Amaranth: Maybe a New Communion Wafer for a New World

After weeks of waxing poetic about the joys of meat, I started to get a few folks asking if this newsletter was named correctly. The Enlightened Omnivore was “omni-meat,” not omnivore. So I thought I’d share some culinary exploration I’ve been up to lately. Meet the super food, Amaranth.

The New World brought with it an embarrassment of culinary riches. Quite honestly, try to find a food in your pantry or your fridge that didn’t originate in Mesoamerica.

Here’s a short list to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Avocados, blackberries, blueberries, beans, cashews, corn, cranberries, guava, maple syrup, peanuts, pecans , peppers, persimmons, pineapples, potatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, sweet potatoes, and let’s not forget, vanilla & chocolate.

So it’s shocking that on this list of greatest hits of popular foods from the Americas, you probably wouldn’t recognize amaranth.

This cute little kernel is often mistaken for a super grain. But it’s actually not a grain or a grass, and even though it looks like couscous, it’s something more like chia. Amaranth is in fact a seed that grows on the breathtakingly beautiful amaranth plant. Its broad green leaves surround a gorgeous magenta flower that shoots up towards the sky like a flaming cornstock. Each plant produces hundreds of thousands of edible seeds.

And edible they are.

The amaranth seed’s simple exterior hides an impressive inside that provides more protein per ounce than almost any other plant-based food on the planet. It also is loaded with nutrients, including your daily dose for manganese and magnesium, and a third of your phosphorus and iron needs as well.

Amaranth is high in fiber, and studies have suggested it reduces inflammation, might lower cholesterol, and aids in weight loss. Oh, and it is gluten-free.

But the most compelling ingredient in amaranth is lysine, an essential amino acid most commonly found in meats. In fact, there are only a handful of non-meat sources for lysine. And this plant grows widely over the planet.

Where has this miracle food been all our lives?

Right under our noses, but not—it turns out—in our grocery stores.

Amaranth has been a staple food crop for every Central America civilization—right up there with corn and beans—and it has also had an important sacred role as well. Millions of Ancient Americans enjoyed Amaranth for centuries, and the Aztecs paid tribute to Montezuma—not in corn, but rather Amaranth.

So what happened? Why aren’t we all eating amaranth like we are avocados and chocolate? Where did this spiritual superfood go?

Well, you can blame Hernan Cortez for yet another atrocity, and maybe human sacrifice.

In addition to being an excellent source of protein, amaranth tastes delicious when mixed with blood, especially human blood. Or at least, that’s what the Aztecs thought. They called it Huaútli, and during ceremonies that revolved around human sacrifice, they would mix the tiny seeds with blood and honey, shape them into images of their gods, and then portion these sticky sweet blood cakes out to the populace as a celebratory snack.