Life Field Buckwheat Groats

LifeField sent me a bag of their Buckwheat Groats, which are all natural, have no preservatives or additives, and are both gluten and wheat free. LifeField also makes buckwheat cookies and buckwheat waffle/pancake mix.

As is, they look like tiny little brown chips, and are hard to the touch. They sort of resemble mini chocolate chips, but are a light brown in color instead.

So, how to approach the groats? Well, I followed the instructions on the back of the bag, which called for 2 cups of water, 1 cup of the groats, and then a bit of salt, except I reduced everything by half to make only 2 servings instead of 4.  Then I boiled some water and added the salt, stirred the groats into the water, and let it simmer. It suggests 15 minutes, but I let it sit for about 30.

Well, they certainly PLUMPED up! I didn’t expect them to expand as much as they did. They were much softer, and chewy in texture. The smell sort of reminded me of the forest for some reason. It just smelled and tasted kind of “nutty” to me. Of course, there are no nuts in the actual product, but that’s the only way I could really think to describe it plain. Other than that, it’s actual quite bland. It says you can use it as a morning cereal, and add milk. I tried adding some butter and sugar to see if I could up the taste, but sadly, it did not absorb much of the flavors.

Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I think I’ll be sticking to oatmeal and grains like that as of now. I did like that one serving provided 5 grams of protein and was low in fat, but it lacked fiber and, well, wasn’t too tasty by itself. Perhaps with some milk, a bit of sweetener and some fruit, this would be a good swap for cereal, especially those who cannot tolerate gluten or wheat. 2 1/2 stars

*Has anyone ever tried Groats? What did you think? Do you have any yummy recipes?*

1/4 cup (41g) is 140 calories, 1 gram of fat, 28 carbohydrates, .5 grams of fiber, 0 grams of sugar and 5 grams of protein.

100% Pure Buckwheat Groats.