It is difficult to meet a person who would not have been convinced since childhood that buckwheat is very useful. However, few people think that a product that can be stored at room temperature for years has undergone such preliminary processing that it simply can’t contain anything really valuable. From this point of view, of particular interest are unprocessed buckwheat grains, which are easily recognizable by their green color, and it will be discussed specifically about their properties, composition and basic rules of use.

Chemical composition and calorie content

Green buckwheat is not a special plant. We are talking about the seeds of the same well-known seed buckwheat (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with Greece, just like a walnut), peeled, but not subjected, as is usually the case, to preventive treatment - at best thermal, in the form of steaming or frying, in the worst - chemical, when for the "noble" purpose of destroying bacteria, fungi and other pathogenic microorganisms, raw materials deprive almost all vitamins and other useful nutrients.

Important! Oddly enough, from the fact that the grains were not fried, their shelf life remains the same as with ordinary cereals - it is believed that both of these products should be consumed within 1.5–2 years.

Thus, we are talking about a "living" grain, in which the viability of the embryo is preserved, which means that green buckwheat can be used both as a usual porridge and as a sprout, the latter option is considered more useful.

By calorie content, brown and green buckwheat differ little from each other: in 100 g of boiled nucleus, from 93 to 110 kcal are present. Some sources indicate more significant indicators (308–330 kcal), but such discrepancies are easily explained, given that buckwheat porridge is usually richly flavored with butter, and any fat is extra calories.

As for the energy value of the product, green buckwheat contains:

• proteins - 15%;
• fat - 2.5%;
• carbohydrates - 62%.

The carbohydrate composition of the nucleus is represented by complex and simple saccharides, and the first (it is, first of all, starch) in grains is about 35 times more than the second. It is the presence of a high content of "slow" carbohydrates that determines the usefulness of the product, especially for those who monitor their weight.

Among other biologically active components of cereals, it is worth highlighting:

• vitamins - A, B1, B2, B6, B9, E, K, PP;
• minerals - iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, iodine, fluorine, silicon, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, etc .;
• organic acids - apple, oxalic, lemon;
• amino acids - about two dozen, including lysine, which is not found in fried grains, as well as threonine, tryptophan, leucine, isoleucine, cystine, tyrosine, valine, proline, glycine, alanine, histidine, arginine, glutamic and palmitic acid.

Fiber is present in green buckwheat, which has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the intestines, and in terms of the content of dietary fiber, the kernel is almost two times ahead of other popular cereals.

Another valuable property that distinguishes green buckwheat from most cereals is the complete absence of gluten in it, which is also called wheat protein or gluten. Many people have an individual intolerance to this vegetable protein (such a pathological condition is called celiac disease), and therefore they are forced to adhere to a strict gluten-free diet, for them buckwheat is a real find. However, it should be noted that gluten is also absent in fried grains of buckwheat, and this “harmful” protein is also absent in rice, millet and millet.

Benefits of Sprouted Buckwheat

Green buckwheat itself has the whole range of useful properties inherent in roasted cereals, however, in addition to this, the therapeutic effect of seedlings that can be obtained from “living” grains is added to the standard list.

Important! Germination of any grains before their use greatly increases the initial healing properties of the product.

This interesting feature has a completely scientific explanation. The fact is that in nature a seed that has fallen into the ground usually does not begin to germinate immediately, but waits for favorable conditions for this, that is, next spring. During this period, all vital juices embedded in the shell of the grain are in a "preserved", sleeping state.

Caught in conditions suitable for germination (warm and humid environment), the seed comes to life, inside it begins active processes aimed at maximizing the mobilization of the internal potential.

All the nutrients accumulated during the “wintering” period go over into a form convenient for quick assimilation, begin to interact with each other, enhancing and multiplying each other's value - the so-called synergy effect. On the contrary, those components that contributed to the preservation of the viability of the seed, not allowing it to germinate ahead of time, slowing down and blocking this process, are destroyed and neutralized.

