Delicious Homemade 4-ingredient Gluten Free Buckwheat Noodles

 This one is for my gluten free sister, auntie Em.  I know it is cold where she is and sometimes I think of my darling sister and wonder what she's eating for dinner. I'm a dork. I think of things like that, especially when I see storms all over the country that are knocking out electricity. I think if I could, I'd bring those dear people a pot of chicken soup...with homemade noodles.

When I was growing up it wasn't really good homemade chicken soup unless there were homemade noodles floating in the broth. There might not have even been chicken. I just wanted those noodle that Grandma Barbara would roll out by hand and put into that bubbling broth of happiness. As we're coming into that time of year then, I wanted to post this simple recipe for homemade buckwheat gluten free noodles. This recipe will work for tossing into a hot pot of soup right at the end and serving up warm. The noodles cook in 3-4 minutes and come together in less than 10 minutes. I think you'll be happily surprised.
Buckwheat. Let's talk.  Whole grain buckwheat can cook on the stove top 1:3 low simmer 32 minutes (pressure cook 4 minutes). Even though the word "wheat" is in the name of this remarkable stuff, don't let the name fool you...Buckwheat is actually not related to wheat at all and is 100% gluten free. A century ago Russia was by far the world leader in buckwheat. Kasha or buckwheat groat is a well known use of buckwheat for pilaf. With a strong flavor, rich in iron and a high concentration of all of the amino acids. Buckwheat is amazing in Gluten Free Buckwheat pancakes  and great for a nice dense bread. It can be strong in flavor so get the hulled varieties. For breads and rolls, use up to 1 cup per recipe to impart a taste and texture that comes close to whole wheat. Use less when baking delicate cookies or pies. (¼ cup contains 6 grams fiber and 5 grams protein.)

Buckwheat noodles are very popular in oriental dishes. I love them with a spicy peanut sauce and a light drizzle of sesame oil. However, the dry packaged buckwheat noodles, though tasty, are not really thick and yummy enough to use for home style chicken noodle soup. They just aren't the same as grandma's beautiful noodles. However, I've found a solution for that. I make my own. Mind you, they cook in 3-4 minutes. Fresh noodles always cook quickly. These don't get as smooshy as other buckwheat noodles I've had in the past. Gluten-free noodles in general tend to cook rather quickly.  These buckwheat noodles have the addition of egg and xanthan gum (all natural), which will aid in the texture. Keep that in mind.  If you don't have the egg powder, you can replace the egg powder with 1 egg. You'll need to add an additional 2T of water if you do that.

My Homemade Buckwheat gluten-free noodles
Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 T powdered whole egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Directions: Combine the dry ingredients.  Add 1/3 cup water to the dry ingredients and work into a thick dough, adding a few tsp of extra water to the dough if it seems too dry. Knead about 2 minutes.

 

Flatten out the dough between two pieces of wax paper (about 2 feet long), rolling with a rolling pin for even noodles.

 Remove the top layer of wax paper. Cut the noodles into desired thickness. I like mine about 1/4 inch by 3 inches.

 To cook the noodles, bring one gallon of water to a boil (or 1 gallon of chicken soup).   Make sure it is a rolling, double-chin kind of boil. This makes all the difference in the world! Slide your fresh noodles into the water. I use a small metal spatula to get them off the paper.

 Cook 3-4 minutes and drain well.

 Cover with peanut sauce and sesame seeds if you like.

 Personally, I prefer them with chicken soup.

 

 

There you go! Make some homemade gluten-free noodles!

 

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

 

Homemade Noodle Mix

Every Monday I try to share a useful convenience mix. With Fall finally in the air here in Arizona, USA...and the holidays right around the corner, I thought I'd share the latest adventure in mixes from my kitchen. Homemade noodle mix. A "just add water mix" for the upcoming season of giving. It's a new mix idea from my sweet little brain that I think will be fun to give away with some of my Homemade Cream Soup Mix . I got an email from a dear friend, Katie, who I went to High School with and she asked me if I had ever used dehydrated eggs to make noodles. The genius! This would make a gorgeous easy mix right? First however, I had to locate the Whole Powdered Eggs or dehydrated egg. My favorite so far has been Honeyville.

