How to cook loose buckwheat in water?
Not every housewife, especially a beginner, can boast of the ability to cook delicious crumbly buckwheat porridge. However, knowing the technological requirements for cooking the dish, as well as some tricks, you can achieve your goal and cook a healthy fragrant side dish.
Composition and calories
Buckwheat includes several varieties. Common buckwheat is most often used in food. The chemical composition is represented by a large number of biologically active compounds, it also contains vitamins A, E, PP and group B, and in addition, provitamin beta-carotene.
The presence of vitamin B allows us to talk about the benefits of buckwheat for metabolism, hematopoiesis. Among the vitamins found and B9, or folic acid. This makes the product especially useful during pregnancy - folic acid is necessary for laying the internal organs of the fetus.
The content of iron, sodium and potassium in cereals is high. This makes it one of the foods that help maintain normal hemoglobin levels. This means that buckwheat-based dishes help saturate the blood with oxygen and carry it to organs and tissues. Regular consumption of buckwheat is one of the ways to prevent iron deficiency anemia.
Sodium allows you to maintain the water-salt balance of the body, which is especially important for people suffering from joint diseases, primarily arthritis, gout.
Potassium in combination with vitamins E and PP helps to improve the condition of blood vessels and the heart. It helps to strengthen the heart muscle, increases the elasticity of the vascular walls, improves blood circulation in tissues by increasing the permeability of capillaries, and also removes excess fluid from the body.
The presence of dietary fiber improves intestinal motility, which ensures better and faster digestion of food. Undigested dietary fiber, leaving the intestines, removes toxins and waste products from it, and contributes to the elimination of mucus.
The use of buckwheat allows you to speed up metabolic and lipid metabolism. This fact, as well as the low calorie content of the product, allows you to include boiled buckwheat in the diet menu. Raw cereal contains 308 kilocalories (kcal) per 100 grams (g). The nutritional value of boiled buckwheat is 92 kcal per 100 g. Buckwheat is considered a cereal that rarely causes allergies. It is she who is prescribed by pediatricians in most cases as the first complementary foods.
For losing weight, cereal is also useful because it contains a minimum of fat. The BJU balance is presented as 3.4 / 0.6 / 20 g. Proteins in cereals contain saturated and unsaturated amino acids. Fats are represented by organic and inorganic fatty acids. Carbohydrates are so-called slow. This ensures a long-lasting feeling of satiety and the appearance of energy after eating cereals. And also some of the carbohydrates break down into mono- and disaccharides.
In terms of protein content, buckwheat is equal to meat, but it wins with less fat.
The composition contains starches, which provides an enveloping, healing effect.It has a beneficial effect on the condition of the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines, protecting them from aggressive influences: attacks of pathogenic bacteria, spicy or spicy, salty foods, increased acidity of gastric juice.
From the point of view of benefits, it is preferable to choose the core, that is, buckwheat grains that are not peeled from the husk. They contain more vitamin B and fiber. By the way, it is such raw materials that are more suitable for obtaining crumbly porridge.
In addition to the core, there is also a prodel - a grain divided into 2-3 parts. There are also buckwheat flakes and buckwheat flour, but they are not suitable for cooking porridge, and therefore are not considered in detail.
Groats preparation
One of the most important stages in the preparation of buckwheat is the sorting of cereals. However, first you need to measure the required amount, not forgetting that when cooking, its volume will increase by 2-2.5 times. On average, 3-4 servings of porridge are obtained from a glass of buckwheat.
When filtering, outsiders, empty husks, black grains must be removed from the cereal. After that, buckwheat should be filled with water and left for a couple of minutes - extraneous impurities will float on the surface that were not detected during manual sorting. They should be carefully drained.
Pbuckwheat should be washed 3-4 times, but it is better to focus on the transparency of the water. When it becomes completely transparent and clean, the liquid is drained, and the buckwheat is considered ready for further cooking.
Optimal ratios
To obtain a crumbly buckwheat garnish, the proportion of cereals and water looks like 1: 2. It is correct to pour the cereal with cool filtered or bottled liquid. Since the presence of impurities in it will invariably affect the taste of the dish.
Regardless of the method of cooking, when cooking buckwheat, 2 glasses of water are taken per glass of cereal.This rule is true for cooking cereals in a saucepan, in a deep frying pan, on a fire, in a slow cooker or cooking in the oven.
The exception is merchant buckwheat. The dish involves pre-boiling the ingredients until half cooked and then cooking them in the oven. First, buckwheat is boiled until half cooked, avoiding boiling allows reducing the time of thermal exposure and using cereals and liquids in equal amounts. After all the ingredients of the dish are half cooked and laid in layers in a pot, 50 ml of water is poured on top.
Instead of water, you can take meat or vegetable broth, however, the first should not be too fatty. Unlike rice, buckwheat is less capable of absorbing fat, so a “bloom” may appear on the surface of the grains. In addition, fat and oil will be clearly felt in the taste.
cooking recipes
Buckwheat porridge on the water allows you to save most of the composition of raw cereals. In this form, it is more useful than its counterpart in milk. The latter option gives a rather large load on the stomach and causes indigestion. This is due to the fact that the body simply does not have enough enzymes to process two high-protein foods at once - buckwheat and milk.
Regardless of the recipe chosen, cold water must be used to prepare buckwheat. First, the dish is brought to a boil, after which it should be cooked by evaporating moisture, for which you need to reduce the heat and cover the cooking utensils with a lid.
