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This buckwheat and beef pilaf is a play on traditional rice plov, but I think I like it even more! The meat is fall-apart tender and you’ll be running to refill your plate.
This dish is hearty, flavorful, and a must try. Using toasted buckwheat is nutritious and adds a completely different flavor profile. Buckwheat plov was my husband’s creative genius. Vadim, I just wish you had thought of it sooner! 😉 Also, it pairs well with pickles; #sold.
You may use a variety of beef for this recipe, but you do want some marbeling/fat in the meat for best results. The meat in the photograph below is a chuck roast that I purchased at Costco – I trimmed quite a bit of the fat off.
Ingredients for Buckwheat Plov:
1/3 cup olive oil
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 large onion, diced
1 to 1 1/4 lbs beef (chuck, sirloin or good quality stew meat), trimmed of extra fat and cut into 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick pieces
3 large carrots, julienned
2.5 cups buckwheat groats (aka grechka)
4 1/4 cups cold filtered water + 1 cup hot water
2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper, or to taste (I use sea salt)
1 tsp cumin spice to taste
1 full head of unpeeled garlic
How to make Buckwheat and Beef Pilaf:
1. Set a large heavy-bottomed stock pot or dutch oven (ours is 5 1/2 Qt) over medium/high heat and add 1/3 cup olive oil and 4 Tbsp butter. Add onion and sauté, stirring occasionally until softened (about 5 min).
2. Add cubed beef and sauté 5 min, turning once (beef will not be fully cooked). Add julienned (click here to see the handy slicer we use) carrots and stir another minute.
3. Add 4 1/4 cups cold water and season with 1 tsp cumin, 2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and cook 1 hour (you should hear the faint simmer when your lid is on).
4. Meanwhile (about 10 min before your timer is up), heat a large non-stick skillet over medium/high heat and melt in 4 Tbsp butter. Add 2 1/2 cups buckwheat and toast until golden, stirring often (3-5 min). Pour buckwheat into the pot in an even layer and gently pour enough hot water to cover buckwheat 1/2″ above the level of the buckwheat (I added 1 cup hot water).
5. Cut (using a sharp knife) garlic head in half and place over the top of buckwheat, cut-side-down, pushing down into the buckwheat slightly. Cook uncovered over medium heat until most of the liquid boils out (10 min).
6. Poke 8-10 holes through the buckwheat to allow steam to escape to the surface, then cover with lid, reduce heat to the lowest setting and let pot sit another 30 minutes. Remove garlic and stir everything gently to combine. P.S. The garlic cloves are perfectly edible – you can squeeze them easily out of their skins and serve them in the pilaf if you wish.
Did I mention the meat is T-E-N-D-E-R?
Buckwheat and Beef Pilaf (Plov)
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 to 1 1/4 lbs beef, chuck, sirloin or good quality stew meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1/2" to 3/4" thick pieces
- 3 large carrots, julienned
- 2.5 cups buckwheat groats, aka grechka
- 4 1/4 cups cold filtered water + 1 cup hot water
- 2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper, or to taste (I use sea salt)
- 1 tsp cumin spice to taste
- 1 full head of unpeeled garlic
Instructions
- Set a large heavy-bottomed stock pot or dutch oven over medium/high heat and add 1/3 cup olive oil and 4 Tbsp butter. Add onion and sauté, stirring occasionally until softened (about 5 min).
- Add cubed beef and sauté 5 min, turning once (beef will not be fully cooked). Add julienned carrots and stir another minute.
- Add 4 1/4 cups cold water and season with 1 tsp cumin, 2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and cook 1 hour.
- Meanwhile (about 10 min before your timer is up), heat a large non-stick skillet over medium/high heat and melt in 4 Tbsp butter. Add 2 1/2 cups buckwheat and toast until golden, stirring often (3-5 min). Pour buckwheat into the pot in an even layer and gently pour enough hot water to cover buckwheat 1/2" above the level of the buckwheat (I added 1 cup hot water).
- Cut garlic head in half parallel to the base to expose cloves and place over the top of buckwheat, cut-sides-down, pushing into the buckwheat slightly. Cook uncovered over med heat until most of the surface liquid boils out (10 min).
- Poke 8-10 holes through the buckwheat to allow steam to escape to the surface, then cover with lid, reduce heat to the lowest setting and let pot sit another 30 minutes. Remove garlic and stir everything gently to combine. P.S. you can squeeze garlic cloves out of their skins and serve them in the pilaf if you wish.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
I hope you put this on your menu for the week!
I cooked this for my family. It was good, meat was tender, however, I think that a stick of butter kind of cancels out the healthiness in this dish. I will definitely cut back on butter next time. Also, I want to try searing the meat first without onions, because I think the onions get in the way of meat getting a good sear. Unless I did something wrong:) Anyway, thanx for recipe.
Hi Alena, Plov is traditionally made with even more oil and butter. I actually used less than normal, but I’m also a butter lovin’ kinda gal ;). The searing isn’t as important (it doesn’t have to be a perfect “sear”) because the meat becomes tender with the long cooking time. I’ve used a little more meat in the past and it became juicy instead of searing and it still turned out great and very tender.
Just WOW!!! This is the best plov I’ve ever made😇😋 Even the garlic is amazingly delicious 😉 Thank you so much for the recipe!
Yay!! That’s quite a compliment. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome review 🙂
Girl……I made this just now and was BOMB!!!! great way to incorporate something healthy.
