Get familiar with buckwheat

with easy pancakes

Crispy, lacy buckwheat pancakes - a Sunday tradition.

At first pass I chalked buckwheat up to a hippie wannabe grain for the gluten free set, a boring alternative to real flour.

This was years ago, before I tasted cold soba dipped in chilled broth, made fresh in the front window at a small Japanese restaurant in the East Village. A revelation.

It was before trying the mind-bending buckwheat pancakes at the beloved Phoenicia Diner, in the Catskills, or the stellar buckwheat pancakes at the now shuttered Charleston classic, Hominy Grill. I preferred all these versions over the buttermilk pancakes (made with flour) that most people ordered.

I was woefully undereducated about the magic of buckwheat, and the interest it could bring to my own kitchen. I’m here to save you from the same fate.

Despite the name, buckwheat is not a wheat - it’s an herb more closely related to rhubarb, and it’s gluten free, high in protein and fiber, laden with anti-oxidants. We love it at our house for the nutty, earthy flavor, and the ease of working with it.

It tastes like whole wheat moved to Colorado, started smoking weed, and decided to follow The Dead on tour. (This is a good thing.)

In our house, I do most of the cooking, but Sunday mornings belong to my wife. For 3 years, without fail, she’s made buckwheat pancakes on Sunday. Her recipe is unique to her, cobbled together from varying sources, altered over time with experimentation, and finally recorded for posterity in her little notebook where we record our family “classics.” (We’d like to publish a little DIY cookbook in the future that we can give to family and friends with these very recipes.)