Thus, if you eat not just porridge, but pre-germinated grains, the body with such a product will receive the maximum amount of nutrients that are in the most suitable form for assimilation, and will not receive what carries potential health damage.

• In particular, green buckwheat with seedlings:
• stimulates metabolic processes in the body, helps to remove heavy metal salts from it, products of incomplete redox reactions (antioxidant effect), bad cholesterol and other harmful substances;
• It has an immunostimulating and immunomodulating effect, reduces the manifestations of allergy, which, as you know, is an autoimmune pathology;
• significantly improves bowel function, normalizes its microflora;
• increases overall endurance, including due to its rich vitamin composition (it is interesting that ascorbic acid, which is almost completely absent in buckwheat grains, is synthesized at the moment of their germination, and their content of tocopherol and B vitamins also increases)
• beneficial effect on the digestive system, especially the pancreas, promotes the healing of stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers.

Speaking about the benefits of green buckwheat, you need to pay attention to one more point. Despite the fact that the chemical composition of the nucleus practically does not change depending on the degree of processing of the grains, “live” cereals are usually much more expensive. This is because raw grains are much harder to peel than fried ones (this phenomenon is easy to observe at home using peanuts as an example).

But consumers just do not want to overpay the extra money, so usually green buckwheat is not sold in the general departments of supermarkets, but in the ranks of the so-called "organic food".

Here are products grown without the use of pesticides and genetic engineering, which in itself makes them healthy.

Sprouted buckwheat grains - a universal dish, it can and should be consumed by everyone, regardless of age and gender. However, there are nuances in the use of the product by men and women.

For men

The antioxidant properties of tocopherol and other components that make up cereals, among other important qualities, provide strengthening of blood vessels and heart muscle, which men should definitely keep in mind after 40.

Did you know? Statistical studies conducted by specialists of the Pomeranian Medical University (Szczecin, Poland) and recently published in the journal Science in Poland show that on average, cardiovascular diseases in men begin to occur 10 years earlier than in women, but mortality from of these diseases among the fair sex is higher - 55% against 43% in men.

In addition, among the causes of early cardiovascular pathologies, scientists call hypomagnes - a lack of magnesium in the body. This element is a catalyst for calcium, sodium and potassium metabolism, maintaining the amount of these elements in the correct ratio. Another important function of magnesium is improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure, which means preventing hypertension.

Buckwheat bioflavonoids have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the liver, and therefore cereal is directly indicated for men prone to drinking alcohol. The “beer belly” that appears is a direct indication for leaning on buckwheat, because overweight is one of the factors leading to the development of atherosclerosis, ischemia, anemia, leukemia, and type 2 diabetes.

Amino acid and vitamin complex of germinated grains normalizes hormonal balance and stimulates the genitourinary system, prevents the onset of prostatitis symptoms, improves potency.

For women

Buckwheat, especially sprouted, promotes cell regeneration, slows down the aging process, which provides the already mentioned antioxidant properties. In addition, the product significantly improves the quality of the skin and hair, which is greatly facilitated by the presence in it of such an element as silicon. This mineral stimulates collagen production.

Tocopherol and a complex of B vitamins are necessary for the body to maintain a normal nervous system, improve mood, and fight insomnia and depression. There are periods in the life of any woman (premenstrual syndrome, menopause, or simply a “bad day”), when she lacks calmness, complacency, and self-confidence most of all.

Finally, as already mentioned, the presence of slow carbohydrates makes sprouted buckwheat an excellent dish to combat excess weight. Moreover, such a diet, if used correctly, will never lead to cachexia (exhaustion) and other pathological consequences of excessive enthusiasm for the idea of ​​losing weight.

Contraindications

By itself, green buckwheat has practically no contraindications, but when germinated, the product should be handled carefully for those who suffer from pancreatitis, a stomach ulcer or duodenal ulcer. At a time when the disease is in the acute stage, it is better to refuse the use of seedlings, replacing them with ordinary porridge.

