Buckwheat

Small description

Buckwheat groats, the seeds of a flowering plant, frequently appear in recipes for a raw food diet, and in products such as buckwheat flour, soba noodles, and kasha, or roasted groats. Buckwheat comes from the Fagopyrum esculentum plant, which is related to rhubarb and sorrel. In Asia, buckwheat comes from the related Fagopyrum tataricum plant.

Buckwheat, (Fagopyrum esculentum), also called common buckwheat, herbaceous plant of the family Polygonaceae and its edible seeds. Buckwheat is a staple pseudograin crop in some parts of eastern Europe, where the hulled kernels, or groats, are prepared as kasha, cooked and served much like rice. While buckwheat flour is unsatisfactory for bread, it is used, alone or mixed with wheat flour, to make griddle cakes called buckwheat cakes in the United States and Canada. Buckwheat is high in carbohydrates and protein and provides small amounts of vitamins B₁ and B₂.