BREAD: Is it good or bad for you?
When you first embark on a whole food plant-based journey, it may seem like you have to give up a lot of the staple foods that you enjoy … like bread! Yes, it’s true that most commercially made bread (even the whole wheat kind) is far from healthy. In most cases, store-bought bread is nothing more than a chemical concoction of nutrient-depleted ingredients- starchy carbs mixed with quick rise yeast and preservatives. Luckily, you do not need to ban bread from your diet altogether. Especially if you are willing to make one at home from a recipe that focuses on clean, nutrient-dense ingredients. One of our go-to choices is this amazing fermented Buckwheat and Quinoa Bread.
Only Five Whole Food Ingredients
This Buckwheat and Quinoa Bread contains only five ingredients: buckwheat groats, quinoa, flax seeds, salt, and water. After that, you can choose to add herbs or spices to achieve your preferred flavour. I often add touch of either caraway, fennel, or cumin seeds to the loaf, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Nikki suggested that next time we can add raisins and cinnamon, so I might give it a try soon. But to be honest, I prefer the simplicity of the basic five ingredients.
Wild Fermentation
Although this is a fermented bread, you don’t need a living sourdough starter to begin. There is also no maintenance in between bakes either, which is good news for anyone who has no desire to take care of a little living sourdough creature! To sum this recipe up this is a very simple bread that takes just a few minutes to prepare, however, it does require a lot of resting time (soaking, and then fermenting). But the results are totally worth the wait!
Buckwheat and Quinoa Bread - Fermented | Gluten-Free | Yeast-Free
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups raw buckwheat groats
- 1/4 cup organic quinoa
- 1/4 cup organic flax seeds
- 2 3/4-3 cups of water
- 2 tsp sea salt divided
- 1/2-1 tsp cumin fennel or caraway seeds (optional)
- sesame seeds to garnish optional
Instructions
- First, rinse buckwheat, quinoa and flax seeds in a colander under cold running water.
- Put all rinsed ingredients into a large glass jar or bowl, add sea salt and purified water - the water should just cover the mixture.
- Place a cheesecloth or a plate on top of the jar/bowl and let it sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours. (refer to video for details)
- Next transfer the soaked mixture (do not drain) into a high-speed blender, add remaining 1 tsp sea salt, any preferred spices (caraway, fennel or cumin) and blend for at least 1-2 minutes or until there are no more visible pieces of buckwheat and it resembles pancake batter-like consistency.
- Pour the batter into a glass or silicone loaf pan lined with parchment paper, and if desired sprinkle the top of the loaf with sesame seeds.
- Place the bread into warm (not hot!) oven and let it rise for another 7 hours or overnight. No need to preheat the oven - simply put a large glass filled with hot water inside the oven.
- Preheat oven to 410 degrees and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and if you used parchment paper, you can remove the bread from pan immediately and place it on a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing (the longer the better).
Notes
Some of the ways we like to enjoy our Buckwheat Loaf:
Mock Tuna Salad
Almond Ricotta, dairy-free cheese
SMOKY TEMPEH SCRAMBLE
Macadamia Cashew Butter
Dedicated to your health & wellbeing,
I don’t have flax seeds, but have chia seeds. Can these be substituted using the same amount? Thank you!
Hi Shannon,
Sorry for the late response – yes absolutely chia should work just as good. Try using the same amount. Let us know how it went or goes 🙂
Hi there. I followed the recipe, but it did not rise at all. Not sure what I did wrong. I have tried so hard to make gluten free and yeast free bread and always have the same problem. I live in Arizona and I wonder if altitude has anything to do with it. I don’t have an oven right now, so maybe it wasn’t warm enough. Help!
Hi Katie,
I am sorry to hear the bread did’t rise 🙁
Yes, the altitude definitely plays a part.The lower air-pressure and drier air changes the fermentation rate and causes differences in water absorption.This means that you generally need less time for fermentation.Start by shortening the time by 2-3 hours and see if that helps. Also you mentioned that you don’t have oven right now, how are you baking this bread?
