Амарант или лебеда? Стоит ли выращивать амарант?

As a big fan of green smoothies, I have already tried many wild and cultivated plants to use in food. This time, quinoa and amaranth are on my table. I love quinoa and I collect it every summer, add it to salads. I eat it with great pleasure. This summer, I decided to plant amaranth in my garden and taste its greens, use it in green smoothies. As you know, amaranth has a lot of useful properties, medicinal and nutritional. Some sources call it "the gold of the Incas", others - a cure for death. AMARANTH - denying death. Mara is the goddess of death (among the ancient Rus, Slavs and Aryans), and the prefix "A" means denial Reading the description of quinoa and amaranth, their useful properties, I noticed that many of them are similar. And this is no coincidence, because both of these plants belong to the same family "amaranth". LEBEDA (amaranth family) Contains complete protein, i.e. all essential amino acids, has high nutritional value useful for skin diseases stimulates immunity restores the nervous system useful for diabetics reduces cholesterol prevents osteoporosis anti-inflammatory antiparasitic, antispasmodic reduces blood pressure ... AMARANT (amaranth family) Contains complete protein, i.e. all essential amino acids, has high nutritional value treats skin diseases stimulates immunity supports the nervous system stimulates insulin production reduces cholesterol prevents osteoporosis anti-inflammatory antifungal reduces blood pressure (protection of the cardiovascular system)... Of course, I do not suggest eating spinach or amaranth greens in heat-treated form, I suggest making green smoothies from them. GREEN COCKTAIL from quinoa (or AMARANTH) Pick quinoa or amaranth greens in an ecologically favorable zone. Wash and dry. Add water and clean greens to the blender bowl, scroll. Strain the resulting green mass through a fine sieve, getting rid of coarse fibers. You can drink it. (!) Quinoa, like spinach and beet tops, contains oxalates, so it is recommended to consume these products in moderation I liked the taste of amaranth greens much less than the taste of quinoa greens. Firstly, amaranth cannot be eaten raw, it is not chewable, it will not go into a salad, it is tough. And the taste, frankly, is disgusting. Secondly, even if you make a green cocktail from it and strain it, which means removing the coarse hairs, you can drink it, but a hint of unpleasant taste still remains. It's not bitterness, it's something else. With quinoa, everything is different. It is soft and tender, you can cut it into a plate with vegetables as greens, you can add it to a green salad, everywhere it is perfectly chewable and quite tasty. I would compare its taste with spinach, it is very similar. No foreign tastes, no bitterness, no sourness and the like. A very delicate pleasant taste. By the way, it is called wild spinach. If you pick quinoa, wash, dry, cut and knead it with your hands with a small amount of salt, for example, or with lemon juice, let it stand for a while, then it turns into a tender soft green something that can even be used as a side dish. However, still be careful with it. Oxalates on the one hand and enzymes, ferments on the other hand can lead to thinning of enamel if you chew this grass. This does not happen when consuming green smoothies. I also noticed that many wild plants, such as goutweed, wheatgrass, etc., oxidize when preparing green smoothies or squeezing juices from them. The color of this mass does not become green, but rather brown, dark, blackish. This is a consequence of oxidation processes, I think. This does not happen with wheatgrass, nor does it happen with quinoa or amaranth. Their juices and cocktails from them always have a rich green color, reflecting freshness, no matter how much I twist them in a blender. Amaranth seeds are also not particularly popular with me yet. Their taste is also not entirely neutral, it is somewhat specific, without heat treatment not everyone will like it. And the quinoa seeds are even tastier. Even fermenting amaranth, like goutweed, did not give me the desired result, and I did not find a way to consume these useful plants so that it would be tasty. Taste is also very important. Food eaten without appetite is poorly digested, a sufficient amount of digestive juices is not secreted...