Friday, December 5, 2008

Growing Your Own Sprouts



My latest project is growing my own sprouts. It's actually quite easy, and I'm excited with how they've been coming out.

I started with just mung beans. Here's how to do it:

Put 1/3 cup of dry mung beans in a ceramic bowl or a mason jar with at least 1 1/3 cups purified water, covered (I used a clean dishtowel, most people use cheesecloth), and leave it overnight in a dark place. Drain the water & rinse the sprouts and re-cover them. Rinse them every 8-12 hours (I usually just did 12, sometimes 24 - oops!) until they grow to a length you like. It generally takes about 5 days for me to declare my sprouts "done".

Some people grow their sprouts in a colander to ensure that there isn't excessive moisture.

I now grow a combination of mung & adzuki beans; that's what you see here (I should stop taking pictures with my phone - it's a little blurry!):


I know you can also use lentils and various seeds. I stick with beans because of their fiber & protein content, though I may try buckwheat next.

There are lots of complicated explanations on growing sprouts on-line. My head spins when I read them. This simple method has worked for me.

3 comments:

ElephantKisses said...

What are the benefits of eating sprouts vs. just eating the bean as is?

Brenna Kate Simonds, Living Unveiled said...

Eating sprouts is like eating a live, growing plant. Most beans can be sprouted & eaten raw, but it's worth noting that kidney beans are the exception to that. They have some weird toxin that only gets killed at 180 degrees.

Brenna Kate Simonds, Living Unveiled said...

Also, when you cooked beans, or anything for that matter, it kills all the enzymes.