I love it and want everyone to be enjoying it, but I’ve noticed that most people have never heard of boza. Hence this post! In it, I’ll explain what the drink boza is, its history, how it’s made and what it tastes like.

What is boza?

Boza is a fermented drink that is native to the European regions we now call Turkey, the Caucuses and the Balkans. Made with millet, it’s gluten-free, dairy-free and, thanks to the fermentation, probiotic. It’s thick, fizzy, tangy and deeply satisfying.

What is the history of boza?

The first time the word ‘boza’ is recorded as being used to describe a fermented drink was the 14th century, but, incredibly, fermented millet drinks have been made since the 9th century BCE, meaning that a drink really similar to boza has been around for 11,000 years!

The heyday of boza was during the Ottoman Empire. A 17th-century traveller to Istanbul reported that the city housed 300 boza shops that employed over a thousand people!

There are still shops selling boza in Istanbul, one of the most famous being Vefa, which was founded in 1876 and is now run by the original owners great-great-grandchildren. You can see the shop here.

As well as being available in shops, boza has a long history of being sold by street vendors, who would wander the streets of Istanbul carrying boza in metal containers hung on milk pail-style apparatus. They had a very distinctive call. You can watch a short clip of one here.

If you’d like to read more about the environment in which boza-sellers worked, the main character in Orhan Pamuk’s 2014 novel A Strangeness in My Mind (a book that was shortlisted for the 2016 International Booker Prize) is a Turkish boza-seller.

What is boza made of?

The earliest records of boza-style fermented drinks used the grain millet. As the drink has travelled to different geographies and been influenced by changing crops, it is now often made with other grains such as corn or wheat.

I use millet in my own kitchen to make boza which creates a drink which is not only dairy-free but also gluten-free and lectin-free. Students of my boza course have also made the fermented drink with sorghum, amaranth and teff (as you can see below!).

Why should I make boza at home?

Boza is a simple, inexpensive drink to make and one that is exciting, delicious and probiotic. It’s great to have in the fridge when you want a healthy snack to turn to. In addition, if you’re looking to bring more probiotics into your life, making and consuming boza is a way that you can do this without relying on dairy, gluten, lectins or, importantly, expensive shop-bought beverages or tablets.

How do you make boza?

To make boza, hulled, cooked millet is mixed with yeast and left to ferment. The microbes doing the fermentation produce acids which make the drink tangy along with small amounts of alcohol.

What yeast can I use to make boza at home?

Some people use packets of commercial yeast in the boza-making process (and this is how boza is made in shops today).

Some experiment with sourdough starter, but I find this creates a drink that is too sour.

I choose to create my own starter full of natural yeasts using a small amount of cooked millet and some sugar. I then inoculate a bigger batch of cooked millet with this home-made starter, which ensures delicious results!

“I’m so impressed with this course. I’d never even heard of boza and now I’m addicted to it!” Deb, student of my course Boza: The Probiotic Millet Drink

What does boza taste like?

Boza is sweet, fizzy on the tongue, tangy and slightly sour. The cooked millet adds a creaminess to the drink too. You can vary the thickness (by adding more or less water) depending on your preference but it is generally a satisfyingly-thick drink which can also be eaten with a spoon.

Boza has generally become sweeter over time. Historically it was a more sour drink. My own method produces a drink that balances the sweet and sour flavours – I think the boza in my home is probably much less sweet than the boza you can currently buy in Istanbul.

What is the alcohol content?

The alcohol content of boza is low. In Turkey there is legislation saying that it cannot be greater than 2%. In my experience, when making boza at home, the alcohol content is much lower. General agreement states that home-made boza is less than 1% alcohol.

How is boza traditionally served?

Historically, boza has been served in the winter. This is because without refrigeration it was difficult to stop the drink over-fermenting in warm summer temperatures.

In addition, traditionally boza is seen as a warming and nourishing drink (even though it is served cold).

If you go to Istanbul today and buy boza, it will be served with roasted chickpeas and cinnamon on the top.

