Amaranth Nixtamal

Today I want to share one of my family's favourite ways of preparing amaranth - nixtamal. It is prepared similarly to corn nixtamal. Traditionally corn is boiled in calcium hydroxide (from heat treated limestone generally), softening it, changing the protein structure to be more bio-available, and unlocking the niacin contained in the germ. The same process works on amaranth as well, but with a drastically shorter cooking time and no need to remove husks after cooking. Very little literature exists on the nutritional effects of nixtamalized amaranth, but it will (at the very least) increase the calcium content of the resulting flour. It also reduces the oxalates drastically through precipitation with the calcium in solution.

When nixtamalized, amaranth takes on a completely different flavour profile, losing any acrid or sour notes and instead takes on a prominent maize tortilla aroma with a malty flavour. My assumption is that this is because the oxalic acid is neutralized?

To get started nixtamalizing amaranth, you will need a few key pieces of equipment.

1. A sturdy steel or glazed pot. Do NOT use aluminum cookware or utensils during the cooking process.
2. A dehydrator, with a very fine mesh screen or non stick mats. In order to grind the masa in a normal grain mill, you will need to dry the grain completely.
3. A grain mill. A food processor will not grind the tiny grains effectively. If you want to be as traditional as possible, you could grind it with a Metate.
4. A very fine sieve. Even when hydrated, amaranth grains are very small. You will need a fine screened sieve in order to rinse the grain after cooking. Cheesecloth or a nut milk bag does a great job too.

Additionally you will need some food grade Calcium Hydroxide. It may be labelled as “Slaked Lime,” “Cal,” or “Pickling Lime.” It is usually derived from heating limestone to high temperature and dissolving the resulting powder. I know its possible to use wood ashes as well, but I haven't personally done it myself.

Ingredients:

3 cups amaranth grain
2 tbsp Calcium Hydroxide
8 to 10 cups of cold water

Begin by dissolving the calcium hydroxide in a pot of cold water. The exact amount of water isn’t very important, the ratio of grain to cal is what matters. Make sure you have enough water to cover the grains but leave space to allow the grain to expand.

Add the amaranth to the pot. Bring the water to a boil over medium high, stirring intermittently. When the water reaches the boiling point you will notice a rapid colour change in the water from murky to a distinct, vivid yellow colour. Set a timer for 9 minutes and turn down heat to medium. Keep the pot at a low, steady boil and stir frequently to ensure the grains don’t stick together. I use a whisk to stir.

After 9 minutes, turn the heat off but don’t take the pot off of the burner. Add 2 to 3 cups of cold water and whisk it in to completely separate all the grains and arrest the cooking process.

Ladle (if you have a small strainer) or drain the pot into a strainer and rinse thoroughly. Spread the grains out evenly on dehydrator sheets. Dry on high for 10 hours or overnight. When dried, the grains will be sticking together slightly. Break up the sheets (either by hand or in a food processor) and place in grain mill.

Grind the amaranth on a coarse setting, but still ensuring the grains are all cracked. Think similar to corn masa.


To make tortillas:

Mix 3 cups of masa, salt to taste, and 1 cup water to make a dough. Press in a tortilla press and place onto a hot, dry griddle. Cook until bubbles puff up and slightly browned on the underside, then flip and repeat.

Amaranth tortillas bond together very firmly, allowing you to use these tortillas as wraps, soft tacos, or baked/ fried into crispy chips.

Amaranth nixtamal can also be used to make tamales, atole, nacho chips, or pretty much anything corn masa can be used for.

I have experimented with the nixtamal process with many different grains, but amaranth is definitely my favourite. If there is interest I can post my recipes for other suitable grains (as well as warnings about ones that don't work).

Ooo!  I like this!  I eat quite a bit of amaranth, mostly popped or in porridge, but I may change things up and try this at some point, thanks.

I'd definitely be interested in your tips and warnings about other grains.

Great info - VERY cool!  Thanks!

Jan White wrote:Ooo!  I like this!  I eat quite a bit of amaranth, mostly popped or in porridge, but I may change things up and try this at some point, thanks.

I'd definitely be interested in your tips and warnings about other grains.

I'd love some feedback on this, let me know if you try them out!

As for other grains here's my current list:

Sorghum works pretty ok at forming tortillas, but the ratios and times are a little different. you need 1 tbsp of cal for every cup of grain, and the cooking time is between 45 minutes to an hour on a low heat. I suspect a longer time would have even better results. the colour is quite... grey. the flavour and aroma are distinctively sorghum but with a hint of maize. Because sorghum is extremely not-sweet-at-all (unlike amaranth and corn) i find the tortillas never get a nice browning effect and are a bit blander. I think sorghum nixtaml is better suited to tomales and other much more flavourful applications and less suited for plain tortillas, although it works fine. I also suspect a coloured sorghum (like Ba Yi Qi) might produce more visually appealing tortillas, but at the moment I've only experimented with Bob's Red Mill brand white sorghum.

