How to Pop Amaranth (with Kara!)

[free510]

i love eating amaranth and ground flaxseed for breakfast with soy milk it's delicious !!

[generatrix999]

This is sooo good 'with' popcorn!

[johnnyzing]

You and Katie Wardrobe use the same intro/exit music. She in music and you in food. Do you know each other? Or was this just luck? I'm eating Amaranth as I type...and now I'll go pop some for the first time. And Millet soon too. Thanks

John-Hans Melcher

[lili100l]

Thank you! Before my amaranth always turned black instead of popping. but the trick is to ket the pot go hot enough and move the amaranth seeds while popping.

I ate it with agave sirup and soymilk - a delicious vegan breakfast cereal! :)

[Lightworker444]

I tried popping amaranth once. It didn't work. First I tried a popcorn air popper, and the seed just flew out of the maker. They were too light to stay in there before they popped, and the air just blew them all over the kitchen. So I tried them in a non-stick frying pan, and they just blackened. Is it possible they were old from the Health food store, and wouldn't pop? Or did I make an error in the way I tried to pop them?

[aparaajita10]

In India we make a sort of brittle, like peanut brittle here, using popped amaranth, but the amount of sugar used in India for the amaranth brittle is much less, that makes it much more healthy.

[padswaggle]

I can buy puffed amaranth from the supermarket. Is this the process that they use to 'puff' amaranth?

[ophiacation]

Wow! I'm so amazed. I just cooked amaranth for the first time tonight and while looking for some videos on cooking amaranth I came across this one. Popped amaranth! How great. I'm going to try it! :) 

[TheFOIBOS]

amazing...i just bought amaranthos seeds...

never imagine that..

i'll give it a try i think!

:)

thanks

[hardtorn]

So what does this (popping) do to the nutritional value of the grain?

Do we know what this type of heat dose to the value of the grain?

I'm not against popping it... just looking for info...

[OldwaysTube]

Good question! We compared equal calorie amounts of unpopped popcorn and air-popped popcorn in the USDA's nutrient database and found that some nutrients went up a little and some went down after popping. We expect this would be similar with other grains. When you pop a grain, some of the moisture in the grain goes away (it's steam inside the heated grain that makes it burst and pop). With less moisture, everything else in the grain becomes more concentrated.

[OldwaysTube]

@hardtorn (Part Two to your question) Vitamins that are especially heat-sensitive include thiamine (B1), vitamins A, C, D, E and pantothenic acid. Since we all cook grains in some way or another in order to eat them, you would have similar issues with any kind of cooked grain. So we recommend simply enjoying whole grains in whatever form appeals to you! (Cindy)

[domrotunno]

I hate to say this but I believe popping amaranth is all this grain is good for (for me). I love grains but find this stuff to taste, well, not so nice. I love quinoa and thought this would be quite like it but found it to not be the case. I have had to put it into my, "If case of emergency" category. I do love whole grains though. Thanks for the vid.

[ioua37]

I have not seen that ever before, it is very interesting. Is there any more grain/seeds that can be popped?

[OldwaysTube]

@ioua37 Well, there's popcorn, of course! And supposedly sorghum (another naturally gluten-free whole grain) can also be popped. In fact, someone else at the WGC tried it & blogged about it. Millet can also be popped or puffed, so maybe we'll give that a try in November when the WGC celebrates Millet and Teff as Grains of the Month!