Ahoj Zuzi and Nikki, i was looking for a gluten free and yeast free bread recipe and even though this is lengthy process when I watched the video and saw the end result – i was sold 🙂 I have one question I live in tropical country – would i keep the seeds similarly for 2 days in the cupboard? Thank you and i will let you know how this project has turned out!
Hello! Thanks for reaching out, the suggestion would be to definitely cut the time of fermenting. We would say try 24hrs or even just over night depending on how hot it is. This may sound weird, but go by how it smells – it should have a sour-like smell but definitely not moldy smelling. The same would apply to the “overnight” process in the oven – cut it down to about 2-5 hours keep checking regularly for a rise. You want to see bubbles. Hope that helps! It may take a few tries until you figure out the right timing for your temperatures. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
Hi Ladies, I have a quinoa and chia recipe. I soak them overnight. drain the quinoa VERY well first then into food processor add ACV, baking soda, olive oil and salt pulse for 3 min. pour into brad pan and bake for 1.5 hours at 160C. This recipe is great if you need bread for the following day.
I love buckwheat and about to make the bread now. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the recipe! It looks wonderful. Have you ever tried using just quinoa? (no buckwheat)?
Hi Rachel, thank you for your comment. We haven’t tried this recipe using only quinoa. I like the hardiness of buckwheat, it works really well in breads. If you give the 100% quinoa version a try, please let us know how it turns out. Happy baking 😉
Hi. My bread rose too fast and over flowed the pan. Is this bad? I m trying to bake it now..
Hi Emily,
Sorry for the late reply – how did it go? That’s happened to us as well, we usually just scrape it off the edges and pan. Zuzana actually used the overflow like pancake batter and they cooked well 😉
Let us know how it turned out.
Hi Zuzana and Nikki,
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe! The texture is wonderful. I enjoy the added caraway seed flavor.
Next time though I will definitely reduce the salt by at least half as the bread is way too salty for both mine and my
husband’s palates.
We are so happy to hear that you liked it! Good to know regarding the salt, we will see how it is next time we make it.
Your bread looks amazing. And I plan on making it my question is I don’t have a glass baking pan only metal. Do I need to buy a glass pan. I already have 3 metal pans
Hi Elaine, Sorry for the late reply. If you haven’t made the bread already… You can definitely use a metal pan, our suggestion would be to line it with un-bleached parchment paper. Hope you enjoy(ed) the bread! 🙂
The only bread I can eat is a flatbread I make by soaking lentils then blending them with water. Then flatten out and bake at high heat. It becomes a nice cracker. Sometimes I make a “papadam” by adding Indian spices for papadam ie cumin seeds, asafoetida and course black pepper. Good luck with everything! Lora
Yum!! this sounds amazing, especially the papadam – we love indian food 🙂 Sounds like you are quite creative in the kitchen, keep it up.
Hi NIkki,
I found it crusty and delicious especially with Irish cultured butter. I ate it warm like you’re not supposed to but it was delicious. But I liked it so much I started binging on it so I took it to my son who ate it later in the day and found it “funky” and then “too funky” so he had to compost it. And he does a lot of fermenting so I thought he would like it. Oh well. It was fun to do but since I have a binge problem I don’t want to make it again. I don’t usually eat any bread but thought I could handle this one. Thanks for the great experience!
Lora
Thank you for your honesty Lora, glad you enjoyed it and the experience of making it. I can see how your son would think it’s kinda “funky” – there are days when I feel that way toward it and it doesn’t appeal to me and other days I love it ♀️.
I’m in the middle of making this incredible bread! But I forgot to put in salt. Is it just for taste? It got all bubbly and I blended it and added 1 tsp of salt.
Can’t wait to bake it in the morning!
Hello Lora,
Just saw this comment – how did the bread turn out? When you are soaking the buckwheat with added salt, it just helps break down the enzymes for better digestion. We have made it with no salt and it turns out the same, just more bland.
Thank you for receipe. I will try it and let you know. What if so don’t add a flaxseed?
We would suggest substituting it with psyllium husk just to be sure the bread binds together.