Zani’s Amaranth Quesadillas at Growing Gardens

As a part of the work we do with the Pacific Northwest CSA Coalition to promote Community Supported Agriculture, this year we are offering free cooking classes to help bridge the gap between local farms with financially accessible CSA programs and low-income or low-access communities. This year we partnered with community organizations, co-instructors, and local farmers to bring this free cooking class series to life.

In this class, we joined families at Growing Gardens’ annual Community CSA Celebration on Sauvie’s Island and sampled fresh made Amaranth Quesadillas. Growing Gardens works with many farms to provide free CSA boxes to families in North Portland. Today the event was hosted right by Happiness Family Farm’s fields where we sourced all of our produce.

Together with my very good friend and co-instructor, Zani Refugio, we learned how to work with amaranth greens and made Amaranth Quesadillas. Amaranth greens are eaten throughout Mexico, but there are different varieties from all over the world. Happiness Family Farm grows a variety from Burundi, but it cooks down just the same.

Our quesadillas were made with masa from Three Sisters Nixtamal and served with sauteed peppers, onions, and a delicious salsa featuring peppers that Zani grew out this year from seed that her family sent her from Guerrero, Mexico.