Q. What Bracha does one make on buckwheat cakes, HoAdama or Shehakol?

A. Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat or to any of the five types of grain that we recite Hamotzi or Mezonos over them. Buckwheat is a legume, whose seeds are eaten, and it is referred to as a pseudocereal.

When cooked as a cereal, porridge or the side dish known as Kashe and the features of the seeds are still recognizable Poskim rule that the brocho is Hoadomo (Igrois Moshe O.H. 1:65, Y.D. 2: 25, Orchois Rabebenu p.220).

If the seeds have been crushed or grinded, e.g. as when making pancakes, since the grains are unrecognizable, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that the brocho is Shehakol. And after the fact Hoadomo. (See also ibid.).

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a