Amaranth Side Dish
1 cup amaranth seed
3 cups water
salt, if desired
Place amaranth, water and salt in medium saucepan, bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cover and cook over low heat for 25 minutes. Remove from heat, let sit for five minutes. Fluff with fork before serving.
Variation:
Stir in sauteed mushrooms or
onions before serving.
Makes about 3 cups.
Seeds and chaff of
"Hot Biscuits" Amaranth
Amaranthus cruentus
Amaranth is an ancient, highly nutritious food source from Meso-America. It is becoming a popular food again and grains can be found for purchase in most well-stocked health food stores.
Amaranths make their flowers in an upwards building motion, the new florets come out on top of the flower bud while the older ones below begin to mature and produce seeds. When the weather has been dry for a couple of days go out to the plant with a deep bowl and without snapping the stem gently bend the flower head over the bowl. Give several taps and see if seeds drop into the bowl, if none drop in then the plant has not matured any seeds yet. Only mature seeds will drop from the flower bud, you can gather seeds from the same bud for several weeks as new ones mature.
Amaranths makes seed which are quite small...about the size of a flea, they are usually wheat, pale pink or rosy pink in color though some varieties will make darker toned seeds; the seeds can be round or tear-shaped. Seed production is staggered but one plant can make thousands of seeds during the growing season.
Grain Amaranth: A Lost Crop of the Americas
Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute
by Daniel K. Early
Center for New Crops and Plant Production
Purdue University