10 April 2020

Broccoli Amaranth Burgers

link | amaranto, consume local, cooking, familias saludables | recipes

4 servings⠀ ⠀ ∙ 30g amaranth seed ⠀ ∙ 1 pc broccoli girl ⠀ ∙ 50g of baked peanut ⠀ ∙ 4 rolls (artisanal amaranth bread is delicious) ⠀ ∙ to accompany (tomato, avocado, chilies (to taste)) ⠀

Cook the amaranth seed: Wash and strain it, as many times as necessary until all the detritus is removed. • Bring the water to a boil, add the seed, boiling for 10 to 15 minutes. • Remove from heat and drain. ⠀ ⠀ Steam the broccoli for 20 minutes. • Drain and allow to cool. • Crush the dry peanut in a blender. • Mix the broccoli, cooked amaranth seed and crushed peanuts. • Start making patties and heat in a flat-bottomed pan with 1 teaspoon of oil. ⠀ ⠀ Serve with your favorite sandwich condiments! ⠀

31 January 2020

This is how amaranth is harvested in the Oaxacan Mixteca

link | agricultura sostenible, agroecología, amaranto, impacto comunitaria, soberanía alimentaria | press + media

Thanks to Gourmet de México and Ruth García-Lago for this article in collaboration with the Mixteca Amaranth Network. You can read the original article here: gourmetdemexico.com.mx/turista-gastronomico/cosecha-de-amaranto/

Although it should be our daily bread, the relationship we have with amaranth is like candy (in the form of alegría snack bars), and is no longer a part of our diet like it was during Mesoamerican times.

To learn about its production process, we went to La Purísima Concepción, a community of no more than 60 inhabitants, in Tlaxiaco, within the Oaxacan Mixteca.

There we were received by Abundia Carmen Cortés García, producer and consumer. Her first contact with this plant was by chance four years ago. Her daughter-in-law insisted that she go to a meeting with the producers of the Red Amaranto Mixteca, one of the two alliances that Puente a la Salud Comunitaria has in Oaxaca; the other is in the Central Valleys.

Doña Carmen in those days did not feel very well, she was bloated all the time. So much so that, at the age of 60 and recently widowed, people asked her if she was expecting a baby.

After listening to the meetings about the properties of this pseudo-cereal, she began to plant it and prepare fresh flavored water with its tender and ground leaves accompanied by some fruit. Suddenly, she did not have inflammation in her stomach.

“I started working with amaranth, although our strength has always been the wheat tortilla. We make toast with the amaranth popped cereal, I add honey,” she explained.

The Harvest

Amaranth is planted in June and harvested in November. You can practically take advantage of all of the plant and its use is diverse, both the seeds and the leaves as well as the popped cereal and the flour.

In the Red Amaranto Mixteca, those involved share their experiences and the machinery. Doña Carmen said that now they have a popper with which they can transform the seed and thus use it as a cereal in desserts, salads, sauces, breads, broths and stews. When the process is manual, it is slower when done on a comal or casserole over low heat.

“In the Mixteca Amaranth Network office we have a popper for all producers; with it we achieve greater amounts. We carry our seed at a cost of 6 pesos per kilo. We are now in the process of buying a mill to make amaranth, wheat and other seed flour.”

The raw seed is used to make cookies and breads. The popped cereal is for breading, as well as for preparing fresh water and atole.

“I make tortilla chips with the popped cereal, the raw one becomes chewy. As for sales, the processed and ground seed reaches 28 pesos per kilo, the flour, 35 pesos and the popped cereal, 60 pesos ”.

The entire plant is used. With the thresher, they separate the straw and then soak it in water for two hours or until it gets a reddish hue similar to hibiscus flowers. This is added to the tortilla chips, something they want to perfect with the dehydrators they manufacture in Putla.

Amaranth in the kitchen

Doña Carmen told us that the leaf is used in soups, fresh waters, and tortillas. “I put it in the beef or pork broth. My grandchildren eat the leaf in broth, in salad and in tamales, something that fascinates them because when large leaves are given, they wrap the nixtamal with mole and chicken.

They eat it with everything, they are very small (…) Amaranth gives us sustenance. When I was sick, my daughter helped me with the expenses by selling the tototpos. Being younger makes it easier for them to work and sell them. With that they buy me fruit in addition to giving me my pennies,” she said proudly.

Now she, like many other women in her community, plant amaranth in her fields, avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers and taking advantage of her cows’ manure. “It’s beautiful what’s happening. In 100 square meters I was given about 16 kilos of grain for our consumption and for sale,” concluded Señora Abundia.

15 August 2019

Misión amaranto: Puente a la Salud Comunitaria en Oaxaca

link | amaranto, productorxs pequeñxs | press + media

Gracias a Mexico Desconocido y el fotógrafo Alex Coghe por este documentación de nuestro trabajo. Lea el artículo original aquí: mexicodesconocido.com.mx/mision-amaranto-puente-a-la-salud-comunitaria.html

Cada año, con motivo de la Guelaguetza, el fotoperiodista italiano y X-Photographer de Fujifilm, Alex Coghe, organiza una expedición fotográfica en Oaxaca, donde los participantes aprenden sobre fotoperiodismo, fotografía documental, así como street photography y otros estilos.

A continuación, el propio Alex Coghe nos cuenta sobre su más reciente expedición fotográfica y nos comparte imágenes captadas por su cámara sobre el proyecto Puente a la Salud Comunitaria.

