Amaranth-s

Amaranth - Ancient Grain

There are three common species of cultivated food amaranth:
   Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)
   Blood amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus)
   Prince's Feather (Amaranthus hypochondriacus)

Many of the 60 wild species (including 26 naturalized in Australia) are very common weeds in agricultural fields. All can be used in the same manner. Amaranth is an excellent addition to the garden as it is easy to grow and is pest resistant.

Harvesting Amaranth Leaves
Leaves of any of the wild, weedy, or cultivated species of Amaranthus are edible as pot herbs. They are related to spinach and can be used the same way. Seeds are generally black in the non-cultivated species, but are just as nutritious as the cultivated crop plants.

Harvesting Amaranth Seeds
To harvest the seeds, wait until the flowering array has dried, on a day in which there is a bit of a breeze. Not a hurricane, mind you, but not completely calm either. Cut the array from the plant and hold it over an open bucket. Roll the array between your hands. They wind will blow away the chaffy bracts surrounding the seeds, while allowing the denser seeds to fall into the bucket. Alternatively you can harvest the seeds once the first few drop and leave them to dry out in the sun for a week or so until dried out.

You can grind the seeds to make amaranth flour, or fry them and serve with vegetables. The flour you can mix with wheat or rye flour, if you like. Experiment until you find the percentage that suits your personal taste. The seeds also pop like popcorn (but look like popped rice).

Nutritional Value of Amaranth
Amaranth has an incredible nutritional profile. It is high in the amino acids lysine,methionine and cysteine. It is also high in calcium and protein - a little higher than oats and twice as much as rice. It is a good source of antioxidants and minerals - iron, folate, potassium, phosphate. 

History of Amaranth
Before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, it was ruled by the Aztecs. Their four most important food crops were maize, beans, squash and amaranths. 

The amaranth was actually not one plant but several closely related plants. They grew to about 2 m tall, with large arrays of small red or purple flowers at the top.  They produced copious amounts of tiny black, red, pink or white seeds. Together, these contributed an estimated 80% of the calories consumed by the Aztec peoples. 

Unfortunately for the plant, the Aztecs also used amaranth seeds in their religious rituals. They popped the seeds like popcorn, mixed them with honey and other ingredients, then moulded the mixture into figurines depicting the various Aztec deities. The people would eat these during the ceremonies, ritually eating the gods. I would liken the symbolism here to the Christian consumption of the Body and Blood of Christ during Holy Communion.

But the Spanish did not see things that way. The interpreted the red color of the amaranth color combined with the honoring of “pagan” deities as proof that this practice constituted worship of the devil. So the Spanish outlawed the plant and tried to exterminate its cultivation.

Fortunately, they failed. Cultivation of amaranth as a food crop survived in parts of Mexico, Peru and Central America, and it became established in South Asia as well. Amaranth seeds are very high in protein, a suitable complement to that found in cereal grains. Many people have advocated reviving its former status as a major food crop.

Image: Taiftin, Irina Mos, Feawt and zcw/Shutterstock

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