Kasha with Root Vegetables

The first time I had Kasha was at Polina's house less than a year ago.
I had dropped in around lunchtime and she thrust a bowl into my hand filled with something that looked like barley mixed with vegetables to me.
Now see... I'm a good guest, and besides it was my darling Polina who had given it to me... so I ate.

I ate, and I was in love. Here was a meal-in-a-bowl, which tasted so simple and left me feeling so content.
"What is this??" I asked Polina.
"It's kasha," she said, "you know Kasha? Buckwheat? Anisha, do you like it? Do you want more?"

I had read about buckwheat on vegan recipe websites... I think I'd also seen it in a bulk foods bin at Whole Foods... but I had no idea that Buckwheat and I were meant to be.

Since then Kasha is a weekly staple, especially when the husband is traveling. It also sneaks into several other foods... but those are other recipes for other days.

Here is what we ate today: Kasha with Root Vegetables!

This is very easy to make. The only thing is, you will need three seperate pots to make this.
One to cook the buckwheat.
One to stir-fry the onion, garlic, and bell pepper.
One to cook the vegetables in.
If you figure a way to save on the dishes... kudos to you! Tell me about it... I have a small sink and would love to know.

You will need: Assorted root veggies... I've used a turnip, a sweet potato (garnet yam), a beet, sliced carrots, and an onion. Slice these veggies into bite sized pieces and set aside.
Also, a few cloves of garlic and a bell pepper (because it's imperative we eat something green everyday!)
Seasoning: Cayenne pepper and Salt. Another good option is freshly ground black pepper. 

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Oh and you will also need a can of diced tomatoes in tomato juice. Alternatively, you can use fresh tomatoes.

Steps:

Buckwheat:

1. Wash the buckwheat in a few changes of water.
2. Add double the amount of water to buckwheat (1 cup of buckwheat: 2 cups of water) and bring to boil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Stir occasionally.
3. When cooked, the grains will have doubled in quantity.
4. Check if fully cooked by tasting... if its soft and chewy, its ready! Takes about 10 minutes on medium heat.

Veggies:

In a wok/ frying pan:
Heat one tablespoon of oil in a wok and saute sliced garlic and chopped onions till they are slightly browned.
Add the green pepper and stir fry for 2 minutes.




In a sauce pan:

Using very little water cook the veggies in the following order - carrots and beets, turnip, sweet potato.
This is simply because the carrots and beets take longest to cook... then the turnip, and the fastest is the sweet potato.

The last step:

Mix everything up... the cooked buckwheat, the onion-pepper stir fry, the cooked root vegetables, and finally... the can of tomatoes. Do this in the biggest of the three pots.

Bring it all to one final boil and add cayanne pepper and salt to taste.

If you're still easing into healthy food, or you have a husband who looks mildly distraught at the absolute lack of fat in this delicacy, add some light cheese to the top. This one here is Munster.