Amaranth

Amaranthus species

Appears in

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini

By Elizabeth Schneider

Published 2001

About

Also Chinese spinach, vegetable amaranth, Joseph’s coat, tampala; yin choy and variations (Chinese), callaloo and variations (Caribbean), quelite and quintonil (Mexican), bledo blanco (Latin American), chaulai and bhaji (Indian), pirum (or birum) namul (Korean)

In the United States, forms of amaranth are more familiar in flamboyant decorative plantings— where their brilliant multicolored leaves and magenta chenille tassels create dramatic displays—than they are in stewpots. Amaranth seeds show up in the natural food larder—puffed into breakfast cereal, baked in bread, or cooked as a grain.