TRY AMARANTH! The dual-purpose veg

Garden Organic's research manager Anton Rosenfeld extols the virtues of amaranth and how to grow it

- Anton Rosenfeld

Most UK gardeners have encountered amaranth as an ornamental, more commonly I known as 'love-lies-bleeding'. Its multicoloured leaves and unusual woolly tassel-shaped flowers are great for adding colour and texture to the garden. But most of us are missing a trick as the amaranth plant produces highly nutritious leaves and seeds too.

There are communities of people, mainly from Jamaica and Bangladesh, that grow and eat this plant in the UK but sadly, consumption has been slow to spread beyond these groups. But as it is a plant of so many culinary uses, hopefully you will look beyond cultivating amaranth just as a bedding plant.

WHAT IS AMARANTH?

Amaranth is thought to originate in South America, although it's now grown in many places around the world. In our work at Garden Organic we've encountered many different names for it, including callaloo, dugi, denga, chauli or cock's comb. It's grown both for its leaves that are eaten like spinach and its seeds, which are eaten as a staple food like rice.

The spinach-like leaves are a good source of iron, zinc and calcium and also contain the essential amino acids lysine and methionine. The seeds of amaranth are either white, red or black. They have higher levels of proteins and a much better balance of essential amino acids than most other grains.

WHY SHOULD WE GROW AMARANTH?