Raw Food & Healthy Eating Scotland

Rawfood, vegan, vegetarian, plant based & healthy eating in Scotland

Buckwheat bread raw vegan recipe

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salad with buckwheat crackers

Buckwheat bread is a great raw vegan staple food.  It’s one of those things you can make in bulk then keep for whenever you need a quick tasty snack.  Buckwheat is very high in nutrients and very low in price, so it’s a real store cupboard essential for when you’re on a budget.

Not quite a cereal, buckwheat is a sort of wanna-be grain that’s related to rhubarb and sorrel.  Gluten-free and a good source of high quality plant-based protein, it’s an excellent grain substitute for people who want to avoid gluten.

Quite bland in flavour, once soaked and sprouted it lends itself just as well to sweet dishes as it does to savoury, so there’s no end of combinations you can try with it: porridge, pancakes, crackers, or just throw some into your smoothie.

Buckwheat side-effects and how to minimise them

Even though buckwheat is not a grain, it does have the same protective mechanisms that all up and coming baby seeds have – ie antinutrients such as leptin and phytates (it basically isn’t all that keen on being eaten).

Buckwheat in particular also contains fagopyrins which can cause allergic reactions when consumed in large quantites.  So it’s a good idea not to go over the top in your consumption of them.  However, there are some good workarounds when it comes to minimising antinutrients, such as sprouting them, and also adding in a fermentation element.

This recipe includes both sprouting and fermentation, so it’s one of my favourite ways to eat buckwheat.

How to sprout buckwheat

Buckwheat will sprout really easily as long as you have a good quality supply of seeds.  Just soak the seeds in a jar of water over night then drain them the next day (they will be quite slimy… this is due to the formation of mucilage during the soaking and sprouting process – yes, not the most appetising-sounding thing in the world, but it’s quite good really).

Rinse and drain twice daily for about three or four days; until you see some little tails poking out, then it’s ready to be transformed into… well, whatever you want really!  You can use sprouting trays to make the process a little less fuss.

This buckwheat bread recipe is transformed into pretty pink deliciousness by the addition of fermented beetroot.  It also really pumps up the nutrition factor with lovely live probiotics, so it’s all good.

How to ferment beetroot

My basic guide to fermenting any kind of veggies: chop them up, chuck them in a glass jar, fill the jar with salty water, put the lid on, and ignore them for a bit.  It’s pretty slap-dash, but that’s really all there is to it.

Ok – there’s LOADS more to it.  There’s whole books written about the subject, including this excellent one:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Fermentation-depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X

Funny enough, one of my next blogs was going to be all about fermentation, but then my esteemed pal Patrick Queen beat me to it.  He’s done a much better job than I would have done, so I’ll take the lazy option and just link to his one instead.  See the master at work:  https://www.euphonichealth.com/recipes/2018/3/4/saerkreut  

So here’s my recipe for buckwheat bread.  You can substitute different seeds and add different veggies etc.  Just play around with it because there’s really no limit to what you can do with buckwheat.  Ok there probably is quite a limit.  It can’t make you invisible, for instance.

Pink Buckwheat Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups sprouted buckwheat

1 cup flax seeds (soaked overnight)

1 cup sunflower sprouts (sprout the sunflower seeds for two or three days, in the same way as you would the buckwheat)

1 cup fermented beetroot

1 onion

Method:

Process all ingredients using a food processor (add a little lemon juice or water if necessary), then spread the mixture on dehydrating trays.  Dehydrate for a few hours until the ‘bread’ starts to look a little firm.  Score some lines across it (for ease of breaking into shapes later), then turn over and dehydrate for another hour or so.  If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use a cool oven with the door a little ajar.

I want to experiment this year with planting buckwheat out and see if I can grow some buckwheat flowers, as they are much-loved by bees.  And I’m all about keeping the bees happy.

Have you had any success with growing buckwheat plants?  Let me know in the comments below, I’d be happy to get some tips!

How to make water kefir

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Dairy free kefir

Would you like to learn how to make water kefir?  It’s ridiculously easy – if I can do it, YOU certainly can.

Here’s a video of me demonstrating the basics of how to make water kefir.

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When I first heard about water kefir, I thought it sounded like rocket science.  I had vague ideas about these weird grains that weren’t really grains, and thought they would only grow with fresh coconut water.  I am FAR too lazy to be cracking coconuts open, so I chose to forget about water kefir, even though I did fancy the idea of making my own probiotics.

BUT the idea of water kefir kept nudging its nose into my life, and after a while I did a bit of research and found out it was nowhere near as difficult as I’d imagined.  Now I have a jar of water kefir on the go at all times – it’s one of my kitchen staples, and I love experimenting with different flavours.  And I just know that you will too 🙂

SO let’s get started:

What is water kefir though anyway?