What are some other ways of serving boza?

In my home, boza is most often drunk (or eaten with a spoon) as a snack. My husband and son love it when they return home after a walk or an energetic trip out.

We consume it cold. In the summer, it’s really refreshing. In the winter, the thickness and fizzyness is very satisfying.

Here are some other ideas for serving boza:

• Top it with ground linseed or toasted nuts
• Use it as a yogurt alternative to top fruit or oatmeal/porridge
• Gently heat it up and sip it from a mug whilst warming your hands
• As a base for smoothies: Boza makes a brilliant non-dairy base for a probiotic smoothie. We like to add egg yolks, linseed, fruits or cocoa powder!
• Boza popsicles: Freeze boza in popsicle moulds for a delicious, healthy summer treat.

If you’d like to make boza in your own kitchen check out my step-by-step video course here

And did I say that it’s really tasty too?!

Here’s why I love it:

It’s very economical

Chicken carcasses cost next to nothing compared to buying specific meat cuts, such as breast. In the most recent batch I bought they were £1.60 ($2.11) for a 600g carcass.

This soup uses one chicken carcass to make three meals for my family. This means the meat portion of the dish costs 18 British pence (25 American cents) per plate.

Using this zero-waste approach as the base for a soup will not only give you plenty of meat, but also the skin provides fat and cooking the carcass in water gives a natural broth.

It’s child-friendly

My son likes chicken, but complains when I put ‘knobbly bits’ (like those on a chicken carcass) on his plate. This way I can use the parts of the chicken he wouldn’t necessarily eat – they all get blended up into a smooth chicken and vegetable deliciousness.

It gives you the benefits of broth

This soup gives you the benefits of broth without having to make a separate broth beforehand. The cooking chicken creates broth and that is blended into the soup.

It’s low histamine

Because this chicken is only cooked for an hour and a half, and because there’s a lot of meat on the bones, the resulting broth which forms the base of the soup is much lower in histamine than a bone broth-based dish would be.

It’s an easy way to make lots of meals

I routinely make enough of this soup to serve my family (of three) at three meals. I have sometimes doubled it up and made enough for six meals. The hands-on time for the process is less than 45 minutes. Six meals for 45 minutes work? I’ll take that!

Timings

I often make this soup in the morning to eat at lunchtime. This is how I do it:

The night before: take the chicken carcass out of the freezer.

Soup day 8am: prepare the vegetables, put the onions and root vegetables in the pan with the chicken, bring to the boil and then turn to a simmer for an hour.

Soup day 9:30am: add the greens to the simmering pan and cook for half an hour.

Soup day 10am: turn off the heat, fish out the carcass, leave it to cool, leave the lid off the saucepan of stock and vegetables.

Soup day 10:45am: pick the meat off the carcass, blend the soup in batches, leave it to cool.

Soup day 12pm: portion out the soup, gently reheat the lunch portion, freeze/refrigerate the other portions.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Makes 6-9 servings

Ingredients:

250g/9oz onions (c.2 medium)

600g/1.3lbcarrots

200g/7oz mushrooms

1 chicken carcass (mine usually weighs around 600g/1.3lb)

250g/9oz greens (cabbage, spinach and Cavolo Nero are three favourites of mine)

seasoning: salt, pepper and spices/herbs (I love to use 1tbsp nigella seeds)

Method:

• If you buy your chicken carcasses frozen, get one out of the freezer the night before and leave it in the fridge to defrost.
• Chop the onions, carrots and mushrooms roughly and place them a very large (and preferably wide) saucepan.
• Add the chicken carcass to the pan, nestling it within the vegetables (you may need to squash the carcass to get it to fit into your saucepan).
• Pour water over the chicken and vegetables – for a thick soup I use 1.5 litres/quarts, for a thinner one 2 litres/quarts. Try to cover as much of the chicken as you can in liquid.

