6: Recipe | Buckwheat Granola

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2022

This homemade granola is made with buckwheat groats, oats, nuts, seeds, and spices, and is only lightly sweetened with maple syrup. It’s vegan and refined sugar-free and oh-so-delicious!

Have you tried buckwheat before? Not too many people are familiar with it. The fact that it has the word “wheat” in its name is a bit confusing because it’s the seed of a flowering plant in the knotweed family (related to rhubarb). It’s therefore not a grain at all but considered a “pseudocereal,” a name for seeds from non-grass plants that are prepared and consumed in the same way as grains. Amaranth and quinoa are some other examples of pseudocereals.

Buckwheat is also considered somewhat of a superfood. It is high in protein and fiber, rich in many trace minerals, and is a good source of B vitamins. It also contains relatively few calories and practically no fat and ranks low on the glycaemic index.
So, in summary, it’s nutritious, gluten-free, and adding it to your diet has been shown to benefit blood sugar, heart health, inflammation, and cancer prevention. What’s not to love?

But health benefits aside, what I like about it is the nutty flavor and that toasting the buckwheat “pebbles” adds a nice crunch to my granola. You gotta give this a try!

Ingredients

3 cups (250g) Oats
1 cup (150g) Buckwheat groats
1/3 cup (60g) Sunflower Seeds
1/3 cup (50g) almonds (sliced)
2 tbsps (17g) Flaxseed(meal)
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt

0.5 cup Coconut Oil (melted)(or other neutral oil)
0.5 cup Maple Syrup
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 tbsps Almond Butter (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
  2. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients (oats, buckwheat, nuts, seeds, spices).
  3. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave and then combine it with maple syrup, vanilla extract, and almond butter.
  4. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir well until everything is evenly coated. Spread out the granola on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
  5. Bake the granola until browned and crispy, about 30 minutes.
  6. Let cool thoroughly (at least 30 minutes) and then transfer the granola into a mason jar or airtight container.

Nutrition

Yields: 10-12 servings (approx. 2/3 cup) Calories: 272 Sugar: 8.3 g Sodium: 176 mg Fat: 14.7 g Saturated Fat: 8.6 g Carbohydrates: 31.9 g Fiber: 3.9 g Protein: 5.6 g Cholesterol: 0 mg

I love to sprinkle my granola over some plain Greek yogurt.

In all honesty, I am not sure if you can find buckwheat at any regular supermarket (I should look next time when I am out grocery shopping). I picked up a package of buckwheat at our international market a while back (and it turns out it was a product from overseas!), but I know that Bob’s Red Mill has buckwheat in their line of goods (and they’re having more and more of that at the regular supermarket these days) and I am pretty sure any co-op will have it. I think I want to try buckwheat porridge next during the colder season.

How about you? Are you intrigued?

  1. Ah I have bought buckwheat some time ago and made some sort of bowl with veggies – as an rice substitute. But this would be a great way to use up the rest. Thank you for the inspiration.

  2. Yes, I’m intrigued! You definitely make this sound delicious. I’ve gotten buckwheat groats at Whole Foods in the past but I’m also sure it’s available on Amazon. Thanks for the recipe!

  3. Thank you for this! We have a bag of expired buckwheat and I keep meaning to cook with it but never have. This seems like a perfect recipe! I didn’t think you could eat buckwheat without boiling it so it’s great to have another option since we looove granola. Yum!

  4. I’ve had buckwheat crepes before, but never in something I made myself.
    I LOVE granola and yogurt. It’s become my go-to evening snack (I never used to eat in the evenings, but since I’ve started to eat “intuitively” I do have a snack many evenings now and yogurt and granola is just hard to beat). I cheat and buy granola…but I have a GF granola recipe from years ago and when I take the time to make that…it’s a whole other level of delicious!

  5. I make my granola, but it’s pretty high in sugar, so I might make some modifications to this recipe and see if I can make it a bit healthier! I don’t know if we can get buckwheat at our grocery store, but they sell a ton of Bob’s Red Mill stuff, so I’ll look and report back.

  6. I have never had buckwheat before, nor heard of groats! So interesting! I love granola, though, so I think I need to try this.

  7. I might give it a try one of these days so thank you for the recipe. We do it cereal most mornings and my husband always complains that anything store bought is to sweet. I think I even saw buckwheat at our co-op market, so yeah!

  8. I know we have buckwheat at our local bulk store so I’ve bookmarked this to give it a try.

  9. Oh, this looks so good. I’m sure my coop has buckwheat – now to find it! They need a map for their bulk aisle. ;) My trick for sweetening a bit is to use mashed banana – I do NOT like sweet granola, as I often have fruit (which is sweet enough for me) with my yogurt and cottage cheese. So, for this I would use 1 mashed banana plus a bit more if needed based on texture. Thanks for sharing – can’t wait to try this!

Comments are closed.