Heather: Hey Guys this is Heather from HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
Today, we are going to make an amaranth recipe, which some of you have been asking me for.
What I am going to do with this is I am going to make it spicy and use it as a filling for
taco and you can use like a regular taco shell or you can use a leaf of lettuce or chard
or whatever, but basically we are going to make amaranth taco filling.
For those who have not heard of amaranth, it is kind of like quinoa, it is technically
a seed, it comes from South America.
When you cook it, it cooks like a grain.
So, it gets lumped in with the grains in the kitchen and because of the seed it has a really
awesome profile of amino acids.
So have all the essential amino acids that you need just like quinoa.
The only trouble is like quinoa has a little bit of bitterness to it, so what I am going
to show you is a way you can get rid of that and make yourself a delicious amaranth taco
filling.
So there is the amaranth for those who have not seen it.
It is a very small yellow grain, it is even smaller than quinoa and I am just going to
put it into a dry pot and turn heat on medium high.
You will notice probably that there are some black grains in here.
You can pick them out, I find amaranth is so tiny that is a really big pain to pick
them out, but it is good if you can.
Most people will also rinse amaranth before cooking it, just like you were with quinoa,
but what I find is when I do it in a peel off, so that is toasting the grain before
you cook it, it gets rid of that, slight bit of bitterness to the amaranth.
So, this is the way I do it.
You can feel free to rinse it before you toast it, but the grains will be a little bit wet
and then I am going to add some spices to toast with the amaranth and I am making this
to be kind of like amaranth tacos.
So, I am doing some chilly powder and I have also got some onion powder and some garlic
powder.
You can also do fresh onion and garlic and when I would put them in is with a little
bit – I will tell you one of it – anyway, I am just going to shake some of this in here
and then toss it around in the pot and a special little inspiration from my friend Annie at
the healthy apple, is I am going to put some cinnamon in with my chilly powder, I often
do this with curry powder is add cinnamon to it, but I have not tried it with chilly
powder before, so I am going to try out.
So, just toss the spices around with the amaranth, want to toss this every so often to make sure
it did not burn and you just little toast it until you start to see it get lightly browned.
While this is toasting I am going to turn on an electric kettle with some water to get
a boiling so when I add the water, it’s hot.
Now, you can take this any direction you want with the spices this is great for breakfast
as well.
Alright I am starting to hear little bit of popping in the pot and I am really smelling
some delicious sense coming from the spices, so that is what I am going to get some liquid
to stop the toasting.
If you take this long enough dry, the amaranth will actually pop like popcorn, it is pretty
cool that really, really tinny, little kernels, so they are tinny little pops, but very fun.
So, I am going to add now is some red wine.
So the pot is still really, really hot and the liquid there is just a little bit so it
is still sizzling and this is when I would add fresh onion and garlic if I was using
it and you can add other vegetables if you like.
Get them cooked and then you are going to add more water.
We are going to add is twice as much water as you have grains.
For those who would want the recipe by the way, just click under the video there will
be a link to the recipe over HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
So, now the bubbling should still be going, but not quit as intensely.
You can turn it down to minimum and then sprinkle a little bit of salts to help the amaranth
cook, put a lid on it and let it cook for 20-25 minutes.
While it is cooking, you are going to warm and give it a stir every so often because
it does get really, really sticky it wants to stick to the bottom of your pot whether
it is fully cooked and then you want to get it taste to make sure you like it.
You can always add more sizzling at this point if you want to.
Now, I usually say this, but this is actually is not spicy enough for me because I am using
it as like a taco filling I want it to be really spicy.
So, I am going to add a little bit more now, stirred and then like I said I am going to
wrap it in a lettuce leaf, top it off with some shredded carrots, some tomato salsa,
some avocado, all that good stuff.
You then also just through some steam and veggies on top of it, it would be awesome.
It would also make a really good breakfast porridge, I have done it with just cinnamon
and really, really nice just add more water when you cook it to make it more like a porridge
and you can do all kind of stuff with amaranth.
So I hope you guys have fun and experiment with some various things and that’s it from
me today.
I will see you next time.