Kasha with Dried Mushrooms and Onion
Toasted buckwheat groats cooked with dried mushrooms, fried onion, and a spoon of fat. Eastern European ballast, one pot.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 4.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 15 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 18 min
- total time
- 23 min
- water
- 450 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Roasted buckwheat groats (kasha) | 3/4 cup | roasted, not raw, or it turns to porridge |
|---|---|---|
| Dried wild mushrooms | 1/2 oz | porcini, hen of the woods, or a mixed bag |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Ghee | 1 1/2 tbsp | shelf-stable where butter is not |
| Dried dill | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | a few grinds |
Method
- Put the mushrooms and onion flakes in the pot with 450 ml of water. Bring it to a boil and let it run two minutes so the mushrooms give up their soak water.
- Stir in the kasha and the salt. Bring back to a boil, then drop to the lowest flame you can hold.
- Cover and cook about 10 minutes, until the water is gone and the groats are tender. Do not stir. Stirring breaks the grains apart.
- Off the heat, cover again and let it sit 5 minutes.
- Stir in the ghee, dill, and pepper. Fluff with the spoon and eat out of the pot.
Kasha is roasted buckwheat, and the roasting is what makes it a trail grain. The groats hold their shape in a 2:1 water ratio and finish in about ten minutes, so a full dinner costs one boil and a short simmer. Raw buckwheat does not do this. It collapses.
The dried mushrooms are doing two jobs. They rehydrate into something with texture, and their soak water becomes the cooking liquid, which is where the flavor actually lives. The original uses fresh mushrooms, fresh onion, and butter; dried mushrooms, onion flakes, and ghee cover all three without a cooler. Fat at the end matters more than it looks — buckwheat is dry and the ghee is most of what makes it eat like a meal.
Packing
Kasha, mushrooms, onion, dill, salt, and pepper go in one bag together. Ghee rides in a small screw-top jar; it will not leak the way oil does.
Variations
- A packet of chicken or beef bouillon in the water in place of some of the salt.
- Olive oil instead of ghee makes it vegan and dairy-free.
- A foil packet of salmon stirred in at the end for another 20 g of protein.
https://foragerchef.com/buckwheat-kasha-with-mushrooms-and-onions