehydrated. Here's to hoping you have a wonderful week full of juicy deliciousness.
This week besides buckwheat, here's some meals we've planned:
mashed no-taters with marinated mushrooms on a bed of "braised" kale
chili rellenos (sweet ripe bell peppers stuffed with queso verde)
cole slaw (yes, this is a main dish for us when served with a big salad)
super nachos (elotes con crema on top of salad greens; crema, salsa, avocado)
green spaghetti (shredded zucchini mixed with queso verde); sliced tomatoes w/ olives
celery sticks and apple wedges dipped in queso dulce
tomato bisque
Make almond mylk from 1 cup almonds that were soaked overnight (4 cups mylk). Using 2cups mylk, mix it with 2 cups corn, 1/2 an avocado, 1/4 of an onion, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 of an jalapeño, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 tablespoon sea salt; blend well.
Combine the other two cups almond mylk with a pint of dehydrated tomatoes and a chopped fresh tomato. Blend well. Combine with the corn/almond mylk mixture. Garnish with dulse, additional chopped tomatoes, etc. Makes about 8 cups. (We always dehydrate our extra tomatoes, so we always have dehydrated tomatoes on hand. If you don't, you could substitute fresh, but your soup will be, well, soupier. Maybe use less water in making your almond mylk?)
For desserts this week, we're having pumpkin pies and apple crisp. I think there's some rawky road in our future as well. We also have some crispy treats.
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