Amaranth Greens substitute

Best substitute

Mature Bunched Spinach

Use the same amount by weight, stems included as the amaranth greens you are replacing

Best for Jamaican callaloo

Different texture

Mature bunched spinach is the closest widely available swap at 1:1 by weight, cooked two or three minutes longer than you would cook spinach on its own. Water spinach, sold as ong choy or kangkong, is the better match for a stir-fry because the hollow stems stay crisp the way amaranth stems do. Swiss chard works if you want more substance, and young collard or turnip greens will do in a long-simmered pot. All of these are milder or more bitter than amaranth rather than identical, so taste and adjust the salt.

Other amaranth greens substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Water Spinach (Ong Choy, Kangkong)
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Long hollow-stemmed green with arrow-shaped leaves, sold in Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino grocers.
What changes
Best for
garlic and fermented bean curd stir-fry, Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes, quick sautes, soups
The best swap for a stir-fry, and often sitting on the same market table. Amaranth's appeal in a wok is the contrast between silky leaves and stems that keep a slight snap, and water spinach reproduces exactly that because the hollow stems stay crunchy. The flavour is greener and cleaner, with none of amaranth's mild beetroot-like earthiness, and it does not bleed the pink colour that red amaranth does. Cut the stems into two-inch lengths and start them thirty seconds before the leaves.
3Swiss Chard
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Broad-leaved chard with thick coloured stems, in almost every supermarket year round.
What changes
Best for
callaloo, West African and Caribbean stews, braised greens, gratins and pies, Indian saag
The closest relative on this list, since chard, beetroot and amaranth all sit in the same plant family, and it shows in the flavour: earthy, faintly mineral, a little sweet. Chard is sturdier and more bitter than amaranth and its stems need three or four minutes head start. Red or rainbow chard bleeds colour into coconut milk and pale sauces, which is worth knowing but is also exactly what red amaranth does, so it can be an advantage. The best choice when you want greens that still have presence on the plate rather than collapsing.
4Young Collard or Turnip Greens
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, roughly double the cooking time
Tender small-leaf collards or turnip tops, shredded fine with the thick ribs cut out.
What changes
Best for
long-simmered stews, West African egusi and peanut stews, callaloo soup, greens with smoked meat
Sturdy and cheap, and genuinely good in anything that simmers for half an hour, at which point they go silky and sweeter. Not a match for a quick stir-fry: they stay chewy and taste distinctly of cabbage and sulphur, where amaranth is mild. Turnip greens add a peppery, mustardy bite that collards do not, so use them where you want that and use collards where you do not. Shred them thin and shave the central rib out, or they will read as a different vegetable entirely.
5Malabar Spinach or Beet Greens
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Thick glossy Malabar spinach from Asian and Indian grocers, or the leaf tops cut from a bunch of beetroot.
What changes
Best for
Indian and Sri Lankan curries, soups and dals, sauteed greens, callaloo
Two useful niche options. Malabar spinach has thicker, almost succulent leaves and turns slightly slippery when cooked, which is a plus in a soup and a minus in a dry stir-fry, and it tastes mild and faintly peppery. Beet greens are the closer flavour match of the two, being a near relation with the same sweet earthiness, and they cost nothing because you probably threw them away last time; they are more bitter than amaranth and stain everything a deep pink. Both cook in about the same time as amaranth.
6Mustard Greens
Taste and texture differ
Half the amount, made up with spinach
Peppery, assertive greens sold fresh in most supermarkets and as sarson ka saag in Indian shops.
What changes
Best for
long-cooked stews, Indian saag, greens with pork or smoked fish, soups with strong seasoning
The honest least-good option for a plain dish, and worth explaining why: amaranth's whole character is mildness, and mustard greens are the opposite, sharply peppery with a horseradish bite that dominates anything delicate. Used as half the volume with spinach making up the rest, they work well in a heavily seasoned stew where that pungency reads as complexity. Straight, at full volume, in a garlic stir-fry or a simple steamed callaloo, they turn the dish into something else. Long cooking tames them considerably.

