Amaranth flour is used as a thickener for sauces and gravies. You can also use it in baking unleavened flatbread, biscuits, muffins, and other quick bread batters. You can substitute wheat flour with amaranth flour on a 1:1 ratio.
If amaranth is not available, you can replace it with any or a combination of the following
- Almond Flour
- Walnut Flour
- Hazelnut Flour
- Cashew Flour
- Coconut Flour
- Chia Seeds Flour
- Chickpea Flour
- Soy Flour
- Cassava Flour
Chill if you are still unable to find any alternatives from the above. We have a long list below.
But first, let us dig in on why this flour is so popular for health-conscious people.
17 Best Substitute For Amaranth Flour
Amaranth flour comes from the ground seeds of the amaranth plant. Although amaranth flour is not a grain like other flours, the seeds yield a grain-like flour that is earthy, grassy, and nutty.
Amaranth flour is dense, high in protein, but gluten-free.
What is meant by gluten-free?
Gluten is a group of prolamin proteins endemic to grains like rye, barley, and wheat. Different grains carry different gluten types. Gluten is found in a variety of processed and whole foods.
It functions as a binder and stabilizer for foods. In bread, for example, it helps trap gas, allowing bread to rise and retain its moisture.
However, consuming foods with gluten can trigger an auto-immune disease called celiac disease. Celiac disease can result in the malabsorption of needed nutrients.
Some of the Best Amaranth Flour Substitutes include almond flour, nut flours and non-grain flours.
Here is the list of best replacements if you do not have amaranth flour but may not be suitable if you have an allergy to nuts.
Nut flours are not just vegan but are naturally gluten-free and dense. No need to look for gluten-free grain flour, use nut flour instead. Nut flour is best combined with other flour such as almond flour or white rice flour to get the best result.
Almond Flour
Almond flour is made from blanched almonds ground into fine powder. It has a nutty, sweet taste, and the batter is thicker, giving you a denser baked bread.
Almond flour is the most common substitute for high-carb flour and keto diet recipes. You don’t need to combine almond flour with other gluten-free flour to make your bread. About 4.2 oz. of amaranth flour is equivalent to about 3.95 oz. of almond flour.
Walnut Flour
Next to Almond flour, walnut flour is probably the second-best alternative for amaranth flour. Walnuts undergo a pressing process to extract their natural oil.
The remnants after the oil extraction, which includes the skin, are ground into powder to make the walnut flour.
Because of its skin, walnut flour is fibrous and coarse in texture. The color of the powder is brown and has a deep nutty flavor with notes of bitterness.
These properties of walnut flour can affect the taste of your bread, making it necessary to combine walnut flour with other gluten-free flour.
Hazelnut Flour
Hazelnut is not just for Nutella. You can also grind dry roasted hazelnut into fine powder to make hazelnut flour. When making your own hazelnut flour, add a few sweetener granules to keep it from getting creamy or too buttery.
It has a nutty, sweet, and buttery taste that goes well with your dessert and baked goods. Using hazelnut flour will leave your bread with a rich, buttery flavor.
Cashew Flour
Cashew flour is, of course, made of dry roasted cashews ground into fine powder. Although some use cashew meal, which has a coarser texture, ground powder cashew is more suited for baking.
Ground your cashew in a food processor without turning it into cashew butter.
Cashew flour will leave your bread with a creamy, nutty, slightly sweet taste and an almost savory, rich aroma.
The Best Amaranth Flour Substitutes Using Non-Grain Flour
If you have an allergy to peanuts or are vegan, you can try these gluten-free and vegan flour.
Coconut Flour
Coconut flour is dried coconut meat ground into fine powder. Essentially, the coconut meat comes from the remains used in producing coconut milk.
Like amaranth flour, it is dense (even denser) and gluten-free. Coconut flour is used for different baking purposes, but coconut flour should be combined with other non-gluten grain flour. As a rule of thumb, substitute 20% of your grain flour.
Coconut flour has a distinct coconut-like aroma and flavor.
Chia Seeds Flour
Chia seeds flour is made from dried chia seeds ground into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or food processor. You can use chia seed flour as a replacement on a 1:1 ratio.
It is advisable to use a smaller pan and increase baking time by 5% if baking with chia seed flour.
Chickpea Flour
Chickpea flour is made from ground chickpeas crushed into a powder similar to millet. It is gluten-free, dense, and rich in protein. Chickpea flour has a dry, bland taste, and flavors depend on the other ingredients included in the recipe.
Chickpea flour is used as a thickener for sauces or to make flatbreads. It can also be combined with other gluten-free grain flours for making cookies, muffins, and quickbreads.