• With the lid on, bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat to very low so that the liquid is just simmering.
• Leave to cook, covered, for an hour.
• Roughly chop your greens.
• Returning to the pan, add the greens, submerging them as best you can under the water. Re-cover and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and remove the chicken carcass from the pan, placing it on a plate to cool.
• Leave the lid off the vegetables and broth, stirring a few times to help them cool down.
• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle pick all the edible bits off the carcass.

• In batches, blend the chicken with the cooked vegetables and stock.
• If you want to eat the soup right away, pour the smooth result back into the saucepan and warm gently. If not, leave it to cool and enjoy later.

This chicken vegetable soup will last 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator and also freezes really well.

Make it yours!

There are so many ways to vary this soup. Here are some ideas:

• Use sweet potato, swede or yam
• Swap the onions for leaks, pairing with potato
• To make it colourful, use beetroot
• For a richer texture, add cream
• For a richer texture, but dairy free, add cold porridge before blending
• If you want a more filling meal, add rice or a grain such as millet to the cooking liquid
• Use differing spices and herbs

How I like to serve this soup

This soup is wonderful piping hot, with a drizzle of cream and sourdough bread with butter on the side. The bread pictured above is from my ebook Spelt Sourdough Every Day.

If you like this recipe, you might also like:

Breakfast Bone Broth Bowl

Beef and Barley Stew

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

It has been eaten in Scotland, for many years. There it is traditionally boiled and mashed with butter. I have tried this a few times, and though I love the flavour of rutabaga with butter, the resulting mash (using my hand technique, at least) is always lumpy.

The solution to lumpy rutabaga

This recipe is my solution: Forget the mashing and grate the rutabaga before cooking. And condense the sweetness of the root vegetable by frying (rather than boiling) directly in the butter. Adding turmeric and its activator black pepper just before serving brings both aesthetic joy and rounds out the flavours whilst also giving you some anti-inflammation points!

Make more than you think you’ll need – it reduces a lot during cooking. I’ve occasionally had two large frying pans on the go at one time to make enough to have intentional leftovers the next day!

Turmeric Buttered Rutabaga (Swede)

Serves 3

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Total time 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large rutabaga (swede) (c.670g)

optional 2 or 3 carrots (c. 170g)

1 white onion (c 200g)

c. 50g butter

3 tsps powdered turmeric

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

salt, to taste

Method:

1/ Peel the rutabaga, being sure to take off any green bits and then grate it using the coarse side of a box grater or your food processor.

2/ If you’re using carrots, grate these too.

3/ Dice the onion.

4/ Melt half of the butter in a large, preferably heavy bottomed, frying pan then add all the prepared vegetables.

5/ Stir the vegetables well, adjusting the pan to medium low heat.

6/ Continue to cook the vegetables for 30 to 40 minutes, until they have reduced in volume by about 50%. Ensure that you stir them every 5 to 10 minutes, particularly near the end of the cooking time, adding the rest of the butter when with the mix seems dry.

7/ Just before the end of the cooking time, add the turmeric, black pepper and salt. Stir well to combine.

Serving suggestions and other tips:

• This makes a great, and tasty, alternative to potatoes at any meal or use it instead of rice with a curry.
• It’s a comforting bowl to have as a light meal in itself – I like to sometimes add seeds and nuts.
• It is great with eggs! I often plate up the buttered mix, leave the pan on, and then swiftly fry eggs (adding extra butter if needed) to sit atop the golden carb.
• Leftovers keep well in the fridge for at least a couple of days. You can crack eggs into them, mix well, and then form into patties and fry (adding a few bread crumbs if you want to make them thicker).
• An untold number of spices go with this dish! I have often added cumin (sometimes I dry toast it beforehand), coriander, nutmeg, allspice, nigella seeds and garlic.

Check out some of my other gluten-free recipes:

7 Delicious Ways To Use Millet In Your Kitchen

Sprouted Fermented Buckwheat Pancakes

Fermented Oat Bake

Since having recorded a podcast episode dedicated to this wonderful grain, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making millet gnocchi.

