Amaranth is an 8,000 year old food, domesticated 3,000 years ago, that has an exceptional nutritional content, with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and amino acids.
It is also easy to integrate into any diet, offering many easy ways to ease it into your health oriented menu.
Amaranth seeds are very tiny, pale and golden. See our photo top of page of samples your author brought back from Peru.
Note: Your author has been eating Amaranth or Quinoa (similar Andes Seeds) in a fiber mix of four other ingredients, for breakfast with a full fat yogurt topping for breakfast for five years.
Amaranth, Quinoa, and Chia the Super Foods (all from the Andes) are remarkable and relatively unknown until recently.
Amaranth, unlike grains, (Amaranth is NOT a grain) is a good source of protein, up to 17% protein by weight. Quinoa, Amaranth and Chia are all not cereal, not a grass not a grain, they are 4 to 8 foot similar to bushes with up to a pound, (60,000) tiny seeds per plant.
All three will grow up to 12,000 feet altitude in very poor relatively dry soil and are primarily grown in the South American Andes.
Wild Amaranth apparently eaten by hunter gatherers back 8,000 years, domesticated 3,000 years ago and the Aztec and Incas. Used these as a superfood.
Amaranth is a non gluten food and that is important to most diabetics.
Amaranth is rich in the amino acids particularly, unusual high content of lysine.
Quinoa, Amaranth and Chia are not only unusually high protein. They are high in fiber, with several times the fiber of wheat and conventional grains.
In terms of nutrition, Amaranth is loaded and is unusual, in that Amaranth has a high content of potassium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, C, and E.
With high protein, it is popular with vegetarians as a source of proteins, and with a potent nutritional content, makes it a candidate for any health-conscious diet.
Amaranth seeds can be popped like popcorn and then be tossed on salads, etc., or used for making confections.
Quinoa and Amaranth both can be cooked like rice, 1 to 3 water ratio. Many make a breakfast food of Amaranth and add yogurt, fresh fruit, and dab of honey. Amaranth is high fiber and honey digests slower then sugar, so a tablespoon of honey in a bowl of high fiber seems to blend and digest slowly enough for diabetics.
Up to 5,000 pounds per acre have been reported from Central and South America, when harvested by hand.
Cooking Amaranth porridge, Basic recipe: Bring either Amaranth or Quinoa (or mixture of both) and water to a boil, lower the temperature to a simmer, cover the container and let cook until all of the water is absorbed. Quinoa can be expected to take about 12-15 minutes, Amaranth a little less, takes only 10-12 minutes.
Experiment with adjusting the porridge consistency, just add a greater or lessor proportion of water to your liking.
Your author uses it in dry mixture of fiber, etc., (four other fibers, etc., and simply adds cold water, stirs, to right consistency, places yogurt on top and does not heat or cook.
Amaranth flour can also be used in place of regular flour for baking; in the recipe simply substitute a quarter cup of Amaranth flour in place of a cup of wheat flour called for.
A candy is made from popped seeds in Mexico, with sugary substance added.
In India the popped Amaranth is mixed with something called baggery, which is unrefined sugar cane substance and has minerals, etc., unlike sugar, etc., and is even served in school lunches.
The folks in Peru, the longest users of Amaranth, ferment it and make their own Amaranth beer.
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