French Buckwheat Crepes (Spinach Mushroom Savory Galette)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 11/15/2017 - Last updated on 03/31/2023
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French Buckwheat Crepes are gluten-free, savory crepes made of 100% buckwheat flour, water, egg, and salt.
It is an easy and healthy 4-ingredient crepes recipe with a moist center and crispy borders that French people love to eat for dinner stuffed with spinach and mushroom or ham and cheese.
What Are Buckwheat Crepes?
Buckwheat crepes are similar to a regular Crepe Recipe, but they are made with Buckwheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and they normally contain savory fillings.
What Is Buckwheat?
Buckwheat is a grain-like seed that despite its name has nothing in common with wheat.
It’s not a cereal and is actually closer to rhubarb than to any other grain.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This recipe makes delicious crepes for a savory dinner and they are:
- Gluten-Free
- Vegetarian
- Egg-Free Option
- Vegan Option
- Rich in Vitamin A (50% of Daily Value)
- Good source of Iron and Magnesium
How To Make Buckwheat Crêpes
As a French person, I love crepes. There is not a week without making crepes in my house.
I do any kind of crepes but my favorite is the authentic French crepes recipe – the sweet one made of white flour, eggs, and milk, not the healthiest, right.
However, the Savory French Galette or French buckwheat crepes are made of healthy buckwheat flour rich in fiber, protein, and vitamin B.
It is a super easy recipe to make – honestly, most French people make them without even following a recipe – just looking at the texture of the batter.
Ingredients
So all you need to make the best french buckwheat crepes are:
- Buckwheat flour – Buckwheat is despite its name not related to wheat flour and is gluten-free flour.
- Water
- Salt
- Egg – if you are vegan, you can easily use a flax egg substitute in this recipe – mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal in 3 tablespoons of water, stir and let sit for 15 minutes.
Tools
- A crepe pan or French crepe maker – a very, very hot non-stick pan! That’s the trick to making a good crepe.
I used to make my batter in a mixing bowl and whisk it manually, but I am now using my blender – much faster, and I am sure there are no lumps in the batter.
Tips For The Best Buckwheat Crepes
French people named the French Buckwheat crepes Galettes.
While it is a very simple no-fail recipe, they are some tips to succeed in making delicious French Buckwheat crepes.
- Follow the recipe – use 100% buckwheat flour- no blend with white flour, please! and don’t swap water for milk.
- Let it sit at least 2 hours in the fridge to thicken – look at the two pictures below. When the batter rests in the fridge, it thickens and gets darker. It is a very important step to make beautiful golden crepes that are not chewy but moist with crispy sides. The best is either to let it rest overnight in the fridge.
- Use a very hot crepe pan oiled with a piece of absorbent paper – you don’t want to fry the batter, so don’t add too much oil/butter/coconut oil.
- Adjust the batter with water – even in the best restaurant in Brittany, people adjust the batter with water to get a perfect consistency. It should look like melted ice cream, thick but easy to spread on the very hot pan.
- The first crepes is a test one! Any French people discard the first buckwheat crepes – sort of tradition. It is always an ugly one, either too thick – batter did not spread well because you did not add up enough water after it sits in the fridge, or the crepe is too white – the pan wasn’t hot enough, etc. The batter is not perfect for the first time, and that is ok.
- Making crepes is easy – making beautiful, evenly thick crepes is an art. It takes time and practice to learn how to quickly tilt the pan, grease, and warm the pan, but the good news is a buckwheat crepe always tastes good however bad it could look! My husband is French, and he makes the most delicious ugly crepes. That is what I love about crepes. Anyone can make a delicious crepe. It also takes skills to flip the crepes without using a spatula.
Authentic Buckwheat Crepes Texture
A beautiful buckwheat crepe is moist, slightly chewy in the center, with some small holes all other the crepe.
The first side you cook on the pan has circle brown shapes, while the other side has little brown dots.
Serving Buckwheat Crepes
Buckwheat crepes are like regular crepes. They are used with savory fillings. It is not a wrap to eat with your hands.
French people eat them on a plate with a fork and a knife.
This is how French people eat buckwheat crepes:
- Butter the crepe pan and warm under medium eat
- Place the crepe on the crepe pan and garnish half of the crepes with layers of grated cheese, ham, cooked potatoes or vegetables, and more grated cheese.
- Close the crepes
- Cook again on both sides until golden and crispy!
Below I shared my vegan spinach mushroom crepes pictures made with coconut cream. Recipe coming soon on the blog!
