Looking for a healthy gluten free breakfast cereal? They're hard to come by, and if you do find one chances are it’s full of ingredients you don't want to be putting in your body. So, why not make your own? Buckwheat is a great replacement for gluten cereals and is filled with tons of nutrients such as protein, fiber, good carbs and many different micro nutrients. It's also a low glycemic food which is great for people watching their blood sugar or looking to lose weight. In addition to the buckwheat you can add a variety of your favorite fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds (or whatever you like) to include even more nutrients into the porridge. Here is an example of some nice things to add in:
(Before you read on I would like to point out that buckwheat has nothing to do with wheat despite having "wheat" in its name, it's actually just a plant seed.)
Ingredients: (serves 1 person)
1/2 cup raw or roasted buckwheat
3 tbsp hemp seeds
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1-2 tbsp honey
(optional) 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese or Greek yogurt
Instructions:
Utensils needed:
-Medium sized cooking pot
-Measuring cups (optional)
-Spoon for stirring
-Bowl and spoon
Cooking buckwheat- Simply add 1 1/2 cups of water into a pot with your 1/2 cup of buckwheat. Add a pinch of salt to the water. Turn to high temp. until boiling. Reduce heat to medium temp. Cook for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Once the water content has fully diminished you will know its ready.
After cooking- Toss 1/2 a cup of (preferably frozen) blueberries into the bottom of your bowl. Next, add the hot buckwheat on top creating kind of a blueberry pie. Add your hemp seed on top of the buckwheat and do the same with your banana after slicing it up. You can now choose whether or not you want to add yogurt or cottage cheese, and put that on top of everything. To finish it off just add a bit of honey to sweeten it, about 1 tbsp will do.
*When choosing a yogurt to buy, you really want to pay attention to the ingredients and nutrition label. A lot of companies put unnecessary, unhealthy ingredients into their product to make them slightly more appealing to us. This can be countered by simply reading the nutrition and ingredient labels and making sure you are buying a quality product. There shouldn't be more than 3 ingredients in plain yogurt and 4-5 in flavoured. Maison Riviera is a great brand to try out.
-The London Styler Team