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Tired of wheat? Try amaranth bread instead

amaranth
Amaranth - high in protein and can be ground into flour Photograph: Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley
Mon 2 Mar 2009 19.01 EST

Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, says we have a major problem on our hands: it seems that we, as a planet, are deeply unimaginative about our choice of crops, a short-sightedness that makes us extremely vulnerable.

"The world is fed primarily from just a dozen species - around 80% of the world's food comes from those few plants, yet more than 30,000 edible plants are known on the planet," he says.

He has a point. Long before our reliance on the big three - wheat, maize and barley - we were more varied in our choice of base ingredients, and lost heroes such as breadfruit (an indigenous, starchy staple of the Pacific islands), amaranth (a grain with high protein content and an ability to grow in extremely arid conditions) and tamarind (a tropical fruit tree) can dig us out of our blinkered state. All we need is a bit of consumer demand and this great global wrong can be righted.

Mighty in its versatility, breadfruit may be roasted, boiled, fried and even dried and then ground into flour for bread-making: I've enjoyed it most as an intriguing mash substitute, or frittered, and even as a pudding, fried with cinnamon and sugar.

Amaranth bread is already in our health shops, as an alternative to wheat, but this tropical crop has so much more to offer: its leaves may be used to make a delicious soup (I tried it in Brazil) called callaloo. It is revered for its high protein content, as well as being one of the fastest-growing and highest-yielding cereals on the planet. Beyond being ground into flour for bread-making it can be used for porridge, or the grains may be popped and puffed like corn or rice and used as a cereal or snack.

Tamarind, renowned for its rich, fruity sour taste, can make instant layers of flavour in slow cooks and stews. In the Philippines and Cuba I came across not just the seedpods that are the only part of the tree we see over here, but the fruit itself in both savoury and sweet guises. And isn't it more interesting to try new things? Look out for sausages and breadfruit mash, amaranth Special K and tamarind tang snacklets in the G2 recipe column soon.

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