Allergy Swaps
This recipe is already gluten-free, but you can also make it:
- Vegan: Replace the egg in this recipe with a flaxseed egg. Simply combine 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water. Set aside for 15 minutes. Add the flaxseed egg to the batter as an egg. Use vegan cheese or no cheese at all in the filling.
- Coconut Free: replace the coconut cream with regular cream or cashew cream.
Storage Instructions
You can store unfilled cooked crepes for up to 3 days in the fridge in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic.
If you have already filled the crepes, you can keep them in the fridge overnight, but not more.
Reheat them in the crepe skillet for a few minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, buckwheat is a seed that is not related to wheat and contains no gluten at all. Therefore, buckwheat flour is 100% gluten-free.
Buckwheat has a toasty and nutty flavor that makes its flour more suitable for savory crepes than sweet crepes.
Absolutely! Buckwheat crepes are traditionally used for savory crepes.
Yes, buckwheat crepes are gluten-free, as long as the batter is not blended with all-purpose flour. My buckwheat crepe recipe is 100% gluten-free.
More Crepe Recipes
If you like easy crepe recipes, you’ll love these:
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French Buckwheat Crepes
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups Buckwheat Flour (300g)
- 3 cups Water (750ml)
- 1 Egg or flaxegg if vegan – see note
- ½ teaspoon Salt (4g)
Optional
- ⅓ cup Water to adjust the batter consistency if needed
Spinach Mushrooms Filling
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Shallot or brown onion, chopped
- 10 oz Button Mushrooms washed, feet trimmed, finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon Dried Oregano
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1 Garlic Clove crushed
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 pinch Ground Pepper optionnal
- 5 oz Baby Spinach
- ⅓ cup Coconut Cream
- ¼ cup Grated Cheese
Instructions
Buckwheat Crepes
- In a blender, add the buckwheat flour, water, egg, and salt. Blend for 30 seconds or until smooth. If you don't have a blender, use a large mixing bowl. Add buckwheat flour, egg, and salt, and beat in the water gradually until a smooth batter forms with no lumps.
- Cover the batter and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- After 2 hours – or the next day – check the consistency of your batter and thin it out until it has the consistency of melted ice cream. I usually add up to 1/3 cup water (except for the vegan recipe using flaxseed egg).
- Heat a lightly oiled crepes pan over medium/high heat. I use a piece of absorbent with a 1/4 teaspoon of coconut oil (or butter) on it. Rub the paper on the pan to slightly grease the pan.
- Make a first crepe to test your batter consistency. Pour or scoop about 1/3 cup of batter onto the pan, then tip and rotate the pan to spread the batter as thinly as possible. Keep in mind that an authentic French buckwheat crepe is thicker than a regular French crepe. And it doesn't spread as well. If it's difficult to spread, add a bit more water to the batter – up to 1/3 cup. French people always discard their first crepe!
- Brown on both sides for about 1-2 minutes on each, store on a plate, and repeat until no more batter is left.
Spinach Mushroom filling
- In a pan, under medium heat, warm the olive oil then add the shallots. Stir for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the sliced button mushroom all at once, stir and cook for 5-8 minutes until fried on all sides until they begin to brown.
- Stir in the dried oregano, nutmeg, garlic, salt, and pepper if you like.
- Stir in the spinach. Cover with a lid and cook until just wilted – 1 or 2 minutes.
- Uncover and stir in the canned coconut cream. Simmer 2-3 minutes.
How to eat French Buckwheat crepes the French way
- Grease a hot crepe pan with coconut oil, butter, or vegetable oil
- Place the crepes in the pan – the first side you cooked on the pan. Garnish half the crepe with grated cheese, spinach mushrooms filling with more cheese, and close the crepe.
- Cook 1-2 minutes on both sides until brown, crispy, and the cheese is melted.
- You can omit the cheese if you are vegan or use vegan dairy-free cheese.
Notes
Want My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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Delish, easy recipe and very authentic texture. I’m not a cook but I love eating authentic sweet (and savory) crepes and mine turned out really well. I’m looking forward to trying your savory buckwheat recipe soon! Merci beaucoup!
Thank you 😊😍
Hi Corine,
The recipe you gave was amazing with the buckwheat flour I used here in the UK. It is by a company called Dove’s Farm who specialise in a lot of different types of flour. I did it completely to your recipe and I couldn’t believe how good they turned out. I bought a really good crepe pan and eventually got the hang of swirling the mixture around the pan. It was the filling and cooking again which I really loved. Garlic Mushrooms and bacon YUM! For my wife I did a feta cheese filling with garlic spinach and she loved it. We’re hooked. One question. How many carbs per crepe? I saw the breakdown above of nutritional values but wasn’t sure if it was for one or six crepes.