Another conditional contraindication is increased blood clotting. The nucleus, both green and brown, contains rutin, which helps to thicken the blood and, thus, aggravates the risk of blood clots.

Important! Sometimes after the first intake of sprouted grains, unpleasant symptoms such as dizziness, general weakness, or diarrhea occur. As a rule, after a few days, when the body adapts to unusual food, these side effects disappear by themselves.

If sprouted grains can provoke stomach upsets, then ordinary porridge, cooked from dry kernels, especially when overused in its pure form, without oil, gravy and other similar “lubricating” additives, sometimes causes constipation.

It must be borne in mind that sprouted buckwheat is not compatible with all products, in particular, it is better not to use it in combination with:

• It must be borne in mind that sprouted buckwheat is not compatible with all products, in particular, it is better not to use it in combination with:
• milk and any kind of "milk";
• honey, propolis, pollock, royal jelly;
• some medicinal herbs, for example, Rhodiola rosea (golden root);
• nutritional supplements such as mumiyo.

How and with what you can cook sprouted buckwheat

In order for the sprouted grains of green buckwheat to bring not only benefit, but also pleasure, experienced housewives use many original and tasty recipes. Below are the most successful of these dishes.

Pink Tomato Salad

Before embarking on culinary creativity, it is necessary to carry out the main preparatory work - to sprout the kernel of green buckwheat. This process will take about a day, so you need to organize it in advance.

There are several ways to get buckwheat seedlings. In any case, the cereal should be thoroughly washed in several waters and all debris that has surfaced to the surface, including empty buckwheat seeds, should be removed (if the grain does not sink, there is no viable germ in it, it is not suitable for the task).

Then the wet core can be laid out on one side of the gauze cut folded into several layers, covered with the second half on top and left at room temperature for a day, occasionally sprinkling the fabric so that it does not dry out.

This method has the right to exist, but it gives a very small number of seedlings, so it is better to pre-soak the cereal for 3-12 hours in a large amount of clean water. After a while, the water is drained, and the swollen cereal is washed several times again to get rid of the excess mucus formed during the soaking.

Did you know? With the help of buckwheat husk, you can improve your sleep, because it’s not for nothing that pillows from insomnia fill it, because they believe that it positively affects biological points in the body.

Now comes the next stage - in fact, germination. It is best to do this according to the microgreen preparation technology: the swollen kernels are simply poured into a plastic container and, no longer filling with water, left under a lid in a well-lit place. Sprouts will appear in about a day, but during this time it is better to rinse the kernel 1-2 times, otherwise the finished product will be very mucilage and, in addition, it will not get a very pleasant musty “smell”.

After the seeds have sprouted, it is better to cook and eat them immediately. It is allowed to store the seedlings in the refrigerator for 72 hours, but it must be borne in mind that in this case the nutritional value of the finished product is still largely lost.

Buckwheat is supposed to be consumed in its raw form, but not everyone likes its specific taste, so preliminary heat treatment is allowed, although it is considered undesirable. However, boiling sprouted buckwheat on the principle of porridge is not necessary. It is enough to fill the cereal with water at the rate of 1 part of grains in 2.5 parts of water, bring to a boil, remove from heat and insist 15 minutes.

To prepare a salad with tomatoes and buckwheat seedlings you will need:

• boiled sprouted buckwheat: 1 cup;
• pink tomatoes: 2-3 pieces (medium size);
• boiled beets: 1 piece;
• soy sauce: 30 ml;
• fresh greens: 5-10 branches.
• salt, pepper: to taste.

Preparing a salad is extremely simple: you need to cut the tomatoes and beets in small slices, mix with boiled cereals, add chopped herbs, salt, pepper, sprinkle with soy sauce and serve immediately.

Bread salad

Ingredients:

• boiled sprouted buckwheat: 1 cup;
• bread rolls (rye or buckwheat): 8 pcs.;
• vegetable oil (preferably linseed or sesame): 30 ml;
• fresh greens: a small bunch;
• lemon: ½ pcs.;
• salt: to taste.