This recipe is based on one from the Italian magazine Naturalmente Gluten-Free, and was passed to me by a podcast patron. We cooked it together, making a few changes along the way.

Most gnocchi contains eggs; this one is egg-free, making it suitable for those who don’t eat them (this is part of the reason I wanted to make it – my son can’t eat eggs). It is also great for those who are gluten-free.

You will need white pearl millet (the standard millet sold in the US, Europe and Australia) plus a flour to help bind the dough. Here I’ve used oat flour (which can be made by pulsing rolled oats in a coffee grinder). The adhesive qualities of the oat grain come in handy for this dough but you need not use oat flour – the original recipe actually suggests using rice flour.

Gnocchi is usually boiled. Here I’ll talk you through how to prepare this way but also offer an alternative oven-baking method.

I love to eat this gnocchi plain, with olive oil; with a herbed tomato sauce; with sage and melted butter or with ricotta.

Millet Gnocchi (Egg and Gluten-Free)

Serves 4

200g millet (almost 1 cup)

600g water (2 1/2 cups)

1/2 tsp salt

c. 50g (1/2 cup) oat flour (or any other flour), sufficient to help bind the millet into a dough

Making the dough

• Put the millet, water and salt into a large saucepan. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.
• Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook until all the water has almost been taken up. The time needed to do this will depend on the thirstiness of your millet and the heat applied. Expect it to take somewhere around 20 to, possibly, 30 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and leave the millet, covered, for 30 minutes to cool a little and soak up any remaining water.
• Leaving the cooked millet in the saucepan, add sufficient oat flour (or other flour) and stir well, combining to make a dough that is soft and holds together but is not too sticky.

Preparing the gnocchi

• Prepare your work-space by flouring it well.
• Take roughly 1/4 of the millet dough and transfer it to your floured surface.
• Working swiftly (it’s easier to shape the dough whilst it’s still warm) with your hands, roll the dough into a thick sausage shape and then, using the palms of your hands, continue to roll this out into a long thin sausage with a 1-1.5cm diameter. It doesn’t matter if the dough breaks as you will be cutting it into small sections.
• Cut this into 2cm-long pieces.
• Repeat this process three more times to use up all the millet dough.

Cooking the gnocchi

Gnocchi is traditionally boiled. You can boil these millet gnocchi or, if you prefer, you can put them in the oven. Having done it both ways, I now find ovening them simpler and less time-consuming.

To boil the gnocchi:

When boiled, the gnocchi must be cooked just a few at a time. This is really important. (In impatience, I have sometimes put too many in the pan in one go only to have them disintegrate). If you want to serve them or hot, you will need to have a way to keep the early-cooked ones warm. An easy way to do this is to prepare your sauce alongside the boiling and then transfer the cooked gnocchi into the pan with this sauce to keep warm whilst you continue to cook the remaining pieces.

• Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
• Drop the gnocchi in a few at a time.
• After a minute or so they will rise to the top. Cook them for a further minute and then fish them out with a slotted spoon, transferring them to your serving dish or to the pan that holds your sauce.
• Continue to do this until the gnocchi are cooked.

To oven the gnocchi:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (355°F).
• Lay the gnocchi, separated, on a baking tray and cook for around 20 minutes.

If you make too many, these gnocchi can be reheated in a warm oven or by gently frying. You can also freeze the un-cooked dough and complete the final cooking stage later.

Millet, is a tasty and versatile ancient grain. It’s economical, easy to digest, gluten and lectin free. And it’s simple and quick to cook too!

On top of this, it’s an ecological grain; millet is super sustainable, requiring the lowest amount of water of any of the grains, being tolerant to drought and heat and also growing in poor soil.

I’ve been creating dishes with millet in my kitchen for over a decade and have come up with some wonderful ways to eat it. I want to share seven of those with you here so that, if I turned up in your kitchen with a sack of millet, you’d know exactly what to do with it!

Note: There are many types of millet. The one most commonly available in Europe and the US is the yellow pearl millet; that’s what these recipes here use.