What is Amaranth Greens?

Amaranth Greens is the market name for the tender leaves and stems of the amaranth plant, which turn up under a different name in almost every cuisine that uses them: callaloo bush in Jamaica, Chinese spinach or een choy in Chinese shops, bhaji or chaulai in Indian ones, and African spinach or terere in West and East African markets.

Cooking tips

Sort the stems by thickness rather than trimming them all off. The upper stems are tender, faintly sweet and the best part of the vegetable; the lower stems, anything thicker than a pencil, are woody and should go. This one step is the difference between amaranth that eats well and amaranth full of strings.
Red amaranth bleeds, and that is normal. The red or purple-leaved varieties release a deep magenta pigment that will turn rice, coconut milk or a pale sauce pink-grey. In Chinese cooking that pink stain on the rice is the point. If you want to keep a dish pale, buy the green variety or cook the red one separately.
It cooks fast and shrinks hard. A pound of raw amaranth is about a cup and a half cooked, and the leaves wilt in ninety seconds to two minutes. Get the garlic, ginger or onion going first, then add the stems, then the leaves, and take the pan off the heat while it still looks slightly underdone.
Wash it in a lot of standing water, twice. Amaranth is grown low and close to the soil and grit hides in the leaf crinkles. Dunk it, lift it out, tip the gritty water away and repeat rather than rinsing under a tap, which pushes the sand back in.
The same bunch answers to five names, so shop widely. If your supermarket has none, look for Chinese spinach or een choy in a Chinese grocer, bhaji or chaulai in an Indian one, callaloo bush in a Caribbean one, or African spinach in a West African one. It is usually cheaper than spinach and sold in enormous bunches.
Amaranth greens are mild, so they take salt and fat well and need seasoning with confidence. Whatever the cuisine, a good amount of oil, plenty of garlic and proper salting are what make them taste like something rather than like wet leaves.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave amaranth greens out?

If they are one vegetable among several in a stew or soup, yes, and the dish will simply have less green in it. If they are the dish, as in a garlic stir-fry of Chinese spinach, a bhaji or Jamaican callaloo, then no, and mature spinach is the swap to reach for. Bear in mind that greens also add bulk and a little body to a stew, so dropping them leaves the pot thinner as well as plainer.

Are amaranth greens the same as callaloo?

In Jamaica, yes: Jamaican callaloo is amaranth, and the plant is called callaloo bush. In Trinidad, Guyana and much of the Eastern Caribbean, callaloo means taro or dasheen leaf and the soup made from it, which is a different plant. So a bunch of Chinese spinach from an Asian grocer is exactly right for Jamaican callaloo and only an approximation for Trinidadian callaloo soup, where you would want to add a few okra for body.

What do amaranth greens taste like?

Mild, mineral and slightly sweet, close to mature spinach but with less of the chalky, tooth-coating quality, and with a faint earthiness that reveals its family relationship to beetroot and chard. The tender stems taste sweeter than the leaves. The red variety tastes essentially the same as the green one, it just stains.

Can I use spinach instead of amaranth greens?

Yes, and it is what most people do. Use mature bunched spinach rather than baby leaf, keep the stems, match it by weight, and cook it a couple of minutes longer. Buy about a third more than the recipe says, because spinach loses more water and shrinks further. In a stir-fry, water spinach is a better choice because it keeps the crisp-stem contrast that amaranth is prized for.

Do I need to cook amaranth greens, or can I eat them raw?

Cook them. Young leaves are edible raw in small quantities but they are noticeably astringent, and like spinach and chard they contain oxalates that cooking reduces. Every traditional use, from Chinese stir-fries to Indian bhaji to Jamaican callaloo, cooks them, which also improves the flavour considerably. Two minutes in a hot pan is enough.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Amaranth Greens substitute

Other amaranth greens substitutes

2Water Spinach (Ong Choy, Kangkong)

3Swiss Chard

4Young Collard or Turnip Greens

5Malabar Spinach or Beet Greens

6Mustard Greens