Water kefir is a probiotic beverage made from fermenting grains in coconut water, or sugar water.

The best way I can describe water kefir is “it’s a fizzy drink” – not unlike soda pop (or ginger as it is inexplicably called here in Scotland).

I can’t really go into more detail than that, because really you create whatever kind of drink you want.  You can make it very sweet, or not so sweet, fruity, extra fizzy if you like, even a wee bit alcomaholic if you see fit, and make it any flavour you desire – it all depends on that all-important 2nd ferment (don’t worry if this makes no sense whatsoever to you right now – I will fill you in on the details later).

Yeah but where did the grains come from in the first place?

I don’t know.  Nobody knows.  Isn’t that MAD?  #aliens

It’s quite confusing though isn’t it, especially if you’re somebody who avoids grains like the plague.  They are called kefir ‘grains’ and yet they actually have nothing to do with grains such as rice etc.  The best way I can describe them is like white/clear blobs!

Okayyy.. Where can I get these weird grains that aren’t really grains?

You can buy them online at sites such as Happy Kombucha .

Ok Got it!  What do I do now?

Ok so now you get yourself a couple of glass jars that hold about 1.5 litres.  They can be mason jars, but you don’t really need to bother about them being air-tight.  My jars just have plastic screw-top lids.  Kefir’s different from kombucha in that it doesn’t necessarily require an aerobic environment (ie, a jar with a cloth tied around the top to let a bit of air through) – it does just as well with an airtight lid.  It doesn’t seem to care really (like I said… #alien..).

Make sure your jars and any utensils you use are nice and clean so as to avoid contamination.  Don’t use bleach or harsh chemicals though, in case any residue remains in the jar and offends your lovely kefir cultures.

Ingredients:

1 litre water

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons (or thereabouts) of water kefir grains

Method:

Pour 1 litre of water into the jar, add 3 tablespoons of sugar and leave it for a while to dissolve (you can warm the water beforehand to speed up this process.  Let the water cool to room temperature first though before adding the kefir).

Add the kefir grains into the water.

And that’s it!  I told you it was easy didn’t I!

You can add into the mix a few extra things to pep up your grains, such as a little chunk of ginger, lemon slices, or some dried (unsulphured) figs, but it’s not necessary to do this every time.  If you do add any of these in, try to use organic, or if using conventional produce be sure to peel them first.

So now, just leave the jar for 1 – 2 days and let it do its thang.  You can gently move it about every so often, it likes that and will display some pretty bubbles for you (unlike kombucha, which gets a bit moody if you so much as look at it while it’s fermenting…)

Wait – I need more details – what kind of water do you use?

I use distilled water, this works great, but it’s up to you what kind of water you prefer.  If you use tap water though I would strongly recommend purifying it first, as the chemicals added to tap water (particularly chlorine) are not good for beneficial bacteria (both in our kefir, and in our bodies!)

And how about the sugar – surely that’s not healthy?

A lot of people freak out a bit when it comes to the sugar content of kefir.  If you really don’t like the thought of using sugar, then coconut water is perfect to use.  It’s even easier in fact – just add the kefir grains to the coconut water and away you go.

I personally have no problem with using sugar though.  I haven’t noticed any negative effects.  I use raw cane sugar (rapadura) and let the kefir ferment till they’ve used up all the sugars and turned them into lactic acid and carbon dioxide (aka fizziness!).  In other words, YOU don’t eat the sugar – the kefir does.

You can use all kinds of sugar, but avoid substitutes like stevia, agave or xylitol, even if you think they will be a healthy option – they just don’t work.

OK let’s get to the fun stuff: the 2nd ferment

Drain the liquid from the jar, sieving out the fruit and the water kefir grains.  Discard the fruit (into the compost, hopefully) and reserve your precious grains for the next batch.

Congratulations – you have now made Water Kefir!  This is fine to drink as it is, but let’s be honest, it’s a tad boring.  So let’s pep it up a bit with some more flavours.  I usually add around 3 pieces of fresh fruit into 1 litre of water kefir and leave it for another day or two.  As you can see in the video I used pears, but any type of fruit (fresh, dried, or frozen) works fine.

Except bananas.  Bananas in kefir just taste weird for some reason.

I also add herbs and spices like cinnamon, vanilla, mint etc.  Have a play around with some different flavour combos that you like, it’s loads of fun 🙂

If you would like to know more about kefir, I highly recommend this site: http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html#Kefir-d-acqua It’s a smashing online source of kefir information and has some nice recipes too.

Wait – before you go -very important information!

When starting out on kefir (or indeed any kind of fermented food or drinks), go easy and introduce those new visitors to your digestive system slowly and carefully – otherwise there will be mass confusion and chaos down there in your gut as they all barge in and make themselves at home.

Do I have to spell this out?  Oh ok then – we’re talking lots of farting and/or pooping.  You have been warned! 😀