Overnight Refrigerator Buckwheat Groats

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These overnight refrigerator buckwheat groats are an easy, healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, grab and go breakfast that will keep you full for hours. This is another one of my go-to travel and weekend breakfasts, as well as busy weekday breakfasts. I’m the breakfast queen and since I’m obsessed with buckwheat, I’ve been adding it to some of my favorite breakfast recipes. I basically took my overnight refrigerator steel cut oats with chia and strawberries and replaced the steel cut oats with buckwheat groats, and added my blackberry compote instead of fresh berries, because it’s winter, and I can’t find fresh berries anywhere.

Don’t be afraid of buckwheat, it actually is similar in flavor and texture to steel cut oats when soaked, I mean Steve can’t even tell the difference.

Buckwheat – Buckwheat is not technically a grain, but the seed of a plant related to rhubarb. It’s a gluten-free, blood-building food that helps clean and strengthen the intestines and lower blood pressure. It doesn’t have much of a flavor once soaked, but has a great chewy texture. For this recipe, I am using raw buckwheat groats, not kasha, which is toasted buckwheat, as I want to make sure my groats are soaked to activate the nutrients, and make them more digestible. Store-bought kasha may not have been soaked prior to being toasted, and it imparts this toasted nutty flavor, and doesn’t get as chewy as the soaked buckwheat groats.

The only downside to this recipe is that you’re going to have to plan ahead, as the raw buckwheat groats will need to be pre-soaked. This may seem like an extra step, and it is, but it just takes 2 extra minutes to pull together and will become part of your routine. See my notes in the below recipe to understand why you should pre-soak the buckwheat groats. I made a fun video, but full recipe is below. * I’ve updated the recipe in the below post, as it adds more flavor, but you can make it either way. 

Overnight Refrigerator Buckwheat Groats

The below recipe makes 1 jar, but I always make 2 of the below recipe 

For this recipe, I am using raw buckwheat groats, not kasha, which is toasted buckwheat, as I want to make sure my groats are soaked to activate the nutrients, and make them more digestible. Store-bought kasha may not have been soaked prior to being toasted, and it imparts this toasted nutty flavor, and doesn’t get as chewy as the soaked buckwheat groats.

• 1/4 cup almond milk, oat milk, hemp milk – I used my homemade vanilla almond milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk – I love Native Forest Simple, as it has no guar or gums and comes in BPA free cans – make sure to shake the can, and get the one where you can hear the milk swishing around, as it will be easier to work with.
• 1/4 cup raw organic buckwheat groats, not kasha – pre-soaked, rinsed – Buckwheat groats expand when soaked, so if you want to make just one serving, then you will soak 2 tablespoons raw buckwheat groats, but I always soak 1/4 cup raw buckwheat to make 2 servings. (2 TBL raw = 1/4 cup soaked, 1/4 cup raw = 1/2 cup soaked). *Please see note below on soaking groats 
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon hemp seeds
• Pinch of pink Himalayan sea salt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut – I love this brand from Let’s Do Organic
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries, or smashed raspberries, pomegranate seeds, frozen blueberries (thawed a bit), or 1/4 cup of my blackberry chia compote – no added sugar – I do this in the fall and winter months where there isn’t fresh fruit, as it uses frozen berries
• Optional – 1 tablespoon goji berries
• Optional – 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon bee pollen

Toppings

• Spoonful of almond butter, walnut butter or peanut-butter in the morning before you consume them– I am obsessed with this almond butter from Sam’s Adventure Snacks. It’s locally made in SF and has the perfect consistency and the sea salt really amplifies the flavor.
• Spoonful of tahini – I love this tahini with dates from SoCo, use code mmcooks15 for 15% off. 

Get out a small glass jar with a lid, or glass container with a lid. I love these 12-ounce glass mason jars from Ball. I use them in our kitchen as drinking glasses, but I also use them to store just about anything from nuts to salad dressings, leftovers, you name it! They rock!

Pour in the almond milk, soaked groats, chia seed, hemp seed, sea salt, shredded coconut, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and give the mixture a good stir. If you’re adding goji berries, and/or bee pollen add them at this time too.

Stir in the berries, or berry compote, and give it another good stir to incorporate everything. Put the lid on, and store it in the refrigerator till morning.

Note: You don’t have to make this up right before bed, you can make it up in the afternoon as well, or even the morning before if you’ve soaked your groats overnight. I usually make it up while I’m prepping dinner. 

In the morning, make sure to give the groat porridge a good stir before consuming. My favorite way to eat these groats is to top the groats with with a big dollop of almond butter, or tahini, and then microwave it for 60 seconds. Making sure to give it a big stir after. Steve loves these cold with a big dollop of peanut butter. If you don’t want to use a microwave, you can heat these up in the jar in pan surrounded by simmering water, or pour mixture into a pan to warm up, but you may need to add a bit of almond milk or coconut milk. 

Feel free to add in what you wish to these groats, because like I said, this is a base recipe.  If you want them sweeter, by all means sweeten them up. I’m not a huge sweet tooth, so I tend to like things a bit more unsweetened than the majority of people.

I have 2 additional buckwheat recipes that are amazing!  Easy buckwheat porridge, this can be made in the am in under 15 minutes.

Overnight buckwheat porridge. This is the buckwheat recipe that inspired this overnight refrigerator version. Still one of my all time faves.