As a child, I liked buckwheat pancakes all right, but the flavor always seemed very wild, almost distressingly rough to me. Mixed with wheat and covered in maple syrup and butter, it's disguised somewhat, contained by the comfortable, rustic sweetness.

By itself, buckwheat is barely sweet, with a strong fragrance of slightly smoky hay that fills the mouth and overflows, buckwheat-breathing dragon style. It's intense! I saw this recipe and had to try it. Too often people try to make challenging flavors easier to deal with by covering them up, but the tough love of skanky sauerkraut and pungent onions helps buckwheat be its perfect, ferocious self.

I tried this recipe twice, once with raw buckwheat (whitish-colored) that I roasted myself, and once with kasha, the reddish commercially-roasted kind. I prefer the former. You get more control over how toasty you want it - more for the winter or if you're feeling cold, just a touch in the summer. I would recommend lighter roasting to anyone who doesn't know they love buckwheat: the fully-roasted kind is much more ferocious.

I was almost shocked at how tasty the finished dish was. Once I had the right amount of salt in it, it just shone - oniony-pungent, slightly sour, buckwheat-crazy, and studded with the cooling flavor and crunch of cabbage. The magenta cabbage looks beautiful with the green onions, but after a night in the refrigerator, the whole thing turns a lurid shade of purple. The recipe suggested reheating it for breakfast with some tempeh bacon. For that, you might want to cook the grain a little softer and chop the cabbage a little finer for a 'hash' kind of texture. It makes a delicious crispy crust on the bottom when you pan-fry it too!

Kasha and Cabbage Braised in Sauerkraut Juice

2 Tbsp light sesame oil (untoasted, unrefined)
1/2 cup sliced green onion
1 3/4 cups red cabbage
3 cups cooked kasha (or raw buckwheat, pan-toasted slightly)
1/2 cup sauerkraut juice
1/4 cup water (optional)

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add oil. Saute onions, cabbage, and cooked kasha for about 7 minutes or until they are slightly browned.

Mix sauerkraut juice and water and pour over buckwheat and vegetables. Cover and cook until liquid has been absorbed into the grain. Turn once.

Ingredient - Attributes
Buckwheat - Warming (more if roasted), sweet, cleansing & strengthening. Not recommended if wind** conditions exist
Cabbage - Slightly warming, sweet and pungent, soothing, calms wind
Green Onion - Increases qi circulation, calms wind

** Wind, in TCM terms, is not to be confused with intestinal gas. Wind is a changeable, penetrating, even disruptive force - on the plus side it stirs up stagnancy, but it tends to partner with cold, heat, dampness, or dryness, helping them enter the body and cause illness. This recipe carefully balances wind-calming vegetables with buckwheat, resulting in a dish that circulates the qi without agitation.

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