Amaranth Maple Strawberry Salad recipe by Tamara Green

As a part of our Creatives in Residence series, Tamara Green, chef, instructor, and owner of Indigenesis, will be showing us how to cook with local, wild, and edible ingredients. As spring is a special season, especially from a foraging perspective, we’ll be following her journey from carefully harvesting the plants to gently preparing the final meal.

You might be wondering what we’re making. Well, Tamara shares that in most Indigenous cultures including the Ojibwe and Iroquois, June is the strawberry festival. What better way to celebrate than to make an amaranth maple strawberry salad?

Tamara will walk us through the process of foraging the ingredients in the forest with a particular focus on sustainability, demonstrating how to choose the ingredients in a way that encourages growth for both the plants, and the foraging community at large.

Before we start foraging, it’s important to be mindful about our attire. Check out Tamara’s safety tips, as well as the full recipe below:

Safety tips

1. Tie or cover long hair.
   • Prevents plants and branches from getting caught in your hair and breaking.
   • Prevents bugs from the branches from getting into your hair.
2. Wear rubber boots.
   • Most edible plants are grown in wet marshes.
   • Especially after rainfall, water levels are higher in marshes.
3. Wear long sleeves.
   • Prevents scratches from thorns and branches.
   • Prevents bug bites.
   • Prevents sunburns.
4. Wear bug repellant.

Recipe

Equipment

• 2 sauce pots
• 1 medium mixing bowl
• 2 small mixing bowls
• 1 tight sealing jar 
• 1 set of measuring cups
• 1 set of measuring spoons
• 1 Cutting board
• 1 paring knife
• 1 fork 

Ingredients

• Fryer oil 
• 4-6 strawberries 
• 6 bunches maple flowers 
• 2 handfuls baby amaranth leaves
• ⅛ cup candied black walnuts
• ¼ cup pure cranberry juice (or raspberry juice)
• ¼ cup amaranth flour
• ¼ cup oil (preferably walnut) for dressing 
• ¼ cup Maple syrup wine vinegar 
• ¼ cup grade A maple syrup
• ⅛ cup sunflower seed butter
  

Instructions

1. Pour the cranberry juice in a sauce pot and bring it to a boil.
2. Take the leaves off of the strawberries and thinly slice them. 
3. Pour cranberry juice over the strawberries.
4. Safely heat oil to 325 F (160C).
5. Fill one small bowl with maple syrup and another small bowl with amaranth flour.
6. Dip the flours into the syrup, and spin it around to remove the excess syrup.
7. Drag the maple flowers through the amaranth flour, until each flower is coated. Lightly shake off the excess flour. 
8. Fry the flowers in the oil for a couple of seconds, until it is golden brown.
9. In a jar, pour in oil, vinegar, maple syrup, and sunflower seed butter. 
10. Add salt to taste. 
11. Close the jar and shake. 
12. Trim amaranth leaves by pinching off the stem. 
13. Lightly coat leaves in dressing.
14. Layer with strawberries. 
15. Layer with candied walnuts.
16. Finish with fried maple flowers.

You can check out our full list of 2021 Creatives in Residence here.