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| Fresh Amaranth - Isn't it gorgeous? |
When we gave up our vegetable garden a few years ago to join a local CSA, we discovered that one of the joys of belonging to the farm is that we get exposed to such a large variety of vegetables that we couldn't grow on our own. My husband picked up our share the other evening and when I walked into the kitchen to see what my cooking options were going to be over the next few days, I saw a bunch of reddish leaves on the counter that I didn't recognize. He proudly announced that it was amaranth.
I always thought of that as a grain - but on googling it, found there are over 60 varieties of this plant and some are used more for the leafy part. He dutifully reported, "they said to just cook it like any other green." The raw leaves were a little tough and the stems tasted earthy - so not good in salads. I decided to saute it with some garlic, ginger, and the handful of okra that Al had also brought home. At the end, I added a little rice wine vinegar, a bit of salt and pepper.
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| ginger, garlic, okra sauteed before adding amaranth |
I decided to cook up a bunch of fresh garden vegetable ravioli that I'd bought and added that to the amaranth in a deep wide dish, serving the whole thing at room temperature for a warm summer evening supper. I didn't get a picture of that, unfortunately. The ravioli took on a rosy glow from the amaranth, and the dish was delicious. By the time I remembered my camera, it was almost gone.
I had never heard of Amaranth Becky. It's very pretty. Now I will need to find it to taste. Sounds yummy with the ravioli!
ReplyDeleteHiroo and I are still trying to figure out what amaranth is! He likes to plant unusual things! It has a lovely color and the dish you made sounds great! ( I finally am figuring out how to comment on your blog!) And I haope it will be e-mailed to me from now on. I choose subscribe by email once before but haven't gotten it yet. Maybe this time..enjoy the rest of the summer..!
ReplyDeleteCan't succeed in entering my comment> How does this work?? Hiroo and I are trying ot figure out what amaranth is!
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to figure out what amaranth is in Japanese! Looks lovely!
ReplyDeletethe genus is amaranthus and there are over 60 species; would be interesting to find out what it is in Japanese - there must be some way of correlating the terms. Can't imagine that it doesn't grow there - it is often considered a weed in many areas - pigweed is one common term here.
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