Resurrecting Amaranth

The communities and researchers working together to bring it back.

There’s something that I heard tortilla evangelist Rafa Mier say, which I mentioned in my story about Central American food last month, that I keep thinking about. He said, “It’s very expensive to invest in the infrastructure to preserve maize.” This is something that is definitely true for corn, though I think this idea extends far beyond just one ingredient when we think about the native foods of the Americas.

With an ever expanding agro-industrial system inching its way beyond major cities and into small towns across the Americas, the odds are not in favor of native foods. Even aside of the 500 years of erasure that is still going strong. Many small farmers growing ancestral crops like amaranth cannot compete with the cheap commodity foods coming from who knows where. It’s expensive just to maintain the status quo. It’s expensive to keep growing amaranth. To maintain ancestral products in an era when fewer and fewer are growing them and even less are buying them.

Yet, amaranth is, by very definition, is a plant that doesn’t wane. The name itself comes from the Greek word amárantos, meaning fadeless or unfading, which was first applied to the related species Celosia. Even when it is picked, it takes a long time to wither or its color to fade. Throughout literature, from Aesop's Fables to Paradise Lost, it is often associated with longevity and immortality.  

Amaranth lives on, though it has not been effortless. It has been a lot of work to keep amaranth in hearts and minds, sometimes at great risk to those planting it and sharing its seeds. The story below from Colombian writer Juliana Duque shows how many organizations and communities are finding ways to work together to preserve several thousand years of agricultural diversity of cultural traditions.

When I was dreaming up this series a year ago, there was one cook I immediately thought of. Armando Cajero I connected with Armando a couple of years ago through social media, as we had friends in common and a passion for foraging. He used amaranth often at his restaurant Na’an in San Andrés Cholula outside of Puebla, Mexico.

Despite his young age, Armando was a visionary in the kitchen. He saw the Mexican landscape for all that it was: wild, abundant, and full of wonder. When I spoke to him last year about this series of stories on amaranth, he was kind enough to send in the two recipes below. Even his recipe notes, you sense a direct connection to the plant as he writes to collect the amaranth leaves before cooking them as if you should have them growing in your garden.

Armando passed away suddenly in October, but it’s because of people like him that amaranth is seeing a resurgence. Armando, and all of the people mentioned in Juliana’s story below, not to mention all of those that kept growing amaranth, cooking it and saving seeds for the next generation over the past five centuries, often working tirelessly and with little acknowledgement, are to thank for the plant still being here for us to use. If you want to support them, to pay tribute to the incalculable contributions they made, one of the most important things you can do is to just keep cooking amaranth.

– Nicholas Gill

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Amaranth, the Second Coming. Illustration by Nicholas Gill.

Resurrecting Amaranth

by Juliana Duque

Erick Torres always had an interest in the connection between humans and plants and the importance of gardens, forests and production chains aiming to better understand it and to strengthen it. In 2016 this interest led him to found REISA, The Network of Independent Educators for Food Sovereignty, which aims to create safe spaces for agricultural training of rural and urban communities in Mesoamerica. It’s one of several organizations in the region that are helping give new life to amaranth.

In Guatemala, where much of Torres’ work is focused, amaranth is expensive in the market. At one point the price per pound was 40 quetzales against 6 quetzales for a pound of corn. While the price is not very stable, it remains high in comparison with larger crops. Few people grow it in proportion with the increasing demand it has. Organizations like REISA encourage more farmers to invest in amaranth as an agroecological project, substituting more conventional crops while enriching the lands.

The process in which Torres and his team grow amaranth is organic in both a symbolic and agricultural way. The seeds come from different regions where Torres travels to explore and collaborate with local leaders. Some of them are wild and some others grow in home gardens: Amaranthus Cruentus, of white seeds, green leaves and yellow and orange flowers; a variety from Oaxaca that has a smaller white-orange seed; another one from the southern coast of Guatemala in the Department of Suchitepéquez. Some others are grown or picked up in the forest wherever it grows wildly for their leaves, even when their seeds are not edible.

Amaranth seeds are primarily white or black. The latter being used in flour but not puffed, as the white one is commonly processed now besides being made into flour. Leaves are picked tender, but they are always eaten cooked, sometimes combined with a wild plant called hierba mora, full of vitamins and nutrients. The potential of combining plants in such a way is just a small example of the treasurable knowledge that local communities hold. Amaranth is essential in the daily intake of peasants and rural groups or what Torres calls La dieta de la huerta, or the garden diet.

Behind these beautiful plants there are visionary people betting for a sustainable agricultural logic and equal access to holistic foods. The growing interest in the nutritional properties of amaranth and similar pseudocereals that started some decades ago, has created a window for organizations like REISA to promote and support these crops in alliance with community leaders, international organizations, and occasionally, governments.

Elsewhere in Guatemala, Edson Xiloj directs the project SENACRI, that works in 12 different departments of the country, to protect and multiply native and hybrid seeds, semillas criollas, training people with less resources and access to other ways of income. Amaranth is one of the crops SENACRI wants to protect and promote, given that it makes part of indigenous cultures, as a staple but also as part of ceremonial rituals and collective celebrations, where the beauty of the plant’s flower is enjoyed.

Edson and his team are working hard to include amaranth atole and amaranth cookies as essential nurturing foods in the public school system. SENACRI is trying to take advantage of a current national law that mandates at least 50% of food product for school meals need to come from local crops. So far, the incentive has worked better in more rural areas, but Edson hopes that their idea and recipes capture the attention of more people. There are atoles, soups, greens and a refreshing lemonade made with amaranth flour and orange tree leaves, not to mention dishes that can use amaranth flour as a substitute or to enhance flavor and nutritional value (such as chilaquiles and stews).

