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Sprouts R Us
December 21, 2009 |
Everything and the Kitchen Sink Salad
This type of thing is a regulation evening meal for us. Pull out assorted stuff from the fridge, freezer and pantry and call it a meal. Today’s lunch (last night’s dinner) has
shredded red cabbage
carrots
a pear
pistachios
peas
and two kinds of sprouts - sunflower seed sprouts and mung bean sprouts.
Tossed with mustard-maple dressing.
Everything’s raw except for the peas (the frozen type - thawed in the microwave). Sometimes, we add carbs like leftover brown rice, quinoa, croutons or crushed tortilla chips.
Serve with a mean margarita. Or two.
We recently heard that vegan food is “more than tofu and sprouts“. Really? How did we miss the memo? 
If you stand still in our kitchen, chances are you’ll be dumped in a jar and doused with water. That’s become easier since yesterday, when we made four sprouting jars.
We had one store-bought sprouting jar. (The big one with the green plastic and mesh lid). It cost $6 and we use it a lot. Highly recommended.
Our moms used the age-old jar with a muslin cloth/coffee filter tied around the rim method (See pic below). It works, but the mesh lid top is much more convenient. You can drain the sprouts simply by tilting the jar and add water without unscrewing the lid. No cloth to wash or wasted paper.
You can buy plastic sprouting jar strainer lids for mason jars at about $5 a pop. We converted regular mason jars into sprouting jars from things we already had around the home.
Total cost - $0.
MAKE A SPROUTING JAR
You need
mason jars with the inner lid and screw-on ring.
(These are used for canning and available in various sizes in the regular grocery store).
A food-grade stainless-steel/plastic mesh.
Cut up the mesh from a big metal strainer with tin snips to fit snugly inside the screw-on ring. With one wide strainer, we got enough mesh for four lids. Else, you can get tea strainers from the dollar store with a plastic mesh that cuts up with a scissor.
That’s it. You have a sprouting jar.
The regular strainer mesh works for most things, but if you have superfine grains like teff, just put a small piece of kitchen towel inside the mesh.
THREE REASONS TO GROW SPROUTS AT HOME.
I.
They’re good for you. See THIS POST for the health benefits of sprouting. And THIS.
II.
You can sprouts dozens of seeds, nuts and legumes you already have in your pantry. You get a much larger variety, plus it’s cheaper than store bought.
Any whole grain, seed or legume from alfa alfa to wheat berries is worth a shot. Vegetable seeds are wonderful too.
NOTE: Some beans and legumes are toxic if not thoroughly cooked - especially red kidney beans, cannellini beans (white kidney beans), broad beans and soybeans must be FULLY COOKED (boiled for at least 10 minutes). We do not bother sprouting these.
III.
Commercially sold sprouts have, more, often than not, been subjected to chemicals and gases, which defeats the purpose of consuming organic live foods. In winter, especially, when the range of veggies in the farmer’s market is limited, sprouts make meals so much ore nutritious and interesting.
HOW TO SPROUT
1. Rinse and soak the seed/legume/grain in plenty of water for 8-14 hours (depending on how large the seed is and you convenience). (Amaranth needs only 2 hours, buckwheat needs only 30 minutes).
Dry and Soaked
2. Drain and Keep covered in a warm dark place for 1 to 1.5 days. If you remember, rinse it with water once in between.
Check out this article.
The shorter the sprout, the tastier and more nutritious it is. I find that the longer the sprout grows, the more bitter it gets.
PSST …
If one of those nose-turner types peers into your lunchbox and asks you what you’re eating, don’t say “sprouts”. Say “biogenically enhanced seeds”.
Beans-(Dried), Cabbage, mung-bean, NUTRITION, Pear, Peas, Pistachio, Quinoa, sprouting jar, Sprouts, Sunflower Seeds, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
Beautiful pics !!! I just feel like grabbing those Moong beans… so I was reading your article the other day on vegetarianism ‘Shut up and eat your burger’ and realised how sometimes vegetarians can get preachy and get on people’s nerves…
I was at this Pre-christmas party yesterday evening and one gentlemen asks me, when I enquired as to what was vegetarian at the open house food table… ’so what do you vegetarians eat ? dont you get tired of having to eat such a limited variety of foods ?’ 
