How to Cook Amaranth
By Carolin
Welcome back!
The tiny seeds of the amaranth plant is a very nutirious whole grain.
It is sold in health food stores and mostly used to replace rice, pasta, couscous or, my favorite, quinoa.
It is smaller than quinoa still it contains twice as much calcium as cows milk and 3 times more fiber than wheat.
Amaranth is high in protein and it is much easier to digest than animal proteins. On top of all this amaranth is gluten-free.
Amaranth contains healthy fatty acids. The downside to that is that you need to store the seeds right to protect the acids from becoming rancid. The best way to store amaranth is in a tightly sealed container, such as a glass jar, in the refrigerator. This way the seeds keeps for three to six months.
- Amaranth seeds can be grained in a mill and used as flour.
- They can be popped to a healthy, nutty popcorn snack.
- They can be roasted.
- They can be cooked.
- Or sprouted.
- Or simply added to a stir-fry.
- In a pan or soup where they will work as a great thickening agent.
- Many cook amaranth to a porridge.
- The most common usage is proabaly to simply boil the seeds and serve them as a healthy repalcement for rice, pasta or couscous.
To cook amaranth seeds boil 1 cup seeds in 2,5 cups water for 18-20 minutes. Don’t over cook them as they become “gummy”!
Amaranth has a mild, sweet nutty flavor and you can enhance the flavor by gently saute the cooked seeds as I do with my quinoa.
For a hot amaranth breakfast increase the liquid to 3 cups and you might add some sweetness by using half water, half apple juice as liquid. Then for example add apple and walnuts is in the image above.
Or make your own breakfast cereal with popped amaranth seeds, some cinnamon, your favorite nuts and dried fruits.
Here is a video on how to make a tasty stir fry with amaranth.
Check out these recipes for more Amaranth inspiration:
Ideas for amaranth – aka African spinach, callaloo, Indian spinach …
image courtesy of LollyKnit
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I love how every culture has their own form.I am going to make this tomorrow and share it with the family! I love the process, makes it nice and easy to follow, thanks!
I also find cultures very interesting. Trying out foods from another culture can be a very exciting experience.
I hope you and your family will enjoy the amaranth.
There’s so many different ways of cooking them. I’ve got a great idea for these. In the oven on some roast chicken, That would be perfect
I have never really heard about these but I am definitely going to give them a try… they seem so beneficial. Thanks for sharing this! Do you know of any other websites with some additional recipes?
nicely done, i tried this dish prepared from 2 different sources – different spin but taste very close
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I love trying new ingredients. This recipe sounds delicious I will give it a try in the coming weeks. Thank you for the post.
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Lovely. I’ve tasted this dish ones before. It was simply delicious. The fun part is that you can add various flavors and suit it to the way you like it.