Amaranth, mes amis.

After a fair amount of online searching for amaranth recipes and searching in grocery stores for available amaranth products, I settled on Alegria, a mexican dish eaten on day of the dead. Awesome skull shaped alegria here. I had seen some indian recipes using amaranth leaves and other baked goods using amaranth flour, but the only version I could find was the grain itself. It turns out that you can pop amaranth like popcorn – teensy tiny popcorn.

Alegria

1/2 cup amaranth grain

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbs molasses

1/8 tsp salt

Heat a larger pot with a small bit of canola oil. I had trouble getting the heat to just the right popping temperature and burned several tablespoons of amaranth in the process. In tablespoon batches, pop the amaranth for about 30 seconds. Pour each batch out and pop the next tablespoon. Toast the pumpkin seeds in the same pot for a few minutes. Add those to the popped amaranth.

In a separate pan, heat the sugar until it starts to melt. Add the tablespoon of molasses and mix quickly with the seeds and grain. Add the salt and mix. Hurry the mixture into a square pan lined with parchment paper. Let it cool and break into chunks. Enjoy!