Kasha

Kasha is a cereal commonly eaten in Eastern Europe. In English, kasha generally refers to buckwheat groats, but in Slavic Europe, it refers to porridge in general and can be made from any cereal, especially buckwheat, wheat, barley, oats, millet and rye. At least a thousand years old, kasha is one of the oldest known dishes in Eastern European Slavic cuisine.

The word in modern American English is commonly restricted to roasted whole-grain buckwheat or buckwheat groats. It is a common filling for a knish. This usage probably originated with Jewish immigrants, as did the form קאַשי "kashi" (technically plural, literally translated as "porridges").

In Russian, buckwheat is referred to formally as гречиха (grechikha) and buckwheat grain and buckwheat groats as гречневая крупа (grechnevaya krupa), while informally buckwheat grain and buckwheat groats are called гречка (grechka), and the porridge made from buckwheat groats is known as гречневая каша (grechnevaya kasha). In Polish, buckwheat porridge is referred to as kasza gryczana.