Buckwheeeee... wait, what?

I was introduced to Buckwheat while in Asia, (there it's called soba).  It's a grey looking noodle, served cold that does not look appetizing at all.  A friend of mine had ordered it for me and I looked at her like what in the...  But, being the adventurer that I am, I tried it anyway and IT WAS AWESOME!  


Now, present day with Celiac, I see some in the grocery store and I'm thinking buckwheat, there's no way this is gluten-free and the packaging doesn't help at all.  Spending money like I'm a superstar (seriously who pays $5 for noodles?), I pick it up anyway and decide that it will make a good blog post to figure it out.  So I'm here to tell you that after my extravagant noodle purchase and some research, Buckwheat IS gluten-free!  Yeah!  It is approved as GF in Canada, Australia, and Europe.  Buckwheat is not actually a wheat, it just physically looks like it is.  It's technically harvested from the fruit of the plant.  It's high in protein and fiber.  Win and win.


Here's the rub - Sometimes buckwheat is grown in the same field as wheat and can become cross-contaminated.  Also, sometimes buckwheat is processed on the same manufacturing equipment thereby becoming cross-contaminated.  So, here is my disclaimer - I am going to eat my buckwheat noodles, however, if the packaging doesn't say GF you probably shouldn't eat it.  

How do you eat buckwheat noodles?  You boil them like normal noodles.  Rinse them off in cold water so they cool.  I eat them cold with GF soy sauce or you can make a soba sauce with 2 cups of dashi, 1/2 c GF soy sauce, 1/2 c mirin.  All these products you'd probably find at an Asian grocery store, as they are Japanese staples.  Then you dip the noodles into the sauce (also cold).  Enjoy!