Anyway, they are delicious!Aand thank you so much for sharing that bit of French food and cultural history. I will seek out your other French recipes. We are on low carbs since coming off Keto and it was great to find your site. Thanks again,
Regards, Richard
The nutrition is always for one serving. But this is always an estimate based on the ingredients I used. This is highly dependent on the particular ingredients you use.
Hi! I’m trying out your recipe tonight and I wonder what brand of buckwheat flour do you use? Because my batter is more grayish brown than yours. I used Bob’s Red Mill, btw. Thank you!!
I live in New Zealand and I am buying a local brand which probably won’t help you. Some buckwheat flour are darker simply because the buckwheat groats are roasted before turning into a flour, mine is not. Both flour works the same in same amount, the color and flavors are slightly different. Enjoy the recipe.
How many crepes does one batch make? Thank you for sharing! I will make these for upcoming vegan brunch with sisters.
Serving size appears before the ingredient list, enjoy the crepes!
How long can you keep the batter in the fridge for please?
Overnight in a sealed container
Good receipe BUT: i had to adjust this receipe: i found that 750 ml of water was far too much liquid! What worked for me was: 250 g of flour for 450-500ml of water, an egg and the salt. You can always add a bit more water afterwards. Crepes came out perfect like that. Thanks!
I’m confused. The recipe easy to make. Don’t know if it is because of the type of buckwheat flour I used I used Arrowhead organic buckwheat flour it came out very dark darker than in your photos and also it never thickened up and I left the batter covered in the refrigerator overnight it had a stronger than what I thought should be flavor but it was still good
Buckwheat flour can be lighter in color depending on brands here is New Zealand its almost white. However it shouldn’t impact your consistency only if your flour is coarse which would explain why it doesn’t absorb liquid and thicken up. I will use a different flour brand next time.
Hi, just did this for dinner. It was delicious. I did not have spinach on hand so I used kale and double (ok, maybe triple the amount of cheese; we love cheese). I gotta say that my first crepe ended up in pieces, but all the other ones were great; I used a cast iron skillet. Thank you for this great recipe!
Hi, I was so happy to find this recipe, but the batter was… really upsetting, I don’t understand what went wrong. I followed the steps, I used (probably) a dark buckwheat flour and flax egg. I couldn’t even form one crepe, after the 5th I gave it up, it was really not eatable. Do you have any tips? I really would love to make it work. Thanks
I am happy to help but I don’t really understand what was wrong with your batter. Was it too thick? too thin? When you say not eatable do you mean the flavor wa off or the crepes didn’t form? As a general advice, the batter must be slightly more liquid than pancake batter but liquid enough to spread quickly on the crepe pan. You can always adjust by adding a dash more liquid in the batter, either almond milk or water to get the batter liquid enough to spread fast and thin on the pan. Next, you must use a crepe pan, not a regular pan. Crepes intend to be very thin and required a thin pan to diffuse warm quickly all over the crepes and make it cook fast and crispy. I hope it helps. Take care, XOXO Carine
Hello. I have a question. I only have dark buckwheat flour in my pantry and cannot find the light kind near me. Would dark kind work with this recipe?
Yes sure! Same amount. Enjoy, XOXO Carine
I followed your crepe recipe using Bob’s Red Mill organic whole grain buckwheat flour. For the filling; mushrooms sautéed in olive oil with garlic and wilted spinach and topped with homemade cashew ricotta. Thanks for this delicious simple recipe!
It sounds amazing! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and the lovely feedback. Talk to you soon. XOXO Carine.
Why not almond milk instead of water?
You can use both, it will work. Enjoy, XOXO Carine
If I don’t have a crepe pan, can I use a normal pan?
Yes sure, make sure you use non stick pan or it will stick to you pan. Or use a pancake griddle. Enjoy ! XOXO Carine.
Thanks for the great recipe. I used 300 g whole buckwheat groats and ground them to a flour in my Vitamix. It worked great.
Amazing! You are talented, I never thought about making my own buckwheat flour from the groats, so clever! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy the healthy recipes on the blog. XOXO Carine.
Hi Carine, I’m just wondering, do you not find the coconut cream too sweet for this savoury filling? Is there any other milk/cream I could use. Maybe cashew? These look so yummy! I want to make them!
Hello! Well, I am kinda coconut addict 🙂 So no, I think it taste amazing! But I undrestand what you mean and other great option could be cashew cream of course or a reamy cauliflower sauce ! Super yum in savory crepes! Thanks for following the blog and trying the recipes. Let me know f you make it with a different filling. It is always great to have more idea for my next crepe party ! XOXO Carine.