7 Ways to Use Millet In Your Kitchen

1. Simple Cooked Millet

It takes as little as 25 minutes to get whole, dehulled millet from the packet to your table. Bring millet to the boil with water (with a ratio of 1:2) in a lidded saucepan and then turn the pan to a simmer, cooking it for 15-18 minutes like this. The turn off the heat (leaving the lid on) and don’t touch it for another 10 minutes. After that time, take the lid off and use a fork to separate the grains.

The above method will produce a pilaf-style millet, with the grains distinct from each other. For a more porridge-like consistency, use more liquid: a millet to water ratio of 1:3.

You can use something other than water as the liquid when cooking to add more flavour. I often use bone broth or meat stock.

Serve warm, well-seasoned, with your favourite oil or fat.

2. Leftover Millet

I regularly cook more millet than my family needs at one meal. Once it is cooled, I remove it to a container and store it in the fridge for eating on subsequent days. Millet does not keep brilliantly and therefore needs a little attention when eating as leftovers. Here’s how I do it:

I will often reheat the millet in a small amount of stock before serving. This brings it back to life again!

I like to make Breakfast Broth Bowl, adding stock, onions, carrots, herbs and miso to the leftover millet. This kind of improvised one bowl dish can include whatever vegetables, herbs or flavourings you have or fancy.

3. Cold Millet Salad

I have taken this dish to many potlucks. Being gluten and lectin free (and potentially vegan), it’s accessible to many diets. Here’s how to make it:

• Cook your millet as described in the pilaf-style way described in number 1 above, and let cool.
• Add raw vegetables: I like to dice carrots very finely and also add frozen peas (so easy!).
• Add flavourings: I use miso, made runny by mixing it with a bit of water. You could also use specialty oils, like walnut or avocado, alongside lemon or lime juice or a tasty vinegar.
• Add seasonings: Salt and pepper are great, but also look to the world of herbs and spices to jazz up the salad even more!
• If you haven’t added oil, do so now, then mix everything together really well. Done!

4. Sourdough Millet Polenta

Polenta is, these days, almost universally associated with corn. It hails from Northern Italy, but, perhaps surprisingly, corn wasn’t actually brought to Italy until the 1500s. Before that, and more recently in areas where corn has not been available, polenta was made with other grains, one of the main ones being millet.

I love to ferment my polenta before cooking it. It brings a refreshing tartness which takes the dish to another level!

It’s great served for breakfast with cream, fruit and nuts and it’s also wonderful savoury; I love to pile it onto my plate and then add a sausage and tomato sauce or instead top it with a bolognese sauce.

You can read about and watch a video I filmed on how to make Sourdough Polenta here.

5. Sourdough Millet Polenta Bread

I love cooking in batches and eating the leftovers for days after. It’s such an economical and time-saving way to run a kitchen. And this Sourdough Millet Polenta Bread is another great example of it.

Make Sourdough Millet Polenta as described in number 4 above and then, before the leftovers in the saucepan get cold, pile it into a loaf tin. Gently push it down and smooth the top. Leave to cool and then transfer it to the fridge. When completely cold upturn it onto a plate. This can now be sliced, eaten cold, warmed under the grill or, my favourite, fried in lard!

There’s a video of how to make Sourdough Polenta Bread here.

If you want to try a simpler, unfermented version of this loaf, check the Millet Polenta Bread in my free, 30-page ebook, Baking with Ancient Grains.

6. Sourdough Millet Crackers

I often make millet crackers for supper. They are delicious warm, straight from the oven, spread with butter or topped with cheese. With only three ingredients and a very little hands on preparation time needed they are super easy too. You can see my recipe here.

7. Boza

My absolute number 1 favourite way to use millet is in the ancestral fermented drink Boza!

Boza is an ancient tart, sweet, creamy and fizzy drink. It’s probiotic, and because it’s gluten, lectin and dairy free, it’s a great fermented food to make for people who can’t have those foods. In fact, that’s why, when I first heard of it in 2019, I started researching it – my son had problems digesting dairy and we’d also recently taken lectins out of his diet. I wanted a tasty, healthy, probiotic alternative for him that I could make at home.

