Vlita, AKA Amaranth, grows wild all over Greece. I just returned from a month in Europe and while we were in Greece we ate this at most of our meals. We stayed a week in the village of Limni on the island of Evia, where my Mom’s family is from and Vlita was served at most of the cafe’s.
It is boiled in salted water for about 20 minutes and served with either lemon or vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and is often sauteed with zucchini. I’m going to sprinkle some feta over it the next time I make it. I had some beans soaking, so I added the beans and squeezed lemon juice and drizzled some extra virgin olive oil over it too.
Amaranth was hard to fine, even here in California. I checked all the grocery stores and even the specialty ones with mostly organic produce. I finally found it at our local farmer’s market here in Marin County. I asked all the vendors and everyone pointed me to Roots Farm organic produce stand.(I’d link to their website, but it hasn’t been updated in years) I’ll write more on these awesome folks in a later post. I also found seeds to grow at the Petaluma Seed bank and might try a late summer harvest here in sunny and warm Northern California. I’ll let you know how that goes…
Vlita is very nutritious! Famed Greek chef Diane Kochilas states: ” it contains five times the amount of calcium as milk and 30 percent more protein (with complete amino acids) than wheat, rye, rice, or oats – that makes it a great addition to the diet of anyone with celiac disease and of vegetarians.
– Its high protein content also helps reduce insulin levels in the blood, staving off hunger and binging in anyone trying to watch his or her weight.
– It is also rich in dietary fiber, carbohydrates, vitamin K, folate, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin B6, and vitamin C and is a terrific source of manganese, iron, copper, calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus necessary for maintaining proper mineral balance in the body.
– It reduces bad cholesterol and is five times richer in iron than wheat!”
Enjoy the vlita…