Crush the bread with your hands to a fraction of small crackers, chop the greens, mix all the ingredients, season with a mixture of vegetable oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt.

Summer salad

Buckwheat sprout salad can be prepared with any seasonal vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, etc. To enrich the dish with vitamins, it is also good to add any salad leaves, or even better - their mix. The vegetable group is cut in not too small slices, the salad is torn by hand, the sprouted cereal is added to the resulting mixture and seasoned.

For refueling, you can use it in any combination:

• soy sauce;
• lemon or orange juice;
• vegetable oil;
• Dijon mustard;
• liquid honey.

Crispy onion porridge

So that porridge from sprouted buckwheat does not seem so lean and boring, it can be mixed with fried onions. The dish will turn out less dietary, but it’s delicious if you fry the bacon cut into strips, then discard it on a paper towel and put onion in the remaining fat, then season the porridge with cracklings and caramelized onion.

With cucumbers and arugula

As was said, sprouted green buckwheat goes well with any fresh vegetables and herbs, but one of the most successful combinations is a pair of cucumbers plus arugula. Surprisingly, it is this type of salad leaves that creates an absolutely perfect and harmonious taste with the cucumber, while buckwheat seedlings appear in the dish as a neutral component that does not upset the balance and overall impression, but enriches the salad with vitamins and useful minerals.

Fresh avocado can play the same role, it is also often added to a salad with cucumbers, arugula and buckwheat. The principle of preparation is standard: all the ingredients are mixed and seasoned to taste with any light sauce. Sour cream and especially mayonnaise are not suitable for this healthy and low-calorie dish, but low-fat yogurt may be quite appropriate. In this case, the salad will taste slightly reminiscent of the famous Greek zazzyki, especially if you add a little crushed garlic to it.

With almonds

Another useful product that combines very well with germinated grains is nuts. In particular, almond.

Did you know? In Japan, which occupies the 9th place in the world in the production of buckwheat, no one consumes this product in the form of cereals. Soba (the local name for cereal) is used exclusively for making special noodles that are eaten by first dipping in tsuyu, a spicy mixture of rice wine, fish broth and soy sauce.

For example, to prepare an original salad, you can use the following list of ingredients:

• green sprouted buckwheat: 1 cup;
• almonds: 10-15 pcs.;
• sweet pepper: 1 pc.;
• green onions: 2-3 feathers;
• celery stalk: 1 pc.;
• garlic: 2-3 cloves;
• sea ​​kale: 1 cup;
• vegetable oil (linseed, olive, sesame): 30 ml;
• fresh greens: 10-15 stems;
• lemon: ½ pcs.

Soak the almonds for several hours, chop with a knife to the size of buckwheat, mix with seedlings. Add finely chopped vegetables, seaweed and greens, season with butter and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Salt is not used in the recipe, since seaweed is a fairly salty product, but if desired, the finished dish can be slightly added to taste.

Puree soup with avocado and cucumber

From cucumber, avocado and green buckwheat, you can cook not only salad, but also a very unusual soup puree. The beauty of this dish is that it is cooked without heat treatment, and therefore all its ingredients completely retain their vitamin composition.

To prepare the soup you will need:

• green sprouted buckwheat: 1 cup;
• fresh avocado: 1 piece;
• fresh cucumbers (gherkins): 5-6 pcs.;
• purified water: 500 ml;
• lemon: 1 pc.;
• salt, pepper: to taste;
• fresh greens: 1 small bunch;
• peeled sunflower seeds or sesame seeds: 1 handful (for decoration).

Peel avocados and cucumbers and chop randomly. Load into the blender bowl, add the sprouted cereal and beat until smooth mashed. Add water, salt, pepper, season with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Sprinkle finely chopped herbs and seeds before serving.

