Buckwheat flour is not your average flour. It is made from buckwheat, which is actually an herb relating to rhubarb and sorrel. It is a bit of a mystery as it acts and looks like grain, however it is actually a seed. Buckwheat flour is extremely healthy for you as it’s high in fiber and plays a large part in controlling blood sugar levels.
Buckwheat flour is actually gluten free, since it’s not made from grain. Because of this, buckwheat flour cannot mimic the properties that gluten can and cannot substitute the entire flour amount for whole wheat flour or vice versa. If gluten isn’t the issue, you can sub 25% of the buckwheat with whole wheat flour.
Since whole heart flour is not a good substitute for buckwheat, let’s look at some things that can be used instead.
1. Oat Flour
Oat is a popular gluten free flour that is a much better substitute for buckwheat flour. While it doesn’t have a flavor as strong as buckwheat flour, in certain baking dishes, this may work out in your favor.
2. Chickpea Flour
Chickpea flour is an excellent substitute for buckwheat flour because the flavors are on point and chickpea flour is easy to work with. Chickpea flour does tend to be creamier than buckwheat flour, but chickpea flour has equally as many good nutrients as buckwheat flour does and it’s easy to work with or around the creamy texture.
A commonly sold gluten free flour, this one is generally inexpensive and easy to find. It is a combination of many different flours from things like potato starch, garbanzo beans, sorghum flour, and tapioca flour.
4. Brown Rice Flour
Brown rice flour is a very dense flour, making it better for baking and making things like pancakes, muffins and breads. It is rich in nutrients and a much better substitute for buckwheat flour than whole wheat flour.
Final Thoughts
Buckwheat flour is a nutritious grain free flour that is a popular gluten free option to use in baking and cooking. Whole wheat flour is not a good replacement for it because they do not cook the same and there is the problem of the gluten. There are many other better options to use instead of whole wheat flour when looking to replace buckwheat flour.
