Love Them Sprouts
From elgourmand 12 years ago
- 3 Days to make
- Serves Lots
Most of us here at GR use sprouts now and then. So, you stop by the market and grab a basket of sprouts; why not? Here in Samoa you don’t do that because there ain’t no sprouts to grab. It’s DIY or not at all. Read more Howsomever, I was visiting the Land of Oz a while back, better known as Southern California, and I happened by a great looking salad bar. Amongst the delicacies I heaped on my plate was a good sized mound of bean sprouts. Agro business strikes again. The sprouts & the tomatoes, along with several other things, simply had no flavour. Mind you, this was a pretty up market sort of joint and I was disappointed. Okay, so your local green grocer or Supermarket, etc. has nothing but the best and freshest veggies on the planet. I hope so. Still, someone has to sprout them and then package them and then they get trucked to the store and then they wait to go on the shelf and they will last a few days so economics says they will and then you get them. With the DIY system, if I have a sprout that’s three days old I know it’s past its prime. The kickers here are that it’s cheap and easy as can be to sprout your own. I do reckon you will notice the difference in taste. See less
Ingredients
- • A bag of beans. I prefer mung beans or Black lentils but you can sprout most beans and Alfalfa and wheat and barley, etc. mung beans & Black lentils are easy and taste the same so I’ll just deal with those. A 1lb (500g) bag of mung beans or Black lentils usually runs about $2.00. shopping list
- • A sprouter. These come in all sorts of shapes & sizes. You can use store bought or homemade and a big one or a small one. Mine are store bought and measure about 6” (15cm) in diameter by 3” (7.5cm) deep but I have sprouted beans in a large mayo jar with the mouth covered with cheese cloth. The sprouts need to breath. water. shopping list
- • A cool, dark place. A kitchen cupboard works just fine. shopping list
- • Medium bowl, for soaking. shopping list
- • 3 to 5 days, depending on temperature, humidity & light. The higher the temperature and the more light that reaches the sprouts the faster they will grow. shopping list
- • A large bowl, for de-hulling. shopping list
How to make it
- 1. Soak 1Tbs of beans in water for 8 - 12 hours, or so See Photo. I soak the beans in the sprouter setting in a bowl of water but you can soak them separately and then put them in the sprouter. You will be surprised at the quantity of sprouts you get from a Tbs of beans.
- 2. Rinse the beans and drain them well. Set the sprouter in a pan or bowl and place them in the cupboard.
- 3. Rinse & drain them twice a day. Make sure the sprouts don’t set in standing water between rinses or they will spoil.
- 4. When the sprouts are ready, fill a large bowl with water, dump in the sprouts and agitate vigorously with your hands See Photo. This will help separate the hulls from the sprouts. A bit of practice here makes it really easy.
- 5. Clean the sprouts, removing all the hulls. The hulls are bitter and you really need to get rid of them.
- 6. When the sprouts are clean, drain well in a colander.
- 7. I keep my sprouts in the fridge in an airtight container with a 3M pad on the bottom. The pad keeps the sprouts from sitting in water and getting soggy. The pad isn’t necessary but it helps.
- 8. Enjoy as soon and as much as you like.
- I have two sprouters and pretty much start one every two or three days See Photo. This means there are always fresh sprouts. If a few get a bit past their prime I give them to the ducks. At a few cents, rather than a few bucks, a batch it really doesn’t matter. See Photo
- Before you run out and spend a lot of money on this, try a homemade sprouter, like the last photo.
Beans soaking
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My sprouter
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Rinsing the sprouts
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Homemade sprouter
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Starting Sprouts
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