I never liked kasha of any kind, but now as a grown up Dietitian I thought I would give it another shot. Afterall it is buckwheat and filled with whole grain goodness. I found that I prefer the more coarse groats and mixed up in this classic dish with a some modern additions I have turned into a fan.
Kicked Up Kasha Varnishkas with Porcinis
Servings
4 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cup sliced mushrooms such as cremini
- 1 leek sliced and cleaned well
- 1 cup coarse kasha buckwheat groats
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 1/2 pound mini bow ties pasta cooked per package directions
- 1/4 cup red wine
- Kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Garnish: chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Soak porcini mushrooms in 3/4 cup hot water for about 45 minutes. Strain and reserve soaking liquid. Chop porcinis and set aside.
- In a large deep saute pan, lightly coated with evoo, saute mushrooms until golden brown, over medium-high heat. Add leek and continue cooking until leek has softened.
- Add groats and toast until fragrant. Add garlic, chopped porcinis and continue cooking for just a minute. Add broth, reserved porcini liquid, wine and reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, fluff and place in a large bowl.
- Add cooked pasta to groats mixture and stir to combine. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with parsley and serve hot.
I am so sorry for that mishap, the gravy really needs quite a bit more liquid, it should be about 3-4 cups broth for that much flour. Thanks for commenting so I could fix it.
I made this recipe last night for a belated Hanukkah dinner. Everything was going well until I got to making the gravy. It says to melt butter and mix in flour. So far so good. Then it says to stir in broth, but what broth???? The only broth in the ingredient list is for the kasha. I did not realize this until the butter and flour in the pan. I tried adding the water from the porcini mushrooms and the wine, but it was too thick and tasted terrible. I tried thinning with water, but the taste was still no good. We ended up forgoing the gravy.
The kasha was pretty good. I liked having the mushrooms mixed in and of course using chicken broth is a must. However, without the gravy it was a bit on the dry side. I would also cut the amount of bow tie noodles down to maybe 1/2-3/4 of the recommended amount.
I love kasha. This looks amazing. I will be making this for Shabbos.