You know it when you’ve tried it: that intense, slightly nutty, slightly bitter, satisfying earthy flavor. It’s Kasha. It’s roasty and packed with nutrients such as complete protein, fiber, healthy low fats, calcium, iron, and potassium. You can find it right at your local Trader Joe’s store. Add sugar, add butter, or go totally vegan with this gluten-free hot breakfast cereal.
Trader Joe’s does sell Kasha. However, you may find it in the form labeled as organic Buckwheat. The most common place to find this is in the whole grain, cereals, or kosher food aisles in many Trader Joe’s stores.
Here’s everything you need to know about whether and what kind of kasha Trader Joe’s sells. This article discusses if Trader Joe’s sells kasha, which is a popular name for roasted buckwheat grains (or seeds).
What is Trader Joe’s?
From its inception in Pasadena, California in 1967, Trader Joe’s has become iconic as a unique natural food chain. Known for its quirky environment with lots of specialty or hard-to-find health foods, it’s one of the main places where you can find tasty food options such as kasha.
What is Kasha?
Hailing from Eastern Europe, Kasha is a kind of cereal that is made from hulled, roasted, soaked, and cooked buckwheat groats. While Kasha can refer to other kinds of cooked grain, cereal, or porridge around the world, in the U.S., it refers to buckwheat groats.
Kasha is a nutrition powerhouse. It is high in fiber and packed with B vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin B1, B6, and B12 that help support healthy skin, digestive tract, and nervous system.
Buckwheat also contains calcium, magnesium, lysine, amino acids, and Vitamin E. Allergy sufferers can benefit from eating Kasha since it has high levels of quercetin, which means that it is bursting with flavonoids and antioxidants.
Unlike other grain-based cereals, Kasha isn’t a grain at all. Instead, it’s a seed from an herb cover crop that is part of the rhubarb, sorrel, and knotweed family. It is often used as a staple food for cereal or as part of other dishes in northern Europe and across Asia.
For example, buckwheat is used to make buckwheat pancakes in America, soba noodles in Japan, blini in Russia, and is a staple in Jewish, Ukrainian, and Polish cuisine. Some people also use buckwheat pillows to get a perfect night’s sleep.
When cooked, roasted buckwheat groats have a signature strong, slightly bitter nutty taste and a firm, gummy consistency.
While its name does contain the word “wheat,” Kasha, or buckwheat groats, do not contain any wheat or gluten. This makes it a great option for people who are celiac or have gluten sensitivity.
Despite its pseudo-grain classification, Kasha falls under a general grain classification in the United States. This means that you can often find it in the cereal or grain section in stores.
To check the current price and availability of Wolffs Kasha, click here to view the listing on Amazon.
What are the Different Kinds of Kasha?
Outside the United States, kasha can refer to Bulgar, millet, farina, barley, semolina, or quinoa cereal or groats in many Eastern European countries.
In the U.S., kasha refers to raw or roasted buckwheat groats that are cooked into porridge. Raw, unroasted buckwheat kasha is softer and gummier while roasted buckwheat grains will retain a firmer shape. Raw Kasha will have a pale yellowish-green color, while roasted Kasha has a reddish hue.
You can usually find roasted buckwheat at your local Trader Joe’s store, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, or Eastern European ethnic food markets.
How to Use Kasha
If you want to add a nutritional boost to your diet, you can use kasha in many ways. Since kasha is a versatile pseudo-grain, it works well with either sweet or savory dishes.
Now that you know that kasha is roasted buckwheat, you don’t need to soak it before cooking. If you’re using raw buckwheat, which isn’t technically kasha, then you’ll need to soak it first to soften it up.
The most common way to use kasha is to cook it in water until it becomes a thick, semi-soft cereal. You can add milk, cream, butter, sugar, honey, or fruit to spice it up. Combine roasted kasha with vegetables, pasta, and/or meat to make a delicious and nutritious one-pot meal. Add garlic, herbs, or sprinkle parmesan on it to add your own twist.
Kasha is cooked like rice with just 1 and 1/2 cups of water. Since it cooks a lot faster than rice, you only need to cook it for about 6 minutes to help the kernels stay firm instead of mushy.
Trader Joe’s Product Range
When you head to a Trader Joe’s, you can expect to find a wide range of kosher, gluten-free, vegan, organic, dairy-free, and ethnic foods that range from fruits and vegetables to meats, snacks, pre-packaged and frozen meals, and cereal-based products.
In the cereal department, Trader Joe’s carries everything from traditional Cheerios (known as Jo’s O’s), rice crispy cereal, organic raisin bran clusters, and granola to similar buckwheat products like couscous, red quinoa, farro, barley, pearl barley, amaranth, millet, and more.
Trader Joe’s Kasha Availability
While the word “kasha” or “buckwheat” doesn’t currently appear on Trader Joe’s website, savvy customers confirm that you can usually find raw buckwheat kernels or roasted kasha in the whole grain, cereals, or kosher food aisles in many Trader Joe’s stores.
If you don’t see Kasha where you think it should be, ask a customer service representative or check the section where Trader Joe’s displays their boxed cereals and grains for cooking. Kasha should be in this section (or the kosher or ethnic foods section) rather than the baking section.
Keep in mind that Kasha’s exact location may vary from store to store and depend on current availability in your location. It’s also possible that Trader Joe’s might label Kasha or buckwheat groats with their own brand twist, so it’s important to check the label on bags to see if they contain buckwheat or Kasha.
You can follow online Trader Joe’s customer forums or Facebook pages to get updates when Kasha products are available.
Similar ProductsIf you’re craving Kasha and can’t find it at your local Trader Joe’s, you can grab an alternative whole-grain cereal such as quinoa, amaranth, barley, or coarse polenta.
Final Thoughts
As we’ve discovered, Kasha is the roasted form of buckwheat kernels that are used in a variety of dishes from plain to sweet or savory.
Based on our research, Trader Joe’s typically carries Kasha or buckwheat in many of its locations. Availability may vary based on the store. It is usually found in the cereal, grain, kosher, or ethnic foods sections.
For more information about Kasha’s availability at Trader Joe’s, you can visit their nearest store or check with customer service for more updates.