My experiments subsequently led to the whole household falling in love with Boza!

Find out more about Boza, it’s history and how to make it, here.

I hope I’ve inspired you to go by that bag of millet and get using it in your own kitchen!

You might also like:

Millet: How to Use This Sustainable, Gluten-Free Grain (podcast episode)

Millet Gnocchi (Egg & Gluten-Free)

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Millet is a wonderful grain to have in your cupboard. It’s quick to cook, gluten and lectin free, easy to digest and tasty.

I use it in many ways in my kitchen; here I’m going to show you how I make airy, sourdough millet crackers. If you’re inspired to take millet further in your kitchen, you can read about additional ways I use it here.

I’ve been making crackers out of fermented millet for over a decade. They are wonderful hot from the oven spread with butter. They are so simple – they use just millet flour (I grind mine myself using my Mockmill), sourdough starter, water and salt.

I’d got used to them always being flat and dense. But then, last week, I stumbled upon just the right batter consistency to trap sourdough gases, leaving the resulting cracker airy and light. It was a revelation and my family loved it. Here’s how you can replicate in your kitchen:

Sourdough Millet Crackers

Ingredients (for 12 crackers):

300g millet flour (you can buy this or grind it, very finely, yourself)

45g sourdough starter (you can use a millet starter to make the crackers gluten-free)

c. 180g water

Optional: coarse sea salt

Method:

1. Mix the sourdough starter into 130g of the water and stir well.

2. Measure the flour into a bowl (ideally glass so you can see the fermentation) and slowly add starter/water, mixing well. You want to aim for a thick batter, one that will hold sourdough gases as the batter ferments. Add extra water, up to or slightly above the 180g total that I use for my cracker batter.

3. Cover the bowl and leave on your counter to ferment for at least 12 hours. I leave mine 24 hours. The longer you leave it, the more sour the resulting crackers will be.

4. When you return to the batter it should be light and airy (if you used a glass bowl you should be able to see bubbles around the side). If you don’t see bubbles and you know your sourdough starter is good, it will be because your batter is too think or too thin. You can continue making the crackers, but they may not come out airy. To remedy for future bakings, make a note of how much water you used and adjust it next time.

5. Preheat your oven to 175°C.

6. Prepare two baking trays/sheets by greasing them or lining them with greaseproof/parchment paper.

7. Disturbing it as minimally as possible, carefully spoon out cracker-sized blobs of the batter (which should remind you of very loose scrambled egg) and gently place them onto your baking tray avoiding spreading or flattening them. Do this until you have finished the batter – you should have twelve crackers. Sprinkle a dash of coarse sea salt on the top of each one.

8. Bake the crackers at 175°C for 20 to 25 minutes.

Once baked, remove them to a cooling rack or, as we do straight to your plate! These are best eaten immediately (expect them to be crumbly on top) so I usually only make as many as we are going to eat but they will last a day or two in an airtight container and can be toasted to bring them back to life!

B vitamins (which many of us turn to to support our nervous system, keep us calm and enhance our sleep) are a great example of this. The delicious pseudo-grain, buckwheat (which is gluten-free) is, quite literally, nature’s vitamin-B tablet (if you look up what ‘natural’ vitamin B tablets are made from, it’s buckwheat) Buckwheat contains B3, B4, B5, B6, B9 & B12! And for even more nutrient-density, sprouting the buckwheat increases those vital B vitamins!

Rather than take a vitamin B supplement, I regularly sprout and ferment buckwheat into tasty, crisp pancakes. They are so good straight from the pan, covered in butter or grated cheese. Or you can fold them in half and stuff them with goodies!