In Peru, Manuel Acurio is part of Mater Initiativa, an interdisciplinary organization based in Lima, created by chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pia León and researcher Malena Martínez. He is a farm leader in charge of the project Chacra Mil, that operates through a biodiversity center where about 220 varieties of potatoes and 260 of ullucus are grown. Although Chacra Mil was not growing amaranth in its initial seasons, it’s a next step.

The project is working in that direction in alliance with Universidad of Cusco and its bank of endoplasm. There are at least 12 subspecies identified in Peru suitable to process as flour or toasted grains, as some of the communities already consume it.

Harvesting amaranth is demanding and this increases the cost of producing it, but Manuel’s goal, apart from reintegrating rarely used seeds, is to do research about ancient culinary uses of the grain. He is studying the preparations of it in pastes, as well using it as a powder mixed with coca leaves or quinoa that increases its nutritional value and revitalizes its historical context.

Back in Guatemala, Karen Castro is part of Qachuu Aloom “Madre Tierra”, an organization that also works to protect native and hybrid seeds training women and men in mastering these seeds, motivating them to have a thorough knowledge of the plant. The agroecological systems used by Mayan groups of the region, especially the Achi, serves as inspiration and base of experimentation for the project.

This organization, in particular, is focused on amaranth and started gathering information about its ancestral use and collecting native seeds in 2003. Three hundred families from eight different communities of Baja Verapaz (in the municipalities of San Miguel Chicaj, Rabinal y Cubulco), are currently connected with it and growing the plant.

Apart from gathering and sharing information about seeds and crops, Qachuu Aloom is working hard in the expansion of amaranth subproducts. It proudly owns a production plant opened in 2012, that also processes Jamaica flower, grinds cacao and makes peanut butter with all locally grown goods.

Reina Morales manages all the process of production of amaranth flour at the plant, and its distribution in a circuit of specialized stores administered by women that make part of the organization network as partners, or socias. Today, about 500 women are an active part of Qachuu Aloom’s net. Part of their job is to teach other women and men raising children or feeding their families to make the best use of amaranth flour in stews, soups, casseroles, porridges and salads.

The process of obtaining flour starts by cleaning the grains that families bring after they harvest it and clean it for a first time with blowers. At the plant they use fans and fine strainers to remove dust and dirt. Next, they are toasted to be packed directly, puffed or ground to sell as the precious flour. The center also elaborates subproducts like cookies and the traditional local candy called alegrías: bars of popped amaranth sweetened with pure honey, sometimes combined with peanuts and sesame or pumpkin seeds. Popped amaranth, known locally as poporopo, needs to cool after being puffed while being protected from direct air to maintain is fluffiness. The flour needs to be cooled down too before is packed. All those products are sent to twelve of these community stores that women partners buy at the cost of production to support their margin of profit.

Since amaranth is a central crop in the organization educational efforts, they host a Festival to promote its use and ways of tasting it. The event includes a showcase of dishes made by the families themselves. Some of the star dishes are: atol, pinol, tortitas de amaranto (small cakes) and amaranto en pepita. The atol in this case is made with amaranth flour and sugar, perfumed with cinnamon. Pinol is a typical meat stew dish from the town of Rabinal in Baja Verapaz that women have adapted to add amaranth flour. Amaranto or bledo en pepita refers to the plant’s leaves, cooked, rinsed and mixed with grinded pumpkin seeds.

Projects like these one makes evident the centrality of amaranth in the culinary realm of the Americas. And beyond that, cultural wisdom and smart production systems remain largely unexplored.

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Juliana Duque is a food and culture editor, researcher and writer interested in promoting critical thinking and collaborating with the construction of vibrant networks based on the meaning of daily practices. Former director of the BA Program of Food Studies and Culinary Arts at Universidad Javeriana (Cali, Colombia) and former Senior Editor of Cocina Semana Food Magazine. She holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Cornell University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2003. In 2017, she published a book, Sabor de Casa, telling the stories and visions of fourteen Colombian chefs who have led the revitalization of Colombian cuisine in the last twenty years.

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Two Amaranth Recipes from Armando Cajero

Ensalada de zanahorias, espinacas del huerto y amaranto tostado

Carrot salad, garden spinach and toasted amaranth

Carrots
Orange
Blue Cheese
Carrot vinaigrette
Spinach
Amaranth

Cook the carrots on the grill until they are well cooked, soft and sweet, then set aside.

Break the orange into segments and cut the blue cheese into small cubes.

For the carrot vinaigrette, make carrot juice and then mix with fennel vinegar and season with salt.

For the amaranth, toast the seed in a pan until it turns brown and set aside.

Place the spinach leaves in ice water, then pat dry.

To plate, place the carrots in a bowl with the vinaigrette and add salt, then place them on the plate interspersed with the orange segments and the blue cheese. Cover with spinach leaves mixed with some of the vinaigrette and sprinkle toasted amaranth on top.

Chícharo morado, higos a las brasas, hojas amaranto, salsa de soja con miel de maguey

Purple peas, grilled figs, amaranth leaves, soy sauce with maguey syrup

Purple peas
Figs
Amaranth leaves
Soy sauce
Maguey syrup
Arugala flowers

Collect the tender peas and put them directly on hot charcoal and cook for 2 to 3 minutes and set aside. Cut the figs in half and cook directly on the grill until caramelized.

Collect tender amaranth leaves and arugula flowers and place in ice water to keep cool. Dry with paper and store in the fridge.

For the sauce, sauté the onion and garlic until caramelized, then add soy sauce to reduce along with a little maguey syrup, mix and season with salt.

To plate, mix the cooked peas and figs in a bowl with the soy sauce, then arrange on a plate with the amaranth leaves and flowers. Add additional soy sauce on top of the leaves and flowers.

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