Hello my beautiful friends! I am so excited to share with you this blog post on sprouting.
Sprouting is really quick and easy to do! Anyone can sprout! It is super affordable and you need very little equipment – just a jar or a sprouting tray. You can even do it in a fine mesh strainer!
You can sprout seeds, or grains! There is such a huge variety in each category, your options are endless.
The nutritional value of seeds is increased when you sprout them, and because sprouting releases enzyme inhibitors, it also helps make your digestion process easier.
You don’t need sunlight to grow sprouts, so they are amazing to grow ANY TIME of the year! They can be grown anywhere, and are especially great during winter when less fresh food may be available.
There is more interest now than ever to grow one’s own food and to practice more sustainability.
I’m so happy to share with you what I’ve been sprouting at home and my personal tips!
I’m going to take you through the sprouting process in this post, and we are going to have a little fun!
DAY 1
You will need a sprouting tray or jar or fine mesh strainer.
Other than a jar or sprouting tray, you will need to get some high quality seeds! The quality of your seeds matters so much. Try to get organic, NON-GMO seeds.
A great place to get them is from True Leaf Market!
the 12 pound pack is an amazing variety for beginners to sprouting.
This set can last you for up to a YEAR!
That breaks down to 25 cents a day for 1 cup of grown sprouts! This is a HUGE savings considering you can pay up to $5 at the grocery for a container of sprouts!
I did the math on this 12 pound seed set and each bag will yield about 8 half cup servings of seeds. Half a cup of seeds will yield approximately 4 cups of grown sprouts…at a minimum!!!
This means that you will get approximately 32 cups of fully grown sprouts per each pound bag.
That’s 384 cups of sprouts total, which is enough to feed you at least one cup of sprouts for an entire year!
One cup of sprouts provides your body with:
- Protein (17 amino acids)
- Magnesium
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B-6
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin K
- Folate
- Phosphorus
- Fiber
- Zinc
- Copper
- Selenium
- and more!
I’m going to teach you how I sprout three kinds of seeds from beginning to end:
- Protein pack with mung beans and garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
- Lentils
- Broccoli seeds
In a half-gallon jar add in a half cup of each of the seeds that you want to sprout.
After the seeds are in the jar, fill up each jar with 3 cups of purified/distilled water and then screw on the lid. Purified/distilled water is really important here because the sprouts are soaking it up, so you don’t want to use non-filtered water.
The lid I use has a sieve on it, which allows water and air to come through. If you don’t have one of these you can always use a cheesecloth and a rubber band. You can also use the top of a regular strainer.
Let these soak overnight for about 12 hours away from the direct sunlight, and we will check on them tomorrow.
If you are using a fine mesh strainer, Day one you can simply soak the seeds/lentils in a big bowl of distilled water overnight.
DAY 2
So the seeds/lentils have been soaking overnight, and as you can see they have soaked up quite a bit of water. All you need to do today is drain and rinse them – do this once in the morning and once in the evening – so rinse and drain them twice a day.
Once they are rinsed and drained, you can lay them on your counter (I like to lay my jar sideways) and get on with the rest of your day.
In strainer: strain the water and leave seeds/lentils in strainer. Water them 2 times per day.
DAY 3
Look at the difference between day two and day three! As you can see the seeds have sprouted significantly – they’ve grown tails!
You will follow the same process that you did yesterday, rinsing twice and draining twice a day. The only difference you will do today is to be sure to mix the seeds around a bit so they don’t clump together, and make sure they are well rinsed.
Same for strainer. Your sprouts will be ready today!
DAY 4
Typically your sprouts should be ready by day 4 – hooray! As you can see from your jar, they will have expanded significantly.
The seeds went from half a cup to nearly filling up a half a gallon jar! You can see how much they have sprouted – isn’t it fantastic?
Fill a bowl up with water to wash and separate the seeds that sprouted from the ones that didn’t.
The ones that haven’t sprouted will usually float to the top, as will their shells. You can drain the bowl from there and try to get those seeds to sprout again.
Strain all the sprouts into a sieve and then spread out on a sheet. You can then place them into a container lined with a cloth or paper towel.
They are now ready to eat and can last in the fridge for 3-7 days!
