Variations on a Theme of Roasted Buckwheat Groats

Basic Roasted Buckwheat Groats (aka Kasha). Use a 1-2 ration of roastedbuckwheat groats to water (or stock). Add buckwheat to boiling walted water. Reduce heat, cover, simmer for 12-15 minutes. (Times will vary.) Stir in chicken fat or gravy or butter or sour cream or olive oil before serving.

Fluffy Kasha. Stir a beaten egg into the groats. Toast them over medium heat while stirring them into separate kernels. Then add hot liquid and proceed as for Basic Kasha.

Embellished Kasha. Add sauteed onions and/or mushrooms to cooked kasha.

Kasha Varnishkes. Add cooked bowtie noodles to cooked kasha, plain or embellished.

Kasha with Orzo. Add cooked orzo instead of bowties to Embellished Kasha for a softer version of Kasha Varnishkes. (This idea came from Jayne Cohen's The Gefilte Variations.)

Fancy Kasha Varnishkes. Add to cooked buckwheat groats any or all of sauteed eggplant cubes, sauteed portabella slices, and onions caramelized down to the consistency of jam. (This idea came from Jayne Cohen's The Gefilte Variations.)

Make a Salad. For instance, combine cooked buckwheat groats with broccoli, carrots, and scallions, along with honey and red pepper flakes. Add a dressing made of various oriental condiments (such as rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, miso, hoisin). (This idea originated in Robin Asbell's Whole Grains Cookbook.)

Make a Vegetarian Burger. Combine buckwheat groats, breadcrumbs, and beaten egg with fnely chopped mushrooms and sauteed onions and bell peppers. Season with soy sauce and/or salsa, chipotle in adobo or preserved lemon. Dredge in bread crumbs and fry them up. Pureed cooked winter squash also works well as a base for buckwheat burgers.

Add Cheese and Corn for a Quick Stovetop Dish. Add cottage cheese and corn to cooked buckwheat groats. Top with cheddar cheese. Broil until the cheese melts.

Buckwheat Groats and Vegetables. Combine caramelized chopped parsnips with basic or fluffy kasha. Caramelized carrots would be used instead of or with the parsnips. Or add caramelized escarole or endive sweetened with orange juice. (These ideas came from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.)

Make a Gratin. Mix cooked buckwheat groats with sauteed shallots herbs, and goat cheese. Spread it in an oled baking pan, top with parmesan, and bake at 400 until cheese is golden. (Thank you Robin Asbell, Whole Grains Cookbook.)

Kreplach. Enclose in wonton skins a filling of buckwheat groats and goat cheese or mashed potato or sauerkraut or greens. Poach in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Afterwards, a quick fry 'a la potstickers' would be good. Serve in soup or accompany with sour cream or butter or tomato sauce.

Knishes. Enclose individual portions of one of the kreplach fillings in a pastry crust (or puff pastry) and bake until browned.

Wrap Buckwheat Groats in Collards. Wrap blanched collard greens (tough stems removed) around individual portions of one of the kreplach fillings.

Stuff a Vegetable. A good model for what-to-do would be Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms by tinaroger95, substituting buckwheat groats for the rices in the original recipe. Other good stuffees would be onions, peppers, kohlrabi, peppers, zucchini, or tomatoes.

Buckwheat Groat Latkes. Make a batter of cooked buckwheat groats, sauteed mushrooms, chopped nuts, sour cream, beaten egg, matzah meal, and seasonings. Drop the batter by the spoonful into hot oil and fry. (I thought of this combination once I found out how good Joan Nathan's wild rice latkes were - The Foods of Israel Today.)

Soup. I have never made a soup with buckwheat groats, but it just now occurs to me that they would be a great addition to the fabulous sorrel soup I served last Friday night. Make a soup base with fresh or frozen sorrel (or look for bottled schav in the kosher food section). Cook small cubes of red-skinned potato in the base until tender. Temper mayonnaise (aobut 1/4 cup per quart of soup) with the liquid, then add it to the soup. Add cooked buckwheat groats. Serve with a garnish of chopped greeen onions. Absolutely delicious.