How to eat sprouted green buckwheat

With all its useful properties, germinated buckwheat is a product with a high content of carbohydrates, so it is still better not to use it as a mono-diet. For the use of seedlings, morning time is best. For dinner, they can be served to people suffering from constipation, in other cases, because of the high content of dietary fiber, stimulating intestinal motility, it is undesirable to sprouted grain at night.

Did you know? Until recently, the British cultivated buckwheat solely as a honey plant, and honey was not so much consumed by itself as it was exported to neighboring France. After harvesting, the local farmers fed pheasants themselves after the harvest.

An appropriate time for a low-calorie, but saturated with vitamins and microelements dish is a snack between the main meals in the case of fractional nutrition, when the patient is recommended to eat often and little by little. For dinner, the seedlings are suitable in combination with bacon, minced meat, mushrooms, cheese or poultry, or for dessert - in the form of a smoothie with the addition of fruits and nuts.

Various green sweets and other sweets are prepared from green buckwheat kernel with sprouts. It is believed that such dishes are compatible with the ideology of healthy lifestyle and will not harm the figure. But for this rule to work, sugar should not be present in recipes, since it completely neutralizes the healing properties of sprouts. As a sweetener in such desserts, raisins, prunes or banana pulp should be used.

As can be clearly seen from the above recipes, buckwheat can be considered as an independent dish or as an ingredient for vegetable salads or light soups, but here you also need to keep in mind that nutritionists categorically do not recommend eating fresh vegetables before bedtime. There are no special restrictions on the amount of germinated kernel eaten during the day - in principle, the product can be consumed in any portions and doses if the body responds normally to it.

But first you need to accustom yourself to unusual food, so it’s better to start using seedlings from small volumes, for example, adding 1–2 tsp. in your favorite vegetable salad.

Application features

Due to its many healing properties, green buckwheat is used not only in cooking. The product has found equally widespread use in traditional medicine and even in cosmetology.

In medicine

• Green kernel seedlings should definitely be included in your diet for patients suffering from:
• vitamin deficiency and anemia;
• hypertension
• various pathologies of the circulatory and cardiovascular systems;
• diseases of the pancreas (magnesium plays an important role in the production of bile and its removal from the body);
• chronic constipation;
• diabetes mellitus (due to the special phospholipids that seedlings are rich in, the level of glucose in the blood is normalized);
• varicose veins (the rutin and potassium contained in the grains strengthen the vessels and make them elastic, reduce the stretching of the veins).

The antioxidant properties of buckwheat, especially sprouted, also allow us to speak about the anti-cancer properties of the product.

In cosmetology

The easiest way to use the beneficial properties of sprouted green buckwheat is to simply wash yourself with water drained after soaking the kernel. From such a life-giving elixir, the skin will become toned and supple.

Among other beauty recipes, it is worth mentioning several face masks, which are also prepared from germinated kernels, ground in a blender to a state of gruel:

1. Nutritious: 2-3 hours of crushed grains, the same amount of fat yogurt, a few drops of rosemary and ylang-ylang essential oil.
2. Moisturizing: mix in equal proportions ground cereal with milk, let it brew.
3. Cleansing: 1 tbsp. pre-dried, and then chopped seedlings, 3 tbsp. freshly squeezed cherry juice.
4. Anti-aging: 2 tbsp. gruel from sprouted cereals, egg yolk and 10-15 drops of almond oil.

All masks should be applied to previously cleansed and preferably steamed after a bath or hot shower face skin, leave for 15-20 minutes and then rinse with plenty of cool water.

Green buckwheat has two indisputable advantages over ordinary brown: its grains were not subjected to heat or chemical treatment, leading to the loss of a significant share of useful properties, and, more importantly, they can be sprouted. It is this method of eating cereals that is considered the healthiest, since in germinated grains there is an active transformation of all nutrients into forms that are most convenient for rapid absorption. The taste of the raw nucleus with sprouts, however, is a little unusual and quite fresh, but it is this neutrality that makes the product a universal and very valuable ingredient for a wide variety of dishes - vegetable, meat and even dessert.