And he proceeded to be a pain in the neck for a bit of the evening, as to why fish are not a part of my meal or eggs and so on…
I just smiled as I remembered your post on this and tried to explain him a little bit about vegetarian food… or atleast I tried to… thank you guys for that wonderful article and making me be conscious as to how I react when some one enquires or criticizes about my food habits…
Happy Holidays to you both !
Mala
How is $0. You have to pay for the strainer.
these jars are such a great idea!! thanks!
Wonderful Post! Was using plastic jars so far, definitely have to switch to glass.
A quick question.
Green sprouts, nuts and seeds are usually sprouted and eaten raw. So we have live enzymes, live food.
Legumes have to be soaked for 12 hours (or more) before cooking. Brown rice when soaked overnight becomes much easier to digest.
You do cook the chickpeas once they are sprouted right?
So, how do we benefit from the live enzymes that sprouting produces?
And you guys probably know this already - but include sesame seeds and (freshly ground) flax seeds in your salad. Fresh coconut or thawed shredded coconut (raw) is an excellent source of essential minerals and good fats.
Always a legumes,fruits,nuts,coconut salad to start the day! I love them.
yes, we do steam chickpea sprouts. we have begun to enjoy the benefits of coconut quite recently (though we both grew up eating lots of it). we use extra virgin coconut oil (not the refined variety found in india) for our cooking. we also add it raw to our smoothies.
Now, that is a brilliant idea. will try.
very nice post on sprouting. I had never thought of sprouting buckwheat, amarnath or quinoa. I am curious particularly about buckwheat, how do you use it after sprouting? Also, is there any danger of over-sprouting these small grains like quinoa? Thanks for sharing! Nice clicks too btw.
use the sprouts raw or steamed. don’t know anything about over-sprouting.
Hey, great post. Could you tell where to find the sprouting jars in US..?
health food stores or online.
My salad, exactly the kind of lunch I like. Pears, pistachios and carrots.. yumm. Thanks for sharing the idea of homemade sprout jars. I have everything at hand and will soon do it. Love the sound of sunflower seed sprout and the amaranth and quinoa.
That salad is inspired. I always think the best salads are not the result of planning but rather of serendipity.
Great idea and nice repurpose of the strainer/canning jars. Will try this as soon as holiday foods disappear and we have room in the pantry again!
Mason jar to sprout jar–that is a good idea. Thanks for the DIY tip!
Hi Jai & Bee
I am trying to sprout moong beans. But when I soak them, it doesn’t absorb water evenly. I find some hard seeds at the bottom of the pan. Can you please tell me how to sort this?
Thanks,
Divya.r
Those home-made jars are brilliant! And if the parts can be sourced from, say, a second-hand shop- even better; Thanks!
You have me drooling over that salad and it’s not even 9am yet. Is it too early for salad?
[...] Sprouts R Us [...]
I am so glad that you guys are posting again. I have missed you.
Briliant!! What a wonderful idea to make you own sprouting jars. I have a method that works great for bigger beans and in large quantities [a colander which fits in a mixing bowl, covered with a plate] but that didn’t work for small seeds and beans and buying a sprouting jar was always a plan which hadn’t materialized. I’m going to make a couple of these today.
I had no idea about soaking buckwheat for 30 mins. I once soaked it for 9 hrs or so and it was a gloppy mess which I had to rinse a million times before sprouting.
I’m also going to print that what seed-how long to soak/sprout info and use that.
Thanks very much, Jai and Bee! You are such a wealth of info that you gladly share.
[...] I sprout the chickpeas (like this), sometimes I make it without potatoes, or add mushrooms or greens instead. See Chickpeas with [...]
[...] You can cook unsprouted quinoa in the microwave, but I haven’t tried it. I only try the microwave method with sprouted quinoa. First sprout 1 cup quinoa. (Like this.) [...]