Job's Tears (aka Coix Grass). This lovely grain has a wealth of health benefits so its one I've given a shot as well. Nixtaml of this grain is similar to sorghum as above. 1 tbsp per cup of grain, 40 minutes to 50 minutes cook time. The grain is a lot larger so rinsing is easier but the drying time is longer. Grinding it is very loud after cooking and drying, but on a moderately  coarse grind you get some extremely good quality tortillas, cream coloured with black flecks (from the germ). This nixtaml is pretty distinctively flavoured - if you've ever had job's tears you'll know what i mean - but the typical tortilla aroma compliments it well. These are strikingly similar to corn tortillas and I've had only positive feedback on them. If you have a typical mill made for grinding wet corn masa i would be willing to bet that it would work beautifully and give a better quality tortilla. No complaints on this option, not sure how many permies grow Coix though.

My to-try list currently has Finger Millet, Pearl Millet and buckwheat on it. I have a big bag of all 3 waiting for me to find time to experiment. I have high hopes for the millets, im fairly certain buckwheat will turn to mush too quickly.

And now the bad results:

Quinoa never forms a dough from all my experiments. You can infuse it with a lovely corn tortilla aroma, but the flour refuses to bind at all. I suspect that using a stronger alkali such as lye or tree ashes may be more successful but my general dislike of quinoa and its refusal to yield in my climate discourage me from further experiments.

Kaniwa is under the same umbrella as Quinoa. It did take the sour edge off the flavour though, and while it refused to make a tortilla or bind in any way, it made a very high quality Atole with a rich almost chocolatey flavour. As an iron  powerhouse, if you're growing kaniwa, this is a useful way to add some calcium to it and get a protein and mineral boost while removing oxalates and breaking down phytates, etc.

A further note as well: I recently dug into some details on cal and apparently by heating up eggshells past a certain temperature (something like 500 degrees Fahrenheit) then quenching them in water you can make your own cal. Between hardwood ashes and eggshells, it seems nixtaml is a very sustainable process.

Great tips, thanks!

I'll report back if I try it out, but it'll probably be a while. I suspect I'll just end up using the grain wet and blending it into a pancake batter for my first go, anyway.

I'd be interested to hear how the millet works out. I'm a big pearl millet fan.

Wow this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing.  We're down here in panama looking for a reliable tropical grain source and have been running some test plots with 4 different kinds of amaranth. Well we've come to our first harvests and Im trying out different ways of preparing the grain.  I've tried grinding it fresh in the vitamix and using in crackers and breads and also cooking it first and then using in crackers and breads but the high oxylate content has been in the back of my brain.  Thank you for this helpful post.

So, my question is -- what are the differences as far as cooking and nutritional content for the black grained amaranth-- That definitely seems to be the easier and more productive one to grow, although the orange flower and tiny white grain one is pretty productive as well.

If anyone has more amaranth recipes Im all ears!

Thanks all !

Daniel Sillito wrote:Today I want to share one of my family's favourite ways of preparing amaranth - nixtamal. It is prepared similarly to corn nixtamal. Traditionally corn is boiled in calcium hydroxide (from heat treated limestone generally), softening it, changing the protein structure to be more bio-available, and unlocking the niacin contained in the germ. The same process works on amaranth as well, but with a drastically shorter cooking time and no need to remove husks after cooking. Very little literature exists on the nutritional effects of nixtamalized amaranth, but it will (at the very least) increase the calcium content of the resulting flour. It also reduces the oxalates drastically through precipitation with the calcium in solution.

When nixtamalized, amaranth takes on a completely different flavour profile, losing any acrid or sour notes and instead takes on a prominent maize tortilla aroma with a malty flavour. My assumption is that this is because the oxalic acid is neutralized?

To get started nixtamalizing amaranth, you will need a few key pieces of equipment.

1. A sturdy steel or glazed pot. Do NOT use aluminum cookware or utensils during the cooking process.
2. A dehydrator, with a very fine mesh screen or non stick mats. In order to grind the masa in a normal grain mill, you will need to dry the grain completely.
3. A grain mill. A food processor will not grind the tiny grains effectively. If you want to be as traditional as possible, you could grind it with a Metate.
4. A very fine sieve. Even when hydrated, amaranth grains are very small. You will need a fine screened sieve in order to rinse the grain after cooking. Cheesecloth or a nut milk bag does a great job too.

Additionally you will need some food grade Calcium Hydroxide. It may be labelled as “Slaked Lime,” “Cal,” or “Pickling Lime.” It is usually derived from heating limestone to high temperature and dissolving the resulting powder. I know its possible to use wood ashes as well, but I haven't personally done it myself.

Ingredients:

3 cups amaranth grain
2 tbsp Calcium Hydroxide
8 to 10 cups of cold water

Begin by dissolving the calcium hydroxide in a pot of cold water. The exact amount of water isn’t very important, the ratio of grain to cal is what matters. Make sure you have enough water to cover the grains but leave space to allow the grain to expand.

