Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Grechnevaya Kasha
Toasted buckwheat simmered until fluffy and served with butter, the quintessential Russian porridge.
Russian · easy · serves 4
prep 3 min · cook 20 min
~185 cal · 5g protein · 28g carbs · 7g fat · 4g fiber · 0g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kasha, the everyday porridge of grains at the heart of the Russian table, is so fundamental that the word doubles in the language as "food" or a "meal" itself, and old sayings tie it to comfort, plenty, and even peacemaking. Of all its forms, grechnevaya kasha, made from buckwheat, is the most quintessentially Russian.
The buckwheat groats are usually pre-toasted, which gives them their deep, nutty flavour, then simmered gently in water or milk until tender and fluffy, each grain separate. It is plain, wholesome, and endlessly adaptable, the ballast of countless Russian meals for centuries.
For breakfast it is finished simply, a generous knob of butter (as the proverb has it, you cannot spoil kasha with butter), or milk and a little sugar for a sweeter bowl. Savoury versions accompany meat and mushrooms at other meals. Humble and nourishing, kasha is Russian home cooking distilled to its essence.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 cup buckwheat groats (grechka)
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter (to finish)
Instructions
1
Rinse the groats in a sieve under cold water, then toast them in a dry pan until fragrant and nutty.
✎ Chef’s note
Rinse first; it noticeably improves the taste of the cooked grain. And if the packet already says kasha rather than buckwheat, the groats have been roasted at the mill and a short warming in the pan is all they need. Kasha, incidentally, does not only mean buckwheat: in Russian it is the word for any grain cooked as porridge, barley, oats, semolina and the rest.
2
Add the salted water and bring to a boil.
3
Cover and simmer on low until the water is absorbed and the grains are fluffy, about 15 minutes.
4
Take it off the heat and leave it covered and undisturbed for 10 to 15 minutes, then fluff it with a fork so the grains separate.
✎ Chef’s note
The rest is not optional and it is longer than you think. The grains finish in their own steam, and lifting the lid early gives you a wet, clumping kasha.
5
Stir in the butter (or plant butter) and serve, sweet with milk or savory.
Moscow tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Moscow. Moscow is a capital of sour cream, dill, and long winters, where beetroot borscht, pelmeni dumplings, and layered Olivier salad hold the table. Preserving shaped the pantry: pickles, salted fish, smetana, and rye bread in every form.
🗺️
Russia. Tea is the ritual that organises the afternoon. A samovar keeps water hot and a concentrated brew, the zavarka, sits on top to be diluted cup by cup, and it is drunk with jam either stirred in or eaten by the spoonful alongside. The pickling that fills the rest of the table, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms and cabbage, is what makes a long winter edible.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Russia
Beef StroganoffSeared strips of beef and mushrooms in a mustard-spiked sour cream sauce over noodles, 19th-century Moscow at its most elegant.
PelmeniSmall dumplings of thin dough around a juicy meat filling, boiled and served with sour cream, a Russian staple.
MedovikMany thin honey-baked layers stacked with a tangy sour-cream frosting, Russia's classic honey cake.
Browse all Russia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Russia meal
KvassDrink
MedovikDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Grechnevaya Kasha?
Toasted buckwheat simmered until fluffy and served with butter, the quintessential Russian porridge.
Where does Grechnevaya Kasha come from?
Grechnevaya Kasha is a Russian dish from Moscow, Russia.
Can Grechnevaya Kasha be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Grechnevaya Kasha recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Grechnevaya Kasha safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Grechnevaya Kasha take to make?
About 23 minutes total (3 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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