Buckwheat Galettes with Mushrooms and Cheese

What it is

Thin buckwheat pancakes from Brittany, in northwest France, made from a batter of just buckwheat flour, water and salt, rested a day in the fridge. Each one cooks thin in a hot pan, takes cheese, leeks and mushrooms, and folds into a square.

Why you should eat it

Real protein and plenty of fiber: buckwheat flour carries nearly four times the fiber of white flour. Its protein is rich in lysine, the amino acid wheat runs short on. The cheese brings a little more protein than the buckwheat, plus most of the saturated fat and some of the salt.

Tips

• Get the pan properly hot: you should hear a good sizzle when the batter goes in.
• Buckwheat allergy is real and can be serious. If you've ever reacted to buckwheat, or to peanut, latex, coconut, quinoa or poppy seed, ask your doctor before you try this.
• Buckwheat has no gluten of its own, but if you avoid gluten for a medical reason, let the label on your bag decide.

Substitutions

• Swiss-style cheese: Any good melting cheese, such as a mature cheddar. The numbers in the box won't match.
• The 24-hour rest: A 10-minute rest. Works when you're short of time.
• Leeks: A medium onion, thinly sliced. Sweeter and less green.
• Make it vegan: Skip the cheese or use a vegan melting cheese; the batter itself is already vegan. Less protein, and the numbers in the box won't match.

Storage

Leftover galettes and filling: fridge within 2 hours, eaten within 3 to 4 days, or freeze for 3 to 4 months. Reheat until steaming hot. Leftover batter keeps a day or two in the fridge.

While it cooks: the wheat that isn't wheat

Mushrooms in, and your only job is a stir now and then. Let's start with the name.

Buckwheat has wheat in its name and none in its family tree: it's the seed of a cousin of rhubarb. We cook it like a grain, and botanically it isn't one.

Inside, it packs the lysine most grains forget, far more than whole wheat flour. Here's the picture I'd draw for a class: a school backpack packed with the snack the other kids forgot. But the zipper sticks: buckwheat's plant compounds hold on to some of the protein on the way through.

So the cheese has a job: it tops up the amino acids buckwheat runs tightest on. That pairing is my reading; nobody has measured this galette.

Buckwheat rolls against beef

In Aberdeen, ten adults ate meals carrying the same protein from buckwheat rolls, other plant flours, or beef. Five hours later, hunger was lower after buckwheat than after beef, and lunch eaten was the same. Beef got more amino acids into the blood, but the buckwheat meal carried fewer of them to begin with. For your plate: buckwheat held its own on hunger. Ten people, one day per meal; the Scottish Government paid.

Half-buckwheat bread against wheat bread

In Peshawar, 20 healthy young adults ate plain wheat bread or bread made half with buckwheat flour, at the same carbs. Blood sugar rose more gently after the buckwheat bread, and it tasted about as good. For your plate: trade part of the wheat for buckwheat and the rise came in softer. One sitting each, and a few numbers don't match between the paper's parts; self-funded. Managing blood sugar? Talk to your doctor.

Every buckwheat trial on cholesterol and blood sugar

Twelve researchers pooled eight trials of buckwheat foods in adults with mild metabolic problems. Cholesterol and blood sugar dipped a little, right on the edge of the statistics or not at all, and body weight didn't budge. For your plate: eat buckwheat for the fiber and the flavour; as a cholesterol tool, the trials don't back it yet. Few, small trials of low certainty; a supplement company paid the publication fee. Managing cholesterol or blood sugar? Your doctor can weigh this.