Skip to content

Here's one of the easiest superfoods to grow at home

In this week's Ask the Nutritionist, Nonie De Long highlights the benefits of sprouts and microgreens and how to grow them yourself
Green Sprouts

Dear Readers, this week’s question comes from Tim who reached out to ask me to identify the easiest plants to grow indoors. Next week I’ll talk about a second easy crop you can grow indoors at home, but this week I’ll share what is hands down the absolute easiest and one of the healthiest, too! 

I’m talking about sprouts. They are super easy to grow with minimal equipment, fast to yield edible food, and highly nutritious. Let’s discuss each and why you want to grow these for yourself!

Sprouts

Some of my favourite foods are topped with these incredible little bursts of flavour! If you haven’t tried sprouts you’re missing out! Why? They’re incredibly nutritious for their size, very flavourful, pack a nice crisp crunch, and blend well into many dishes. Although they’re tiny, they’re a great source of protein, minerals our diets are lacking in, vitamins, and digestive enzymes, and are as rich in vitamin C as citrus fruits. They’re actually considered a complete food in terms of their nutrient content, so adding them to a meal takes the nutrition up a notch very easily! 

Bean sprouts have a very long history and are a staple in almost all Asian cuisine. In 1282 BC the Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung recorded his success growing mung beans. Don’t recognize the name of them? If you’ve ever eaten chow mein, you’ve tried mung bean sprouts! 

Vegetarians and raw foodists will also come across them in their cookbooks. This is because they’re considered a complete protein that’s easy to digest. How are they easier to digest than typical grains and nuts? Well you may recall, natural grains, legumes and nuts can contain antinutrients to protect the seed. Essentially, these antinutrients impede digestion to help seeds withstand threats like being eaten before germinating. As a result, if eaten these components can - and often do - give us digestive distress. But when we take that seed from raw grains, beans, legumes, and nuts and soak them as spring naturally would, they start to ferment during germination. This process breaks down the proteins and sugars locked in the seed to use for energy to fuel growth. In germinating the seed, the nutrients that were locked in it become bioavailable and the sprout that forms is highly nutrient dense and even contains probiotics. This process makes the sprouts much easier to digest than the seeds / nuts / grains would be raw. In fact, some people who are sensitive to gluten are just fine with sprouted wheat and gluten containing grains.

Additionally, sprouts are super easy to grow at home because they don’t require a soil or potting medium, any fertilizers, or even much light! If you have water and a glass jar, you can easily grow these right beside your kitchen sink.

Still not sure what they are? Sprouts are those tiny little shoots that come out of a seed just when it starts to grow. They are prized because the sprout holds a much more concentrated dose of the nutrients the mature plant will later hold - sometimes up to 40x more! Have you ever seen those tiny boxes of tendril-like sprouts at the grocery store, usually near the greens or herbs? Stores today usually offer broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, radish sprouts, and mung bean sprouts - but these are usually in a bulk vegetable bin because they need open air. There are a host of other sprouts we can grow and consume, although these are the most popular. “But don’t all seeds sprout?” you might ask. It’s true, they do, but only some are edible. 

Here’s a list of sprouts that are considered safe to consume:

  • Various bean sprouts and whole lentil sprouts
  • Various grain sprouts - all grains can be sprouted to eat if they’re raw 
  • Some vegetable sprouts like red clover, broccoli, alfalfa, onion, mustard, peas, sunflower

Some nuts can also be sprouted, but they don’t sprout like these others do with green tendrils growing from them. When people refer to sprouted nuts they actually mean germinated nuts - those that have been soaked. A sign of this is the nut often starts to grow a little nib on the end. It does not form into anything more, and should be rinsed and eaten at that point. The process of germination has made the nutrients in the nut much easier for us to digest.

Also unique to sprouts is that they need to be harvested early and consumed quickly. If not consumed quickly - in a few days - or not rinsed properly for storage they can start to rot and develop salmonella, although this is much more common with items that have been too long on store shelves or contaminated in the commercial process. 

Sprouts have various flavour profiles, depending on which one you use. Mung bean sprouts are slightly sweet and very crisp. Sprouted almonds are softer than dried almonds and again, sweeter. Mustard sprouts are spicy. Broccoli sprouts have a mild, radishy taste. You can experiment to find which one you enjoy the most. 

Usually sprouts are added to salads, appetizers, and sandwiches or wraps. They are added on top or tossed in, and cooked in a variety of ways like in chow mein or egg rolls. Sprouts are highly versatile! 

Some bakeries use sprouted grains that have been dehydrated for breads. This is ancient and can be found in the book of Ezekiel in the Bible. It’s a way to better preserve the nutrients of the grain while releasing the anti-nutrients. Some protein powders also feature sprouted grains that have been dehydrated and milled into flours. 

Sprouts are very easy to grow at home and create a quick crop, mung beans being the fastest. There are specific jars and trays for sprouting but they aren’t necessary. You can get started today with some simple things from around your home. What you will need to get started are:

  • Dried mung beans
  • Fresh water
  • A glass jar with a ring lid
  • A mesh covering, such as jay cloth, cheese cloth, screening, a lid with multiple small holes in it, or a sprouting jar lid. Make sure you have the ring or an elastic to hold it on.
  • A mesh strainer, preferably fine wire

DIY Sprouts at Home

  • Take your desired amount of mung beans and rinse them very well in the strainer, picking out any little rocks or damaged beans. It’s best to get beans that are good quality from a reputable source if you’re going to make a lot but to start out you can use any mung beans you find in the grocery stores. 
  • Place them in the clean jar standing upright - filling up to ¼ of the jar - with double the amount of water to submerge them. Cover them with the mesh lid and ring or elastic to hold it in place.
  • Leave them to soak for 8-12 hours at room temperature. I generally leave them overnight.
  • Drain them through the lid, then rinse them a few times, draining after each time with running cool water. The last time, drain well. 
  • Leave the jar in a cool place, upright or on its side. Light is not necessary, so a dark corner of your counter is fine. 
  • Repeat the rinsing morning and night for 2-3 days. When the beans have fully sprouted ½ inch white tails they are ready to eat. You can allow them to continue until the tails are longer or eat them right away.
  • When you’re ready to harvest them, rinse and drain them well, then dry them on a paper towel. They can be stored in a ziplock bag or sealed glass container in the fridge. 
  • Consume within a week, either raw or cooked. 

Get good at these simple sprouts, then branch out to try other varieties! Tune in next week to learn all about the second easiest food to grow at home - microgreens. If you’d like to win a cute little sprouting lid, be sure to go to my website to sign up for my newsletter this week. The winner will be drawn from those who sign up this week. It’s also the last week to sign up to receive notices about my sensational soups class, which starts next week. If you’re interested in learning to master a healthy soup each week live with me get your name on the list by signing up at hopenotdope.ca. 

Thanks to Tim for the great question. I hope you’re empowered to start sprouting at home now!  As always, readers can send their questions to be featured in the column to [email protected]

Namaste!
Nonie Nutritionista



Comments