Sprouted Fermented Buckwheat Pancakes

(makes 4 pancakes, I cook these in a cast iron pan)

Ingredients:

200 g buckwheat (without hulls, it should look cream-coloured, like the picture above)

125 g non-chlorinated water

20 g sourdough starter (if you prefer you can use any other live culture – milk kefir, ginger bug, yoghurt et cetera)

Optional: You can jazz up these pancakes with many things – add spices or herbs, honey or a sprinkle of cheese. You could mix a couple of eggs into the batter just before cooking for a protein punch too!

Method:

• Sprout the buckwheat as per my instructions here.

• Blend the buckwheat with the water and sourdough starter (or other live culture) until smooth.

• Leave this mixture somewhere warm (ideally over 20C/68F). How long you choose to leave the mixture to ferment is up to you; the longer you leave it the more it will ferment and the more sour it will become. I like to leave mine 24 hours.

• When you are ready to cook, preheat your cast iron pan on medium until it is thoroughly warm. (This always takes longer than you think – I sometimes leave mine 15 minutes.) If, as me, you are using cast iron, the pan needs to be well-seasoned and thoroughly hot for the pancakes not to stick.

• Stir your fermented buckwheat mixture to redistribute the water. It may have separated quite a lot, it may have a pink tinge on its surface, and it may give off gases when you first stir it – all of these things are absolutely normal.

• Once your pan is hot, melt a good amount of fat (I use lard or ghee) in it and spoon some of the buckwheat mixture in, teasing it into a round shape using the back of your spoon.

• Leave to cook until upward facing surface of the pancake looks dry and has changed to a darker colour.

• Flip the pancake carefully, and cook until both sides are golden.

You can transfer the uncooked, fermented batter to the fridge before cooking – it’ll keep for 3/4 days. You can also use some of the old fermented batter to ‘start’ a new batch. Lastly, if you make more pancakes than you can eat. they’ll keep in the fridge and you can warm them up for a few minutes in a pan when you are ready to eat them!

You can also use this batter to make a delicious porridge – just heat it in a small saucepan, adding extra water/milk if needed and stir well until you get the consistency you like.

If you make these pancakes, I’d love to hear about and/or see the results! You can tag me on Instagram (@ancestral_kitchen), leave a comment below, or message me at alison(@)ancestralkitchen.com

We need B vitamins for so many things, including a healthy nervous system, to stave off anxiety and for good sleep.

I regularly sprout buckwheat. It is an easy process – although it takes 2 to 3 days, the hands on time needed is just a couple of minutes, twice a day. Here’s how:

How to Sprout Buckwheat (for increased vitamin B content!)

What you will need:

The ideal set up for sprouting grains is a large mason jar, some gauze and an elastic band – my method below uses these. If you do not have these, you can sprout your grains in a bowl but when it comes to draining and rinsing you will need to use an additional sieve/colander.

Process:

• Put your buckwheat in a large mason jar and cover with ample water (at least twice as much as the buckwheat). Cover the mason jar with a square of gauze and secure the gauze to the rim using an elastic band.

• Leave to soak for 24 hours.

• Drain the buckwheat by tipping the jar up over the sink and allowing the water to run out.

• Rinse the buckwheat three or four times by refilling the jar with water, agitating a little and then allowing the water to drain out.

• Invert the jar of drained buckwheat and leave it at a 45° angle so that any residual water can escape (you can do this by resting it on a draining rack or by leaning the jar, upside-down, inside a bowl). Leave the grains 12 hours.

• After these 12 hours, again rinse and drain the buckwheat three or four times, replacing the jar in its upside-down 45° angle afterwards.

• From 24 hours onwards you should start to see little sprouts appearing on your buckwheat grains. I usually wait until these are between 2 and 4 mm in length.

• When you are ready to use your buckwheat, rinse and drain it well.

FAQS

How can I use sprouted buckwheat?

You can use these sprouted grain wherever you’d use unsprouted buckwheat. At the end of the sprouting process, the grains are wet and can be eaten in salads, added to smoothies, or blended with more water and made into pancakes (check my recipe for sprouted, fermented buckwheat pancakes) or a smooth porridge. If you dry the groats (which can be done in a dehydrator or low oven), they make a crunchy cereal or can be used in the Russian recipe Kasha.

