Buckwheat, where have you been all my life???? I’ve known about this nutritious, gluten-free pseudo-grain for years, and dabbled with a few recipes for it. But it wasn’t until I was placing an order with Honest to Goodness that I decided to go all out and buy a 5 kg bag of the stuff. That level of commitment kind of motivated me to figure out what to do with it, and I am now happy to reveal that I’m a raving buckwheat fan.

I hope you don’t mind me documenting the results of my love affair with buckwheat. Here’s the first instalment, which you can serve as a delicious breakfast; or add some dried fruit to make a low-fat alternative to trail mix. Don’t let the soaking and dehydrating time put you off – the amount of actual hands-on prep time is next to nothing.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw buckwheat groats
4 tbsp date syrup*
3 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Place buckwheat in a large bowl, cover well with filtered water and soak overnight. In the morning, transfer buckwheat to a fine strainer and rinse well. Put the rinsed buckwheat back in the bowl, cover with fresh water and soak for another 8 hours or so.

Rinse in strainer once again, then tip the buckwheat back into the bowl and stir in the date syrup and cinnamon.

Spread it out in a thin layer on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 37°C overnight, or spread on baking sheets lined with baking paper and place in the oven, set at the lowest temperature and with the door ajar.

Serve with plant milk and fresh fruit as a breakfast cereal, or as a nut-free snack for kids’ lunchboxes.

*You can buy ready-made date syrup from specialty grocers, or make your own: just place pitted dates in a saucepan, cover with water, bring the water to the boil and simmer for 30-60 minutes, depending on how hard the dates are. When dates are mushy, remove from the heat, cool, then transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Store leftovers in the fridge.