Isn’t it great? I’m so happy my hubby came up with this – it was his idea! He’s so smart 🙂
Natash You always make something so good looking i drool looking over it then decided cooking isn’t so bad. lol. malodets, and your photos are immaculate.
Thank you so much Lily 🙂
Hey Natasha do you think it would be okay if the carrots were grated instead of julienned?
Irina, grated carrots are fine, you can also thinly slice them. Let me know how it turns out :).
Hi! This sounds delicious! Do you think I can use chicken thighs instead of beef? How do you think that will taste?
Vitaliya, that should work fine. It should still taste good :).
Made this yesterday, tastes amazing!! Thank you so much for the recipe and the idea! Its like grechka with the podliva in one pot:)) thanks again, will definitely be making this again!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it! 🙂 Thanks Lena!
I made this for dinner last night, and we loved it!! Thank You for another great recepie!
That’s fantastic! Thank you for sharing your great review 🙂
This looks really good and autumn appropriate. I guess I need to buy the garlic, though. I grow it in my garden but it will be mission impossible to make it that clean.
I hope you love it! 🙂 It really is a hearty, homey meal.
Yum. I make a similar thing but with a few diced tomatoes through it. Love your website. Great to find reliable Russian recipes. (I’ve got a Russian husband) I’ve tried a few from Russian websites but the recipes always seem to be off and quite end in disaster!
That is a wonderful compliment and thank you so much Sophie! We do try very hard to be clear and precise with our instructions, ingredients and photos. It’s a painstaking process but it’s how we would want to find recipes so that is how we provide them. I know exactly what you’re talking about! 😉
Hey Natasha! Do you have any video tutorials showing how you use the mandolin slicer?? Seems like I’ve seen it on here before? I bought one (different brand than yours) and I tried to use it when making borsch and almost hurt myself bad lol! Don’t know if I just bought a bad one or if my technique is wrong?! The carrots are so hard- I had very difficult time trying to push it down to shred it..!
Hi Lindsey :). Always use gloves – we purchased these no No Cry brand gloves on Amazon and they absolutely save your hands. They are great for mandolin slicing, grating, and using the matchstick slicer.
Last night I made a plan to make your buckwheat and ground pork one pot recipe tonight but then I saw your newest post just in time to get a nice piece of beef at the store instead! I love plov but don’t enjoy eating rice very often so this is a perfect take on it, especially because I love buckwheat even more!! Plus it’s so easy to make! It’s simmering now and smells fantastic…can’t wait until it’s ready! Thanks Natasha!
Oh do let me know how you liked it! Enjoy! 🙂
Love this idea! I have to try making this. Good thinking Vadim. Way to go!
Thanks Valya 🙂
can you use ‘instant’ kasha ( the one that comes in perforated boil bags for this? It may save some time. I love kasha and I love Plov. can’t wait to make this, but I will probably try it with lamb instead of beef. like the idea of using a whole garlic cut in half too.
I don’t really have any experience with instant kasha – I usually just buy the regular buckwheat so I’m not sure how it converts as far as how much water you need for the amount of buckwheat. I imagine you wouldn’t want to cook it as long with instant buckwheat or it would probably get mushy.
‘instant’ kasha cooks fairly quickly (less than 10 minutes if even that) and just absorbs the cooking water. You can tell it’s done when it’s fat and soft. Because the plov has so much liquid already, just tossing it in dry should absorb the liquid and you can also skip sauteeing the kasha before you add it to the pot.
Thanks for sharing that! I hope it works out. If you try it, let me know how it goes 🙂
Thanks so much for this recipe! I have a friend who can’t have any carbs at all and this is perfect!!!! If u could maybe come up w some other recipes that are carb free.. It would be awesome! Thanks:)))))
Hi Tanya, did you mean gluten? Because this is gluten free, but it does have carbohydrates. 🙂
I JUST made buckwheat last night and am almost out! I will HAVE to get more for my birthday in a few weeks so I can make this!
I hope you and all of your party guests love it! Happy birthday! 🙂
Yayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! I’ve been silently hoping for this EXACT RECIPE!!!! (Unlike white rice buckwheat is a complex carb full of protein). You rock, the end.
Ha ha. Thanks Lena. 😉
Yyuumm, this looks very delicious, definitely going on my to do list 🙂 but i’ll probably use tri-tip beef, I always use that for my plov, and love it:) thank you again for the recipe:)
You are welcome Alena :), I will use tri-tip beef next time as well :).
What a brilliant idea! Kudos to Vadim for thinking it up. 🙂 I don’t think I can ever get tired of buckwheat and the more ways to eat it the better. I’ve been sitting on a buckwheat recipe idea for a while myself but still haven’t managed to flesh it out. I am now inspired!
I know, I could just kiss him for it. I think I will! 😉 Ha ha. I’m happy you’re inspired to cook some buckwheat too 🙂
This looks so delicious and healthy!
Found out today that my li’l sweetheart’s preschool will be serving this for lunch. Am very pleased she’ll be getting a hearty, nourishing meal.
That’s so neat!! That makes me happy. Buckwheat is so amazingly healthy!
Natasha, she loved it. Ran home to tell me lunch was amazing. Now, thanks to you, I have the recipe and can make it for her at home! xo
Coco, that makes me so happy, thank you for sharing that with me :D.