Buckwheat Pancakes/Crepes

These were good. Really good. I followed this recipe but I cut it down because 3 cups of buckwheat a) exceeds what comes in a 1-pound bag, b) contains all your calories for a whole day and c) is a lot. 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup buckwheat groats (raw, not kasha; I used Bob's Red Mill)

water

salt

fillings!

Put the cup of groats in a large bowl and add a generous amount of water. Let it soak at least 9 hours. (Read more at the link regarding why).  It will get slimy; this is OK. Strain the water out and rinse the slime away, then put the groats in a blender and just barely cover them with water. Add a pinch of salt. Blend until smooth. If you don't think it's quite thin enough, add a smidge more water and blend again. 

Put a nonstick pan over high heat. Melt some butter, and when the foam dies down, pour some batter in. Quickly use a spatula to spread the batter out so it's thinner. Work quickly, because these cook fast. Once the batter sets on the first side, flip. I found these held together very, very well, so flipping was easy. In fact, I'll probably use a thinner batter next time to see if I can get the crepes thinner. Cook on the other side until cooked and a little browned. Set this crepe aside, add more butter to the pan, and repeat until you're out of batter.

I filled ours with Greek yogurt/strawberries/a little sugar for sweet crepes, and melted cheddar and baby arugula for savory. I also filled a leftover small one with Nutella. All of them were really delicious, but play with other filling ideas and see what you like best!

Chickpea Flour Crepes and Saffron Rice

I was feeling a little guilty last night that I was just going to heat some curry-in-a-pouch for dinner, so I decided to try making some saffron rice in the rice cooker. And then that didn't seem like enough either, so I also made some chickpea flour crepes, too. It was a pretty nice meal.

For the saffron rice, I didn't use the proportions in the recipe because our rice cooker has its own measuring system. I just used the amount of water called for by the cooker and added some concentrated broth and a pinch of saffron threads. For the crepes, I used smoked paprika instead of cayenne (because our daughter doesn't like cayenne that much) and baby arugula instead of spinach because that's what we had in the fridge. They're super unfussy to make, delicious, and high in protein because of the chickpea flour.