Who doesn’t like a subtly sweet, nutty banana bread? It’s easy to eat and packed with chewy and crunchy textures.
Despite having “wheat” in its name, buckwheat is naturally free of any gluten, making it a great substitute for regular flour.
So if you can’t eat gluten or are avoiding it out of health concerns, you can still have some delicious banana bread!

On top of that, buckwheat is great for improving heart health, reducing blood sugar, and is rich in fiber.
*Side note: if you can’t eat or don’t like the taste of eggs, we’re also using ground flax seeds soaked in water to act as our binder instead of eggs.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/3 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (and/or your other favorites)
• 2 Tbsp tapioca (or other Gluten Free flour)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp guar gum (*optional: guar gum produces a slightly lighter bread by trapping more carbon dioxide, all while
• without affecting flavor!)
• 1/3 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon, *optional
• 2/3 cups chopped walnuts, *optional (and/or other favorite nuts)
• 1/3 cup walnut or other oil
• 2 cups ripened bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
• 2/3 tsp Vitamin C crystals (unbuffered and corn-free is best) or lemon juice
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3 Tbsp boiling water

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• In a small saucepan, mix ground flax seeds with water
• Bring to a boil and promptly remove from heat
• Set aside to let soak, we’ll use this later
• Oil and flour an 8×4 in. loaf pan
• Tap the pan gently to coat all sides and the bottom with flour
• Tap any extra flour back into a mixing bowl
• Add buckwheat flour into mixing bowl
• Into a blender, add pumpkin seeds, tapioca starch, salt, guar gum and spices
• Blend on high for 1 minute, stopping to scrape the bottom twice
• Add blended seed mixture and the nuts into the buckwheat flour; whisk well
• Mixing tip for the incoming Preparation: measure 2 ¼ cups of water; pour into the blender, mark the level and discard water
• In that blender, add walnut oil and half the ripened bananas, broken into 1″ chunks; blend
• Continue adding banana chunks until the 2 ¼ cup mark is reached
• Add the Vitamin C crystals (or lemon juice) and flax seed mixture we left to soak
• Blend for 1 minute
• Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
• Dissolve baking soda in boiling water
• Fold this into the batter until the water disappears (we don’t want to beat it)
• Quickly scrape the batter into our oiled and floured pan
• Place in hot oven, and reduce temperature to 325F
• Bake for 70 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the middle comes out clean
• Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes
• Turn the bread over on a wire rack and let cool completely
• Slice, serve, and enjoy!

VARIATIONS – because of course you can have it your way!

• Applesauce Bread: substitute 2 cups of Applesauce, homemade if possible
• Pineapple Bread: substitute 2 cups of fresh pineapple puree, simmered for 10 minutes

GFCF, SF, EF, DF

Legend:

• GFCF – gluten free casein free
• SF – soy  free
• DF – dairy free
• EF – egg free

Resources:
https://www.naturespath.com/en-us/blog/health-benefits-of-buckwheat/