Add the amaranth to the pot. Bring the water to a boil over medium high, stirring intermittently. When the water reaches the boiling point you will notice a rapid colour change in the water from murky to a distinct, vivid yellow colour. Set a timer for 9 minutes and turn down heat to medium. Keep the pot at a low, steady boil and stir frequently to ensure the grains don’t stick together. I use a whisk to stir.

After 9 minutes, turn the heat off but don’t take the pot off of the burner. Add 2 to 3 cups of cold water and whisk it in to completely separate all the grains and arrest the cooking process.

Ladle (if you have a small strainer) or drain the pot into a strainer and rinse thoroughly. Spread the grains out evenly on dehydrator sheets. Dry on high for 10 hours or overnight. When dried, the grains will be sticking together slightly. Break up the sheets (either by hand or in a food processor) and place in grain mill.

Grind the amaranth on a coarse setting, but still ensuring the grains are all cracked. Think similar to corn masa.


To make tortillas:

Mix 3 cups of masa, salt to taste, and 1 cup water to make a dough. Press in a tortilla press and place onto a hot, dry griddle. Cook until bubbles puff up and slightly browned on the underside, then flip and repeat.

Amaranth tortillas bond together very firmly, allowing you to use these tortillas as wraps, soft tacos, or baked/ fried into crispy chips.

Amaranth nixtamal can also be used to make tamales, atole, nacho chips, or pretty much anything corn masa can be used for.

I have experimented with the nixtamal process with many different grains, but amaranth is definitely my favourite. If there is interest I can post my recipes for other suitable grains (as well as warnings about ones that don't work).

My best success personally has been the cultivar "Orange giant" which has a relatively large tan seed that was of excellent quality. This year im doing a test plot of 3 different cultivars from Adaptive Seeds (im in a dramatically different climate from yourself!).

I recently stumbled across an extremely interesting study on the effects of calcium hydroxide on oxalates in food that was referenced on Wikipedia

Calcium hydroxide decreases urinary oxalate in both humans and rats.

Rajagopal, G.; Toora, B. D.; Sivakamasundari, R. I. (10 August 2004). "Effect of addition of calcium hydroxide to foods rich in oxalic acid on calcium and oxalic acid metabolism". Biomedicine. 24 (3–4): 32–35.

If someone knows an easy way around the paywall so I can read the whole article that would be greatly appreciated. Nevertheless, it seems that using calcium hydroxide derived from wood ashes, eggshells, or mineral deposits all seem to be a promising way to ensure long term safety of amaranth consumption, and to me makes a lot of sense: the 3 major groups (inca aztec maya) that used amaranth grain as a staple all utilized nixtaml in daily cooking.

Regarding your questions on dark seeded amaranth:

I am not entirely familiar with cooking dark seeded amaranth, usually they are from asian species of amaranth, wild amaranth (such as A. retroflexus), or specifically the Hopi Dye amaranth. The black seeded varieties have a thicker seedcoat, making them harder to digest or impossible to digest in porridge form. My assumption is that because of the thicker seedcoat they would need a longer time cooking when prepared as nixtaml (id guess at least 14 to 15 minutes) to give the cal time to break it down and activate those starches.

My worry is that all grain amaranths used as a staple historically have been tan seeded or white seeded. There may be a large amount of anti nutrients contained in the hull of the dark seeded amaranths that led people to avoid them historically as a staple.

I do have quite a few more uses for amaranth as a staple food I'd love to pass on:

Amaranth Bread

2 cups amaranth flour
1 cup tapioca starch
~1 cup warm water
2 to 3 tbsp cooking fat of choice
salt to taste

Mix the flours, add fat and water. Knead briefly into a smooth dough. You may need to add a few tbsp of water depending on humidity and freshness of the amaranth flour.
Divide into 6 equal pieces, roll into a ball and flatten them into a pita shape and size.
Bake at 400° to 425° for about 15 to 18 minutes, depending on if you want a softer bread or a crispy bread.

Use as you would any flatbread, use as a pizza crust, add sesame seeds, cumin seeds, chia seeds, black pepper, garlic, dried onions…

-I cook this bread about 3 or 4 days a week, it's extremely versatile. Tapioca starch can be subbed for arrowroot starch, potato starch, they'll just be slightly more crumbly. You can also use ¾ cup cassava flour instead of the tapioca for similar results.
-For cooking fats, honestly everything I've tried has worked well. Amaranth really needs a little fat for it to bind well if it's not nixtamlized, so you can't really skip this. Still, amaranth flour is the only gluten free grain I've ever seen make a cohesive dough and bread without binders or gums.
-You don't need a leavening from my experience, the breads puff up a bit from steam as they cook, but a little bread yeast can be a nice addition. Don't use baking soda, they'll turn to glue.



Popping amaranth is a really fun way to use it, but its quite fiddly. I won't bother to describe it here, but if you check a search engine for how to pop amaranth you'll get some very informative videos. Popped amaranth makes a great breakfast cereal, can be used to make deserts, added to stews as a thickener, the list goes on. Popping amaranth removes the earthy characteristic flavour from the grain, leaving a more typical popcorn flavour that goes well with almost anything.