What Is Kasha? Millet and Buckwheat, Explained

Part of our Heritage Kitchen Glossary – short guides to the ingredients and techniques behind Eastern European cooking.

The short answer

Kasha is cooked grain. In the Ukrainian village the grains eaten most often were buckwheat and millet, and millet kasha was cooked with about two and a half times as much water as grain. The same two grains turn up across this site: millet in kulish, the field porridge, and buckwheat in the older cabbage rolls of Ukraine and Poland and in the meatless rolls made for Christmas Eve.

Millet: kasha and kulish

Millet is an old grain in Ukraine. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine notes archaeological evidence that it was grown there 3,000 years ago, and names buckwheat and millet as the cereals most commonly eaten.

Kulish is often mistaken for a kind of kasha, and the two are related. The difference is the water. A Ukrainian ethnographic handbook describes how kulish was made in the village: washed millet went into a cauldron of boiling water with a potato or two, salt and roots, and the finished pot was stirred through with salo fried with onion and garlic. Modern recipes use about 2 litres of water for 150–200g of millet. Kulish was cooked for the midday meal out in the fields and for supper at home, and it was ready when the millet had broken down into a porridge-like mass. Thick kulish was the kind people prized. Most kulish is millet, but the same handbook records buckwheat kulish in parts of Chernihiv and Poltava regions.

Millet in its natural form is gluten-free. Grains are often at risk of cross-contact with wheat, barley and rye, though, so if that matters to you, buy millet labeled gluten-free.

Buckwheat and millet in cabbage rolls

Rice is the newcomer in Ukrainian holubtsi. Older holubtsi were filled with millet, buckwheat, corn or potatoes, and rice mixed with meat came into use only in the twentieth century. A folk-culture specialist in Vinnytsia region told Ukrinform in 2024 that millet is still the base grain there, and rice the newer filling.

The Polish side has a similar history. An early cookbook from the Borderlands fills gołąbki with groats or rice, and after 1945 people resettled from the Borderlands to Lower Silesia brought rolls of buckwheat groats, potatoes and meat with them. One such dish, the dark buckwheat rolls of Krużewniki, is on Poland’s official List of Traditional Products. Today most people know the pork-and-rice version. Published recipes note that barley, pearl barley, millet and buckwheat all work in place of the rice.

The Christmas Eve rolls

The older grain fillings survive at Christmas. Holubtsi for Sviat Vechir, the Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper, are made only lenten, without meat or lard, and filled with rice, millet or buckwheat, sometimes with dried mushrooms or fried onion. Polish Wigilia is also a meatless meal, and gołąbki come to it only in a meatless form, filled with buckwheat and mushrooms. Published meatless recipes use roasted buckwheat groats mixed with fried onion and mushrooms, fresh or dried and soaked.

Where you will meet it on this site

Millet is the grain of our Traditional Kulish, with a lighter way to make it at the end of the recipe. Buckwheat fills the lenten holubtsi for Sviat Vechir in our Traditional Holubtsi and the meatless Wigilia gołąbki in our Traditional Gołąbki, each with mushrooms in place of meat. For how the two cabbage rolls differ, see our Holubtsi vs Gołąbki comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does kasha mean?

Kasha is cooked grain. In Ukrainian village cooking the grains used most often were buckwheat and millet, and millet kasha was cooked with about two and a half times as much water as grain.

What is the difference between kasha and kulish?

Both are cooked millet, but kulish takes far more water, about 2 litres for 150–200g of millet, along with potatoes and roots, and is finished with salo, onion and garlic.

Which grains were eaten most in the Ukrainian village?

Buckwheat and millet. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine names them as the cereals most commonly eaten and notes that millet was grown in Ukraine 3,000 years ago.

What grain goes into meatless Christmas Eve cabbage rolls?

Lenten holubtsi for Sviat Vechir are filled with rice, millet or buckwheat, sometimes with dried mushrooms or fried onion. Polish Wigilia gołąbki are filled with buckwheat and mushrooms.

Can I use buckwheat or millet instead of rice in cabbage rolls?

Yes. Published gołąbki recipes note that barley, pearl barley, millet and buckwheat all work in place of rice, and older Ukrainian holubtsi were filled with millet or buckwheat before rice came into use.