Puente a la Salud Comunitaria

Desde hace varios años mantengo una colaboración con la ONG Puente a la Salud Comunitaria y estaba interesado en dar a conocer su trabajo en apoyo al cultivo de amaranto en Oaxaca; y esta expedición fue la oportunidad perfecta.

La misión de Puente a la Salud Comunitaria es contribuir a la soberanía alimentaria y a mejorar la salud y el bienestar de las comunidades rurales de México, a través del cultivo, transformación, consumo y comercialización de amaranto. Los alimentos procesados importados son una causa importante de mala nutrición, y esto afecta sobre todo a las familias de campesinos.

Entre los estados más pobres de México, Oaxaca -un estado predominantemente indígena-, con una población de aproximadamente 3.3 millones de personas, se ve afectado por el problema de la desnutrición estimándose que el 36% de sus niños, la padecen.

Misión amaranto

El compromiso de Puente a la Salud Comunitaria es favorecer el acceso a ofertas alimentarias locales de calidad, trabajando en las regiones de la Mixteca y el Valle Central de Oaxaca, con 30 comunidades rurales. Gracias a técnicos altamente capacitados que trabajan en todas las etapas de la cadena de suministro; desde el cultivo de amaranto hasta su transformación, se promueve su consumo y comercialización.

Esta comercialización ha estimulado la creación de programas y talleres de verano dirigidos a niños, los cuales están enfocados hacia la creación de una cultura adecuada en favor del cultivo y consumo de amaranto.

Las actividades inculcan la cultura de respeto al medio ambiente, el conocimiento básico de la planta y permiten la integración de los pequeños y sus familias a través de juegos.

Esta colaboración la hago por el crecimiento que me deja en mi corazón y porque inevitablemente influencia toda mi fotografía. Todo mi trabajo y esfuerzo están enfocados, sobre todo, en documentar a través de imágenes un punto de vista y una reflexión social y antropológica de las diferentes situaciones del país.

15 August 2013

Amaranth: Another Ancient Wonder Food, But Who Will Eat It?

link | amaranto, cooking, healthy families, impacto comunitaria | press + media

This article by Brian Clark Howard originally appeared on National Geographic’s website in August 2013. Read the original article here.

Photos by Roque Reyes.

Grown by the Aztecs and then all but eliminated in the Spanish conquest, the ancient crop amaranth may become the next quinoa. Advocates hope amaranth can help Mexicans eat healthier, better connect to their roots, and lessen their impact on the environment. But will people eat it?

Amaranth is a broad-leafed, bushy plant that grows about six feet (1.8 meters) tall. It produces a brightly colored flower that can contain up to 60,000 seeds. The seeds are nutritious and can be made into a flour. Not a true grain, amaranth is often called a pseudocereal, like its relative quinoa. Both plants belong to a large family that also includes beets, chard, spinach, and lots of weeds.

There are around 60 different species of amaranth, and a few of them are native to Mesoamerica. For the last decade, the Oaxaca-based advocacy group Puente a la Salud Comunitaria (Bridge to Community Health) has been working to promote the plant’s virtues.

Pete Noll, the group’s executive director, argues that his work couldn’t come at a more important time. In July, the United Nations announced that Mexico had overtaken the United States as the world’s most obese country. According to the report, 32.8 percent of Mexican adults are obese, compared with 31.8 percent of American adults.

“Obesity is a devastating problem in Mexico,” Noll said. “Amaranth may be part of the solution. It is a whole, healthy food that can be produced locally, and it may create the possibility of change.”

Noll pointed to widespread availability of fast food, urbanization, lack of physical activity, and heavy advertising of junk foods as culprits in the obesity epidemic. As evidence of the devastating effects, he noted a recent media report about a 13-year-old Mexican boy who died of a heart attack.

At the same time, many people in Mexico still struggle with hunger. Some 10,000 children die from malnutrition in the country each year, Noll noted. “These issues are linked: Childhood malnutrition makes people seven to eight times more likely to be overweight or obese as adults,” he said.

“Oaxaca has a cuisine that is known worldwide, but it also has food deserts,” Noll added, referring to areas where it is difficult for consumers to find fresh, healthy foods.

Nutritious Plant

Amaranth is gluten free and its seeds contain about 30 percent more protein than rice, sorghum, and rye, according to a USDA Forest Service report. It is also relatively high in calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and fiber, according to Puente.

“Amaranth’s amino acid profile is as close to perfect as you can get for a protein source,” Noll said. The plant contains eight essential amino acids and is particularly high in the amino acid lysine, which is largely lacking in corn and wheat, he explained.

“So if you make a tortilla with amaranth and corn, you give people a low-cost, culturally acceptable, healthy basic foodstuff,” he said.

Florisa Barquera, a doctor and nutritional expert at the Universidad Anáhuac, Mexico City, and a member of the Mexican Academy for Obesity, told National Geographic that amaranth has been recommended by the World Health Organization as a well-balanced food and recommended by NASA for consumption in space missions. The variety of amaranth consumed in Mexico is 16 to 18 percent protein, she said, compared with 14 percent protein in wheat and 9 to 10 percent protein in corn.

Some studies have shown that amaranth also contains beneficial omega-3s and may help reduce blood pressure, said Barquera, who writes and speaks frequently about nutrition in Mexico but is not affiliated with Puente.

Broccoli Amaranth Burgers

This is how amaranth is harvested in the Oaxacan Mixteca

The Harvest

Amaranth in the kitchen

Misión amaranto: Puente a la Salud Comunitaria en Oaxaca

Puente a la Salud Comunitaria

Misión amaranto

Amaranth: Another Ancient Wonder Food, But Who Will Eat It?

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