Alegrías

I’m always on the lookout for easy, healthy-ish snacks to make for the kids, and I thought these Mexican alegrías sounded promising.

Amaranth is a great source of protein and nutrients, but there’s too much sugar involved for me to consider alegrías healthy.

They were certainly easy to make… so long as you buy popped amaranth, which is available in whole food shops.

(A few recipes I looked at had instructions for popping amaranth seeds – a teaspoon at a time –  in a hot wok. That was never going to happen…)

“Sesame snack meets cereal bar,” said my younger daughter when asked for her opinion of alegrías, which is a pretty good description.

My recipe is adapted from this one on the Sweet Cannela website.

Alegrías

• 100g popped amaranth
• 50g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
• 50g raw almonds, roughly chopped and toasted
• 200g piloncillo or jaggery, chopped (or you can use brown sugar)
• ¼ cup honey
• juice of half a lime

1. Line a small baking sheet or jelly roll tin with greaseproof paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the amaranth, cranberries and toasted almonds.
3. In a saucepan over a medium flame, heat the piloncillo, honey and lime juice until melted.
4. Stir the liquid into the amaranth mixture, and mix well to combine.
5. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared tray with dampened hands.
6. Leave to set for a few hours (or overnight), then cut into rectangles.

Family score: 8 out of 10

Tags: almonds, amaranth, cranberries, dairy-free, gluten-free, Mexican food, vegetarian