Experimenting with Amaranth

I grew a new crop to me called Amaranth. I had heard that you could grow it like Quinoa that I tried for the first time last year. I am always interested in things that can be used as a grain as it cuts down costs and trips to the supermarket. Just like Quinoa, Amarnath is a seed, and I knew that you could use it to make flour, crackers (by adding salt and water), it can be puffed like popcorn, or used to make porridge.  I am also going to sprinkle some on yoghurt and fruit, in pasta, and on salad when toasted.

What I didn’t know about Amaranth is that it self seeds (some people see it as a weed), looks beautiful in the garden, and the leaves and the stalks are edible.  The stalks are great to throw in a stir fry and the leaves you just treat like spinach.  I didn’t know this until the end of the season and so I will definitely be growing it next season.  My seeds were a cream colour and looked like sesame seeds, but I understand that some varieties have black seeds.

I bought my heritage seeds from Real Seeds.  They were a rainbow variety and so I had gold, reds and pinks in mine.  The planting instructions said to plant them a foot a part (I started my seeds off in a tray inside).  I grow mainly in tubs and don’t have the space and so I actually grew 10 plants in a large tub about 24 inches wide. They were a lovely addition to the garden, and I like them as they are kind of a stealth crop.  It doesn’t look like I am growing food.

Another good thing about them is that they can be neglected and do not need a lot of watering.  Mine were in a difficult part of the garden to get to and so I hardly touched them all summer, and only watered a couple of times.  They didn’t need weeding as they filled the space.  I have since found out that a lot of people that grow this crop in the ground plant them together in multiples so that they grow like a bush.  They can grow up to 12 feet high and would need staking if grown separately.  As mine were so crowded together they only grew about 5 feet tall.

Amaranth is full of nutrients. one cup of cooked grain has 5 grams of fibre, 9 grams of protein, and it is full of iron and calcium.  The leaves also have lots of health benefits. When they are young they are great in salad.  They are full of different vitamin Bs, vitamin K, C and A. They also have magnesium, iron, copper, potassium amongst other minerals.  Apparently they also have 30%  more amino acids that you find in meat than other plants and so would be good for vegans.

Amaranth help with digestion, fights cancer, lowers blood pressure, helps with weight loss, eye sight, and are a good source of energy.  It is therefore a good addition to any garden.

Amaranth is a bit of a pain to process when getting the seeds.  It needs threshing and winnowing and so I picked a sunny day to do it.  It is easier to do if there is a bit of a breeze too.  It is easy to know when it is ready as it will just easily shed the seeds when you shake the head of the flower.

I cut the heads off of the flowers and place them into a bag. I then break the heads up and place on a tray to dry for a bit in the sun to make sure that there is no moisture in them.  I suggest wearing gloves when you do this as they have little hairs that can feel like tiny stings.  I actually liked the feel of it!

The next thing to do is separate the bit of petals from the seeds.  I did this initially through a sieve,  and then by holding the bowl up high and letting the seeds fall into another bowl.    There were still lots of tiny petals in them.  This is fine as they are edible, but I found that blowing the petals off the top of the grain when the dish was tilted got rid of most of them.  You can see from the picture that they were still quite pink initially and so it takes patience.

If it is not a windy day a fan may help to thresh them but you need to be careful as the seeds are nearly as light as the flower. There are not enough seeds to use as a staple food unless you had a field full, but they have a nice nutty taste, and the fact that you can use the leaves in recipes means that it is worth growing.  If you just want to use the plant as a flower in the garden the seeds are great for the birds and other wild life..

This crop has been cultivated for over 8,000 years by some cultures and yet seems to have been ignored over here.  I think with all the nutrients it is a superfood.  I guess because it self seeds so easily it would be hard for many companies to make a profit from it and so that might be a reason why I have not heard about it before.  I have heard that the flowers dry well and are lovely in bouquet and so I may bring some into the house next year when the seeds have been shaken from them.