Guide to Using Amaranth

Amaranth is an ancient gluten-free seed that dates all the way back to the Aztec and Inca civilizations. Nowadays, Amaranth is frequently used in baked goods as an alternative to other flours.

At Arrowhead Mills, we add our own twist to amaranth goods with our Amaranth Flakes Cereal. This cereal isn’t just delicious, but it can serve as an ingredient in bread or be used for other dishes.

What is Amaranth?

Amaranth is similar to quinoa and traditionally used as a rice substitute or in porridge. It can easily be ground up and used as an alternative to regular flour in baking. Once ground, it becomes most comparable to brown rice flour.

While Arrowhead Mills doesn’t offer it in flour form–we recommend our Organic Gluten-Free Brown Rice Flour if you’re looking for something similar–we still love using Amaranth.

Amaranth has a pleasant flavor that works well with both sweet and savory dishes. It’s described as warm and earthy with a slight nuttiness.

Compared to other grains and seeds, it’s especially high in protein. A serving has about 20% of your daily need, along with a high amount of fiber and minerals. 

Learning to bake with Amaranth

Baking and cooking with Amaranth is pretty straightforward. If you have the seed, you’ll want to boil it until soft or grind it into flour. If you plan to cook it for a savory dish, you can serve it as a substitute for quinoa or rice. Amaranth is pre-sold in its flour form by some specialty stores, too.

When using it as flour, you’ll generally want to use it in combination with other flours, with a proportion of 25% Amaranth flour, and 75% of the other flour. We recommend using our All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour alongside Amaranth, but experimenting with other flours can lead to exciting new recipes.

When you’re first adjusting to the flavor of Amaranth, we recommend checking it out in a simple way. That’s why we recommend starting with our Amaranth Flakes cereal.

Let’s get started!

The best way to test out a new seed alternative is to simply try it out! To get a sense of the flavor, our Amaranth cereal blends Amaranth seeds with oats, brown rice, corn, barley, and rye. While Amaranth is naturally gluten-free, our cereal does contain a small amount of gluten due to the rye.

Our cereal is low-fat and is an excellent source of iron. It also contains a small amount of apple juice concentrate for a refreshing hint of apple.

While this cereal is delicious on its own or with milk, it’s also a key ingredient in one of our favorite breads.

Amaranth Bread is a cozy bread made with our Whole Wheat Stone Ground Flour, honey, dates, vanilla, and pecans. It’s the perfect dessert, breakfast, or snack bread. Aside from soaking the Amaranth flakes and the dates, this recipe can be thrown together in just a few minutes.

With this cozy recipe, you’re sure to woah your friends and experience the unique and delightful flavor of Amaranth!

About Abby Grifno

Abby is a health and wellness writer based out of Washington, DC. As a teacher, she believes health and knowledge go hand-in-hand with helping individuals make the best decisions for their health goals. Through her fact-based research and writing, Abby strives to make nutrition and wellness engaging, accessible, and fun!