cerealjoe | Sprouting - a guide to the cheap and easy way out! (Reply)

So you've been thinking about sprouting things but it's always seemed too complicated, too expensive, etc.? I'm here to prove that sprouting is easy and if you have an old tupperware box and a tea towel, you're all set! No need for fancy equipment, no need for anything. In a day or two you can have yourself some awesome sprouted food.

I call this "Gali's sprouting guide" with the subtitle "I actually learnt this by doing and applying some basic biology and gardening skills" and it comes with the disclaimer "I'm not a specialist, it works for me, probably it will work for you but I can't guarantee anything. Also I have a rather strong stomach and digestive system when it comes to raw fruits and veggies so I've never had any problems but that's not the case of everyone, start with small quantities just to test everything."

Or I could call it "Gali's sprouting hacks using the following equipment:"

You know that thing I said about an old tupperware and a tea towel, that's absolutely correct and the photo above presents the actual stuff I use, I've added a smaller tupperware box for soaking and a colander with tiny holes for the washing. And that's about it.

What can you sprout? Go online and look for things to sprout, you can sprout anything that comes in a seed form and hasn't been altered too much, basically. The easiest and fastest thing to sprout for me is by far quinoa, lentils are a close second. I buy store brand organic quinoa, the lentils, one set is organic tiny green ones and one set is made up of some old lentils that have been around the house for years (and they still sprout amazingly well). Then you have wheat and millet although they take longer to sprout and therefore are more prone to rotting a bit.

If you've got some extra money and aren't too sure if this whole sprouting business is for you, you can go buy some special sprouting seeds from those stores like Nature Et Découverte. I haven't tried them but I suppose they must work also.

Now we've got the basics down, let's get to the sprouting.

Step 1: cleaning and soaking.
Take your seeds and clean them a tiny bit. I just put them in my little tupperware box, pour water on them and drain it a few times. Cover them in water, they'll expand so make sure you put enough, probably two or three times the volume of the seeds.

Leave the seeds to soak overnight (12 hours seems like a good time for most seeds, for quinoa you're fine with just 1 or 2 hours but then the sprouting takes more time).

[sorry no photo because all of my current sprouting is past this stage]

Step 2: sprouting.
Prepare the sprouting "tray" - make sure the tea towel is clean and wet it under the tap. I like it when it's well wet but not dripping, makes things easier to handle. Take the large tupperware box and put the towel inside, most likely the towel will be too big but that's good.

Now wash the soaked seeds (the fine mesh colander comes in handy here) with some running water, not too hot though! Once well washed, pour the seeds onto the towel in the tupperware and spread them about evenly.

If your tea towel is large enough you'll have enough of it to cover over the seeds. If not, just take another towel, wet it and put it over the seeds. For info, in the first photo the red towel is covering some seeds.

Make sure that everything is wet but you don't want to have too much water at the bottom of the box. Put the box somewhere out of direct sunlight and check every 12 hours or so (morning and night) to see if the towel is still wet (sprinkle some water on top if needed) and how the sprouting is going. Once you start seeing a tiny sprout coming out of the seeds, you've succeeded (in the case of quinoa, you should get really decent sprouts overnight). Try your sprouts to see the taste, once the sprouts grow a bit they might taste a bit different but I wouldn't keep them growing too long though.

Example of the first signs of sprouting.

To make sure that nothing rots, rinse the seeds/sprouts, towel and box at least every single day. No need for soap but it's best to make sure everything is fresh.

*cry* what happens if the seeds don't sprout, even after three days?*cry* It happens, sometimes the seeds are just too dry, they've been too altered (it's amazing just how many things we think are not processed actually are), etc. Sometimes it happens that only one seed out of a hundred will sprout. In that case it's best just to throw everything out and give it another go with another brand.

Step 3: storing/cleaning up.
Once the sprouts are the length you want them to be, rinse them a final time, drain them off and they can be stored in a box in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Once the sprouting is done, I like to put my tea towel in a pot of boiling water and then let it dry completely. If you're doing your laundry often, then just throw it in there. Better safe than sorry, make sure that your towel doesn't get a chance to rot!

Note: it's best to use an old tea towel, or at least one that can be ruined because some stuff like dark green lentils will dye the towel!

Step 4: eating.
Sprouts can be eaten as a staple, in salads, added to smoothies, etc. You can use them in non-raw foods too! We live in an amazing age where we have endless quantities of information available to us so use that search engine.

Still, a few warnings, before digging into a salad bowl full of some sprouts make sure the taste isn't too strong, some things like mustard sprouts are best added in a limited quantity (unless you like strong tastes, then eat away). Also some peeps have difficulty digesting large quantities of legumes, try a tiny bit of lentil sprouts at first.

Some examples of last week's sprouts:

In a lunchbox.

Endive/avocado/quinoa salad.

Asparagus/avocado/endive/cucumber/double lentil salad.

That's it for the basic sprouting guide! Go out there and try it, let me know if you succeed, if you find more efficient ways of doing stuff, etc. I find it always interesting to compare notes.

Also, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. It all makes sense in my head but I do know that my head sometimes thinks in strange ways.

And please look forward to update on this as now I've taken to planting some of my sprouts to have real plants. Not that I actually plan on eating the full plants or growing them for crops but I think Linda the Bunny will highly appreciate the extra greens, not that they could possibly be tastier than fresh flowers, nothing seems to taste better than flowers eaten right off the flower beds.