My sprouts are done, but I’m not ready to use them!

Not a problem! If you’re not ready to use this buckwheat, you can store it in the fridge for a few days (just make sure you rinse it thoroughly once a day). It will continue to sprout, but not as quickly.

How can I store sprouted grains?

Unused grains can be stored in the fridge in the jar they were sprouted in. Rinse them daily. You can also dry the sprouted grains in a dehydrator or low oven. Once fully-dry, they will keep, in a sealed container, for many months.

You might also like:

Sprouted, Fermented Buckwheat Pancakes

7 Delicious Ways to Use Millet in Your Kitchen

How to Make Fermented Oats

This bone broth bowl is one of my go-to breakfasts throughout the winter. It’s simple, uses leftovers, is very tasty and gives me bone broth to start my day. Here’s how:

Ingredients (serves 1):

Around 1/2 a cup of bone broth (vary this depending on whether you want a liquidy breakfast or something more solid)

6 to 7 round slices of carrot

2 to 3 thin slices through a whole onion

1 tsp miso

4 to 5 heaped tbsps of leftover carb – millet, sorghum, rice, potato – whatever you have in the fridge (again vary this amount depending on how hungry you are)

An egg (sometimes I’ll swap this out for nuts or, if I want an extra boost, collagen powder)

Optional: fresh herbs

Note: If you don’t have miso, you could use herbs, garlic or leave the addition out completely!

Method:

• Put the carrot and onion into a small saucepan and cover them with the stock.
• Drop in a teaspoon of miso and mash it against the side of the saucepan until it’s mixed in with the stock.
• Bring this to the boil and then turn down to medium low for 5 to 6 minutes (I will often go and get dressed, or stir my ferments whilst this is happening!)
• Add leftover grains/potato, and whilst this is warming up go grab an egg and crack it into the mix, so it sits on top.
• Put a lid on the saucepan. Keep the heat at medium low until the egg is poached to the level that you like. I like my eggs runny, so I look for an opaque white, but an egg that still jiggles if I shake the saucepan!
• Pour into a bowl, top with optional herbs and enjoy!

My podcast co-host and I dedicated an entire episode of Ancestral Kitchen Podcast to bone broth! To listen in to the episode, titled #26 Bones & Water – The Magic Of Stock, click below (or find us in your podcast player!).

This oat bake made with fermented oats is tasty, easy and it keeps really well in the fridge or freezer. Eat slices hot and fresh, cut a chunk off from the leftovers as a quick snack, and then fry up some slabs for supper!

If you want some extra help fermenting your oats, you can read my comprehensive post How to Make Fermented Oats here or check out my video here.

Fermented Oat Bake

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups water

30g sourdough starter (or equivalent of any live bacteria/yeast starter kefir, yougurt, sauerkraut juice)

1 large or 2 small onion/s

100g bacon

150g hard, aged cheese (such as parmesan or strong cheddar)

6 eggs

Generous grinds of pepper plus any particular herb/spice you would like to add (get creative here – I like marjoram or rosemary or sage)

Method

1. In a large bowl, stir the sourdough starter (or equivalent) into the water.
2. Pour in the rolled oats, stir and leave to soak overnight on the kitchen worktop.
3. Next morning, dice the onion and bacon and grate the cheese.
4. Add the onion, bacon and 100g of the cheese (reserving 50g) to the oat/water mixture.
5. Break the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk lightly with a fork.
6. Add the eggs to the oat mixture and season with pepper and your chose herbs/spices, stir well.
7. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and top with the remaining grated cheese.
8. Bake at 180C (356F) for 35-45 minutes, raising the temperature towards the end if it needs further browning.

Want more fermented oats?

If you love oats and love fermenting, check out my course Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment over at The Fermentation School. It’ll guide you through an historic, exciting way to ferment oats into both a creamy porridge and a tangy probiotic drink.