Care for கீரை?

கீரை (Keerai) is one of my favorites--among many--in the foods in the old country.  The dry curry; the variation with tamarind; and, of course, the one with coconut.  I could eat them all day long.

These are amaranth leaves.  Like mulakkeerai and arakkerai.  Have I ever been to the fields where these are cultivated?  Nope. Never. Not once!  I am not the only one to suffer such disconnect; an overwhelming majority of us have no relationship with the land and the workers who grow such awesomely tasty and healthy vegetables.  Bizarre it sounds as I express it in words!

In fact, the name amaranth was unknown to me through all my life until I came to the US.  Spinach here didn't feel and taste the same as the keerai in India, which then compelled me to learn what the difference was in the leafy vegetables that I relished so much all through my younger years.  At first, I read the word as amarnath and wondered why it had such an Indian name.

What I didn't know until just a few weeks ago was this: "Amaranth is an 8,000-year-old pseudocereal – not a grain, but a seed, like quinoa and buckwheat – indigenous to Mesoamerica, but also grown in China, India, south-east Asia, west Africa and the Caribbean."

One hell of a head-scratcher!

It has been a decade-plus since I knew there was something called quinoa, which I then made it a part of my kitchen pantry.  Now amaranth?  And it has been grown all over the world?  If so, how come I am learning about it only now?

Before the Spanish arrived in the Americas, the Aztecs and Maya cultivated amaranth as an excellent source of proteins, but also for ceremonial purposes. When Spanish conquistadors arrived on the continent in the 16th century, they threatened to cut off the hands of anyone who grew the crop, fearing that the Indigenous Americans’ spiritual connection to plants and the land might undermine Christianity.

As an old colonial-power hater, it never surprises me to read about the extent to which colonizers were fanatic in their mission.  There is no amount of reparation that can ever compensate for the atrocities that were committed in the name of the crown and Jesus.

While amaranth is no longer banned, Tsosie-Peña says “planting it today feels like an act of resistance”. Reestablishing relationships with other Indigenous communities across international borders is part of a “larger movement of self-determination of Indigenous peoples”, she says, to return to the “alternative economies that existed before capitalism, that existed before the United States”.

There were plenty of alternative economies and food habits in the past before colonization and "modernization."  We need to learn from them and popularize the good aspects, like amaranth and quinoa as sources of nutrition.  Not mere calories but micronutrients too.  "As a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids, amaranth is a highly nutritious source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and antioxidants that may improve brain function and reduce inflammation."

My favorite example from the old country is finger millet.  It is a crop that is hardy and grows well even when there isn't a whole lot of water--unlike rice that requires a hell of a lot of water.  But, finger millet is now more a novelty item in the urban kitchen than a continuation of tradition, though it is a sustainable and enriching food.

There are a number of easy, effective, and healthy ways to feed the world of the 10 billion that we will be before this century ends.  We don't want to make amaranth and quinoa and millet orphan crops in the pursuit of pizzas and burgers and fries and Coca-Cola!