Citrus Fresh Buckwheat Soba Salad

The crisp freshness of lemon and lime are perfect for cold summer salads. This recipe is inspired by a Japanese friend of mine with whom I exchange cooking tips on and off, among other things.

Dashi is sold in most Asian stores - either made from kombu or different types of fish. Salty Dashi, with some sesame oil, plus the tartness from lime juice and lemon zest makes this salad quite addictive.

Get the dressing ready, mix in the salad vegetables and let it sit while the soba cooks. The recipe here makes enough starter salad for two, or a huge meal for one.

Ingredients for the vinaigrette:
½ cup Seaweed Dashi or strong vegetable stock
½ tsp sesame oil
1 lime - freshly squeeze for lime juice
zest of one lemon
juice of ½ lemon, for additional tang

2 cups Salad Vegetables: For a quick meal, I use packaged kale salad mix plus scallions. Otherwise, whatever is handy -- radish, julienned carrots, sauteed cremini, slivered broccoli stems or other stems like I use for kinpira, ribboned greens, radicchio, purple cabbage...

Cook one bundle of the buckwheat soba per package directions, drain, and rinse in cold water, drain well. Toss in with the dressed vegetables, adjust the dressing as needed.

Served with some vegetable spring rolls and vegetable dumplings, this makes a filling weeknight meal.

Buckwheat Oat Chickpea Flax Pancake with Collard Greens, Asparagus, Leeks

Growing up with an array of dosai made from the traditional rice and urad dal, as well as chickpea and sooji and anything else my mom felt like throwing together for an amazing experimental dish, I love quick pan fritters and pancakes and pan breads for a weeknight meal, along with vegetable curries and chutneys.

This time, I went with a combination of quarter cup each of buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, rice flour, oat flour, flax meal, and fine cream of wheat (sooji). To boost it a bit, I also added some cooked brown lentils leftover from making Mesir Wat.

For the vegetable side, wilted collard greens with leeks, zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus  turned out perfect.

Ingredients:
¼ cup each of:
buckwheat flour
oat flour
rice flour
chickpea flour
cream of wheat
flax meal
¼ cup cooked seasoned brown lentils
¼ cup finely chopped radish greens or beet greens
¼ cup finely diced onions
salt to taste
water as needed to make a thick batter

oil for pan-cooking

Preparation

1. Combine the dry ingredients, mix well; add a little water at a time stirring gently to make a thick pancake-like batter
2. Heat a seasoned cast iron skillet to medium, and cook like pancakes
3. Serve warm with any favorite chutney or the Wilted Collard Greens-Leeks-Asparagus side

Wilted Collard Greens Leeks Asparagus Zucchini Yellow Squash 

Since there is no rigid combination here, use as much or as little of each of the above, chopped or sliced to desired size/length. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and wilt the collard greens; then add the other vegetables and saute till desired doneness. Season to taste.

Buckwheat Bathura

I love buckwheat flour, am not sure why... I mean, I know its many virtues, and that could be the reason.

Bathura is a lightly fried Indian bread, usually made with whole wheat flour. This bathura recipe is not very different from my older one, except I used a combination of buckwheat flour and whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.

Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp canola oil
water or buttermilk as needed
salt to taste

Preparation

1. Knead the ingredients into a smooth elastic dough, cover and allow to sit for about 15-20 minutes
2. Meanwhile, heat some oil for frying the bathura
3. When ready, divide the dough into roughly golf-ball-sized rounds, then flatten out with a rolling pin to about ¼ inch thick, dusting with flour as needed
4. Fry one at a time till it puffs up and turns darker, flip or dunk the bathura in oil to make sure both sides are cooked, drain
5. Serve warm with a few sides like Mutter-Tofu curry, Paneer Kofta Curry, Cholay, Dal, chutneys...

buckwheat injera

Injera is one of the favorites in my family, almost right up there with Dosai, as my wee one likes it too. I've wanted to incorporate more buckwheat in our diet and this seemed like a good recipe for that.

This is very much like the other all-purpose flour injera recipe I have, with slight difference.

Ingredients
2 cups buckwheat flour
2 tsp rapid rise yeast
4 cups lukewarm water
salt to taste
a pinch baking powder
some oil

Preparation

1. combine buckwheat flour, yeast and water and stir well till no lumps exist, cover and let it ferment in a warm place for 2 days; stir once a day
2. when ready to make, add salt to taste and a pinch of baking powder
3. the batter sort of has the texture of latex paint - it is a bit sticky/gooey, so, adjust water as needed
4. heat a non-stick pan, brush some oil as needed, pour a small amount of the batter and swirl it around till it is in a thin layer
5. remove when holes form on the top surface and injera looks cooked; can also flip and cook the other side if preferred
6. serve warm with mint chutney, or mesir wat, or gomen