Buckwheat Flour
What it is
Greyish, dark-flecked flour from buckwheat — which, despite the name, is not wheat and not even a grass: it is a pseudocereal, the seed of Fagopyrum, related to rhubarb and sorrel. Fully gluten-free.
How it's made
The triangular buckwheat groats (hulled seeds) are milled; whole-groat flour is darker and stronger, light buckwheat flour milder.
Flavor profile
Assertively earthy, nutty, slightly bitter and grassy — one of the most distinctive flour flavors.
Culinary uses
Japanese soba noodles (often cut with wheat flour for binding, since buckwheat alone is hard to work; juwari soba is 100% buckwheat and notoriously fragile); French galettes (savory buckwheat crêpes of Brittany); Russian/Ukrainian blini; Italian pizzoccheri (Valtellina buckwheat pasta); American buckwheat pancakes. Having no gluten, it cannot stretch — soba dough is held together by careful technique, starch, or added wheat.
Regional variations
Brittany (galettes), Japan (soba), Russia (blini, and kasha — toasted groats), northern Italy (pizzoccheri), the Himalayas (buckwheat pancakes and breads).
Cultural & historical context
A hardy crop that thrives in poor, cold soils, buckwheat became a staple where wheat struggled — feeding Breton peasants, Russian households, and Himalayan villages alike. Soba is woven into Japanese culture (eaten on New Year's Eve as toshikoshi soba for longevity).
Reference notes
Tags: `pseudocereal`, `gluten-free`, `buckwheat`, `noodles`. Related ingredients: [Teff Flour], [Sorghum Flour]. Related cuisines: Japanese, French (Breton), Russian, Italian. Suggested links: → Soba, → Galettes de sarrasin, → Pseudocereals.