It is important to choose a dish in which the heat will be distributed evenly. This will prevent the food from burning. The best option is a thick-walled pan, cast iron, a multicooker bowl. No need to knead buckwheat during the cooking process.
Cooking time depends on the volume of cereals and the method of cooking (in a saucepan, frying pan, slow cooker) and averages 30-40 minutes. Step by step this process is quite simple:
- prepare the cereal, if necessary, ignite;
- put buckwheat in a saucepan, salt, pour water;
- cook until cooked, remove from heat, wrap.
Classic recipe
This technology is considered one of the simplest and involves cooking buckwheat in a saucepan. The result is a fragrant crumbly side dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 glass of buckwheat;
- 2 glasses of water;
- half a teaspoon of salt;
- a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
Fry the prepared and dried cereals in a hot frying pan, greased with oil. Buckwheat should acquire a beautiful golden hue. The pan should be shaken all the time so that the grains do not burn, but are evenly fried. On average, this process takes 3-4 minutes.
Transfer the buckwheat to a thick-walled bowl, pour in water, salt and put on a strong fire. As soon as the contents begin to boil, reduce the fire, remove the brown foam and simmer for another 8 minutes. Remove the finished buckwheat from the heat and “steam” under the lid for another 7-10 minutes.
Buckwheat for garnish in a slow cooker
In this unit it is quite convenient to cook cereals.
First, all the ingredients are laid at the same time. Secondly, if you follow the recipe, you don’t have to worry that the dish will start to burn, or the cereal will not boil enough.
The whole process is automated, which greatly simplifies it. Need to take:
- 1 glass of buckwheat;
- a little less than two glasses of water;
- salt to taste.
Put the prepared cereal into the bowl of the device, pour in water, salt. Set the program "Buckwheat" or "Porridge" and cook until the beep or 1 hour.You can put butter in the finished side dish, mix it and put it in the heating mode for 5 minutes.
Buckwheat porridge in pots
This dish is a great two-in-one option, because it combines both a side dish and meat at once. Since they were cooked at the same time, the dish turns out to be harmonious, all the ingredients seem to be saturated with juices to each other.
In addition, when buckwheat is languishing in a pot in the oven, it turns out to be especially fragrant, rich and crumbly. The indicated amount of ingredients is calculated for 2 small pots (volume 250-300 ml) or one large pot (500 ml):
- 300 g pork (can be replaced with chicken fillet);
- half a glass of buckwheat (100 g);
- a glass of meat broth or water;
- 1 onion and carrots;
- salt;
- butter and vegetable oil;
- salt, bay leaf, black ground pepper.
Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots, sauté in vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add chopped meat and fry it until golden brown.
Put the meat with vegetables in a pot, add prepared cereals, add bay leaf, salt and spices, add water. Put the pots on a baking sheet, put it in a cold oven. Do not tightly close the pots, you should leave a small space between them and the lids for steam to escape.
Cook for 40 minutes at 180-200°C. When the dish is ready, turn off the oven and take out the porridge. Put a piece of butter in each pot, close the lid tightly and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Tips from experienced chefs
Even classic buckwheat can be made to sound more appetizing and fill the usual taste with new notes. Sauces and additives will help with this. The easiest option is to use soy sauce, which is poured 7-10 minutes before the end of cooking.2 tablespoons of sauce is enough for a glass of cereal. The latter is very salty, so you do not need to salt the cereal, or do it in very moderate quantities.
Buckwheat goes well with vegetables. You can sauté onions with carrots, add bell peppers for piquancy, and tomatoes for juiciness. Add crushed garlic, spices and herbs. Ready buckwheat can be sent to languish for a short time along with vegetables and sauce, or simply pour over the last side dish laid out on a plate.
A delicious duet is formed by buckwheat with mushrooms. They can be pre-boiled or fried with onions and put into a pot with buckwheat 10 minutes before they are ready. You can also make a creamy mushroom sauce by stewing mushrooms with onions and adding sour cream to them. For a spicy taste, you can put parsley, dill, thyme in the sauce, and for a creamier sound, a little cream. As in the case of vegetable sauce, creamy sauce can be served with a ready-made dish or mixed with buckwheat and stewed together for 3-5 minutes.
To make the finished dish more fragrant will allow its calcination. To do this, take dry and clean cereals and a dry frying pan. It is good to warm up the last one and add buckwheat. Keep it until it crackles, periodically shaking the pan.
On average, buckwheat is cooked for 30-40 minutes, but there is also an express option for its preparation.
From the point of view of manufacturability and safety of useful elements, this technique cannot be considered correct. However, it will help out if cooking speed is a priority.
The bottom line is that the cereal is calcined, poured into a saucepan and poured with hot water. Immediately add salt and oil to it, cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, wrap in a terry towel, shawl or blanket and hold for another 5-7 minutes.
Approximately half allows you to reduce the cooking time and pre-soaking of cereals. It must first be sorted and washed, and then poured with cool water and left for 4-6 hours, overnight.
It is better to add oil not during cooking, but to the finished porridge. When exposed to high temperatures, the oil evaporates and may contain carcinogens. It is more correct to add a piece of butter after the buckwheat is removed from the heat. Then it should be wrapped up and left for a quarter of an hour.
For information on how to properly cook tasty and crumbly buckwheat, see the video below.