Yellow like an egg. You can use egg white instead if you desire.

Combine the dry ingredients...

Add the water...

Make the noodles.

Chef Tess Homemade Noodle Mix

2 cups high protein bread or semolina flour or use milled Hard White Wheat flour
1/3 cup whole egg powder

1/2 tsp salt or Chef Tess All purpose Seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder or 1/4 tsp garlic

Add 3/4 cup water to the mix (or 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup puree of spinach or tomato if you want a veggie noodle) and knead until it's a smooth dough. Proceed to make it into noodles.

For further directions on how to roll out and cut the noodles, see the Homemade Whole Grain Noodle Tutorial .

I will give more detailed instructions on how to make noodles at the class tomorrow! 6:30 PM

Homemade Noodles from you Food Storage with Chef Tess at Preparing Wisely

Preparing Wisely
144 S Mesa Drive Suite D
Mesa, AZ 85203

(480) 964-3077

Come and learn while having a great time!

Homemade Whole Grain Noodle Tutorial

It's Tutorial Tuesday here on the blog. Are we excited? Yes! Doesn't it just warm the cogs of your heart to see children's handwriting? It made me break a big toothy grin when I saw this recipe in my son's cooking notebook. Why? Because I knew it was a class we had done together...and whole grain noodles where now a part of his wholesome upbringing. We made chicken noodle soup and homemade ravioli. I wanted my children to learn how to make noodles without a hand cranked pasta machine. Why? Well, let's just say for argument's sake, they ever where to want pasta, not have dry noodle...and not have a pasta crank? What then? Rice? No...not if I can arm them with the mental ammo to make a good noodle. Use the noodle to make the noodles (so to speak). Look at these noodles...

Whole Grain Noodle dough

yield about 16 oz of noodles

2 cups high quality well ground high protein wheat flour ( I grind my own from Hard white wheat so I know it's fresh).

3 eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites

1 tsp salt if desired. (I use my all purpose seasoning blend)

Directions:

Combine the flour and salt/seasoning. Dig a well in the flour and add the eggs.

With a fork, whisk the eggs into the flour forming a soft-batter type stuff, soft dough and then a nice rough dough.

Stir well. There may be a little flour left over that doesn't mix into the dough. make a rough ball out of the stuff that sticks together. I clear off my table top of any extra flour and funky dough. Lightly flour counter tops.

Knead the dough a few minutes until it gets well combined and a lot smoother. It will still look a little rough, but the whole wheat is just that way. Divide into two balls.

Take one of the balls of dough and roll it out on a well floured table top, about 1/2 inch thick and 2 feet long.

Fold dough into thirds like a travel brochure.

Roll out the dough again, on a well floured surface until it is about 3 feet long.

Repeat the folding step and roll one last time until it is very very thin, about 1/8 an inch or less. Mine is so thin you can almost see through it. A well floured table top will really help this process...but also some good muscles applying the pressure to the center of the rolling pin instead of the handles.
When rolled out, it is about 5 feet long.

With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, make the cuts for the noodles. Make sure you get through all of the dough and the noodles are about 1/4 inch wide and 12 inches long. Repeat the whole process with your second ball of dough.

Transfer the noodles to a drying rack and allow to air dry a few minutes. This is when I start my water boiling to cook noodles. If you want to allow them to air dry a few hours that works as well.

Bring a gallon of water to a rolling boil. Add plenty of salt to the water. Put the noodles in all at once and cook 2-4 minutes (depending on how long you let them dry). Drain and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season as desired. Top with sauce or serve with cooked sausage, olives, tomatoes, cheese...whatever you love.

Spinach noodles: Use 1/2 cup thick spinach puree and 1/4 cup egg in the batter

Herb noodles: Use ground or fine minced herbs in the dough (about 1 tsp dry or 1T fresh)

Lemon pepper: Use zest of one lemon and 1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper in the dough

Sun dried tomato: Use 3T Sun dried tomato pesto in the dough

Pink pasta: Add 1/2 cup beet juice and 1/4 cup egg to the dough in place of the straight egg

There you go.