Soy Flour
Soy flour is made from roasted soybeans ground into powder. It is rich in fat, protein, and is gluten-free. Storage is an integral part of soy flour due to its fat content. Keep the flour tightly wrapped and if using full-fat soy, keep it refrigerated.
Soy flour boosts the protein level of baked goods. Using the 1:1 ratio of amaranth flour on wheat flour, substitute amaranth flour with 25% to 30% soy flour against the total volume of wheat flour. For yeast-raised bread, substitute with no more than 15% of the flour required by the recipe.
Cassava Flour
The cassava roots are washed, peeled, soaked, and fermented until soft. Once softened, they are pressed and drained and then cut into slices. They are dried and then milled to make the cassava flour.
Even if they come from the same root, cassava flour is not the same as tapioca flour. Cassava flour has a subtle nutty flavor and a white, powdery texture that is dense and gluten-free.
Cassava flour is gluten-free, dense, and has similar characteristics to all-purpose flour and wheat flour, making it an excellent substitute for amaranth flour.
Cassava flour is also an excellent ingredient for those living a nut-free, gluten-free, soy-free, vegan, and grain-free lifestyle.
Buckwheat flour
Buckwheat flour is made from the milled fruit of the buckwheat plant. It has a high nutritional value, nutty flavor, and is gluten-free.
You can use buckwheat for pancakes, waffles, cookies, muffins, and bread. Since buckwheat is 100% gluten-free, you need to mix it with other grain gluten-free flour by adding 50% buckwheat flour to your total gluten-free flour mix.
The Best Amaranth Flour Substitutes for Bread Using Grain Flours
You don’t need to avoid grains. You can substitute amaranth flour with other naturally gluten-free grains.
Sorghum Flour
Sorghum flour is made from finely ground whole grain kernels of sorghum, considered the 5th most important cereal crop worldwide.[Source]
Sorghum flour has a beige color with a sweet, mild flavor. It gives a light vanilla scent flavor and soft texture to baked goods.
However, like most gluten-free flour, you need to combine it with other starchy gluten-free flour to achieve the best results.
Quinoa Flour
Quinoa is a pseudo-cereal, which classifies it as wholegrain. Pseudo-cereal is a plant that produces fruits and seeds similar to grain and used as a grain. Amaranth flour is a pseudo-cereal.
Dry roast raw quinoa seeds until they pop and turn brown. Let it cool before grinding it into a fine powder. Quinoa gives off a nutty, sweet flavor but has a bitter taste after cooking.
Quinoa is an excellent flour to bake gluten-free bread because of its high protein content. The protein (not gluten) content in quinoa flour can improve the overall texture of the bread and give it some structure.
Millet Flour
Millet is a cereal grain from the grass family cultivated for thousands of years. The grain of the millet is ground into powder to produce the millet flour.
Millet is similar to wheat in appearance but 100% gluten and nutrition-dense. It has a slightly nutty, sweet flavor that lends a good crumb to cookies.
However, it is best to combine it with other gluten-free flour for making bread and other baked goods.
Teff Flour
Teff belongs to the grass family and is native to Ethiopia. Because of its small size, teff is usually eaten like whole grain or milled into powder to make gluten-free flour.
Teff is often used to make the traditional sourdough flatbread of Ethiopia. Teff flour is expensive compared to other gluten-free flour. Like other gluten-free substitutes, use teff with starchy, gluten-free flour to make bread.
To substitute, you can use teff alone to make flatbread, but for other bread, use 25% of teff with gluten-free flour mixes.
Rice Flour
You can use either white rice flour or brown rice flour as substitutes for amaranth flour. Although both are made from rice, they each have distinct properties that you need to consider when using them.
Brown rice flour is made from ground unhulled rice kernels. It is gluten-free, dense, has high fiber content, and gives a deep, nutty, earthy taste.
White rice flour comes from ground hulled rice kernel. It has a neutral, bland taste but has longer shelf life compared to brown rice flour.
Rice flour is no different from other gluten-free flour; bread recipes will not rise. You can get a better chance if you make the loaf smaller than its regular size. White rice flour also works better because it is lighter.
You can also combine 50% brown rice flour with your gluten-free flour mix.
Oat Flour
Oat flour is whole grain oats ground into powder. It is rich in fiber and 100% gluten-free.
There is a need for careful handling of oats. It is usually planted alongside wheat, so cross-contamination can occur and affect the gluten content.
It works well with muffins, cookies, granola, crusts, fruit crisps, and bread. Substitute up to 20% of oat flour in your gluten-free flour mixes.
Corn Flour
Corn flour is made from finely ground whole corn kernels. It has a sweet, earthy taste similar to corn and is naturally a gluten-free cereal grain.
You can use corn flour to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits, pastries, and bread.
However, since it is gluten-free, it is best combined with other starchy, gluten-free flour to avoid a crumbly, denser bread.