Amaranth: Everything Old is New Again

I keep running into people talking about Amaranth like it is some sort of alien grain sent from the heavens to confound the kitchen-bound.  It isn't.  It's awesome!  This grain was cultivated 8,000 years ago and just keeps coming back.  It's gluten-free and incredibly versatile.  Join me after the break for a selection of delightful recipes to get you started using this grain.  It's the next quinoa*, I'm convinced.








This blog post was inspired by the following clip:



I couldn't believe my ears.  A professional chef.  Has never even HEARD of Amaranth?  Unbelievable.  In case the hulu clip expires...the summary is this: on the show "Chopped" four professional up-and-coming chefs compete to make a meal out of "surprise" ingredients and with each course a chef is "chopped" until only one remains and that one wins $10K.  Pretty sweet.  On this episode, the dessert course must feature the following four ingredients: Buttermilk, Braeburn Apples, Kiwi, and Amaranth Grain.

One chef exclaims that he's never even heard of Amaranth and has no idea what he'll do with it.  As the course goes on one chef goes for a custard, the other for a dessert risotto.  Here's what I would have done...

A variant on this recipe from Bob's Red Mill (which has 10 recipes on their page for Amaranth!)

Amaranth Pudding:

Ingredients 1/2 cup Amaranth Grain 2 cups Apple Juice (fresh squeeze the Braeburns available)  Zest of one Lemon   1 stick of Cinnamon   2 cups fresh chopped kiwi 2 Tb Agave Nectar   toasted sliced Almonds (for garnish)
Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring apple juice, lemon zest, cinnamon stick and amaranth to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and stir in kiwi and agave. Pour the pudding into small bowls and let cool. May be served warm or cold. Garnish with almonds and serve with a Buttermilk Custard Sauce. Makes 4 servings.

Buttermilk Custard Sauce:
Ingredients

• 2 cups Buttermilk
• ½ cup Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 3 Egg Yolks
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions
Whisk together buttermilk, sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks in a heavy 3-qt. saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Serve warm or cold. Store leftovers in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 week.

Nom. Nom. Nom.  Where's my $10K?

Another, More Traditional Dessert Recipe:
Amaranth is still used in Latin America to make a dessert known simply as "alegria" which is Spanish for "joy." It's kind of like a Rice Krispy Treat.  Here's a page with nice photos of the plant and a simple recipe for alegria.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of toasted amaranth seeds
• 4 tablespoons of honey
• A few drops of lemon juice 

Preparation:

1. Heat the honey and lemon juice. This mixture should neither be very thick nor very runny. If it is too liquid, then the alegría candy will fall apart; if it is too thick, them the candy will crack.
   

2. Use a wooden spoon to blend the toasted amaranth with the honey mixture, and then flatten it out with a rolling pin until it becomes compact.

3. Leave the mixture to cool for a while and then cut it into pieces with a wet knife before it sets completely.

4. You can cut it into squares, rectangles, cylinders, or even roll it into balls. It is best not to make this candy during the rainy season because the humidity in the air makes it fall apart very easily.
   

   Note: In Mexico, among other places, toasted amaranth seeds may be purchased at the market in Tlaxcala, a village near Mexico City. If you are visiting the ruins at Tlaxcala, you can visit the factory about one block from the ruins.

   The seeds are toasted in the following way: foreign bodies are first removed by passing the seeds through a sieve. It is then necessary to dampen the seeds before toasting them, making sure not to use too much water (one cup of water for three kilograms of seeds is enough). The seeds are then left to dry off in the sun for a few hours; it is a good idea to move them around a little so that they all dry properly. They are then placed on a large, preheated pottery plate called a comal (which is used as a grill), and moved around with a small brush or some straw until they burst and turn white. Finally, the seeds are once again passed through a sieve to separate the burnt seeds.

alternative to "toasting" is to pop the grains.  Here's a quick and easy video guide from YouTube showing exactly how to do that:

Hey, did you know that May was Amaranth awareness month?  No, me either.  Maybe I should have posted this a few hours earlier.  Thanks, Whole Grain Council!

Breakfast Ideas (hot and cold):
The blog, Kitchen Therapy posted a catch-all on some ideas for Amaranth.  My favorite was a simple little hot cereal recipe:

• 1 cup amaranth seeds
• 4 cups water

Put seeds and water in a saucepan and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Not bad, imminently do-able, and a great way to shake up the usual oatmeal/grits/cream-of-wheat you might have in the morning.  You can add the usual mix-ins; the sky's the limit.

Also, to save yourself all of the cooking...Arrowhead Mills makes an Amaranth Flakes Cereal.  This is, of course, a little pricier than the average puffed rice or wheat product, but I find it blends nicely with your usual cereal, giving you a little more protein and whole grain in each bite (they didn't even pay me for the shout-out, I just like the taste).  I've found Arrowhead Mills at Whole Foods, the Farmer's Market, and local independent grocery stores.  I'm sure you can get it ordered in if you sweet-talk your local grocery store manager.

Hopefully these recipes and discussions have given you some ideas, or at least gotten you thinking about amaranth.  You can always use it in multigrain ways as well (breads, scones, ) you can find it in a flour and substitute it as you would in potato bread or spelt recipes for a more complete protein.  Heck, pop and crush then use in place of breadcrumbs.

Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Get out there and use it!  But whatever you do, don't end up on a cooking show saying "Amaranth? I've never seen it before in my life.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this."  Please don't.  Think of the children.

*Super, Bonus Find!
Amaranth, like quinoa, is a pseudograin (broadleaf, not a grass).  Often, they can be used interchangeably in recipes.  I find amaranth has a nuttier taste than quinoa, and quinoa is a little more "al dente" than amaranth.  Here is a site with a few recipes to get you started: tabouli, pudding, and stir-fry.  Really, any recipe you have with quinoa, you can try swapping an equal amount of amaranth. Makes your cookbook go twice as far!

Credits
Image: Untitled - IMG_0863 (tagged amaranth) a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from gardengrrrl's photostream