Spring Sprouts

This time of year I get itchy to get in the garden and grow things, and I get a hankering for something fresh and green to eat. I haven’t started seeds for a few years now, but this is my year! And when I ordered my garden seeds, I included an order for sprouting seeds. Sprouts give me my early growing fix, and something fresh and green and healthy to eat.

I have a 3-tray sprouter so I started mung bean, alfalfa and broccoli sprouts. You can sanitize the seeds if you like by soaking them in a 1:9 solution of bleach:water for 40 minutes. Then drain and rinse and soak in plain water overnight. Drain again and dump the seeds into the trays. I used 2 Tablespoons of the mung bean seeds, and 1 Tablespoon each of the alfalfa and broccoli seeds, one type of seed per tray.

2 or 3 times a day, pour 2 cups of water in the top tray. It will trickle down through each tray and end up in the well at the bottom. Each time you water, empty the water from the well at the bottom and rotate the bottom seed tray to the top before you water again.

By the end of day 2 I had this:

Talk about instant gratification!

The mung beans were ready after 3 days, the alfalfa sprouts after 4 days, and the broccoli sprouts after 5 days.

When the sprouts are ready I put them in a large bowl and fill the bowl with water. Then I swish the sprouts around in the water to separate the seed hulls. The hulls won’t hurt you, they’re just kind of bitter to eat. But there’s always a few mixed in with your sprouts and that’s okay. After I swish them around I just sort of pick the sprouts out of the water and put them on a paper towel to drain. Then store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

The alfalfa and broccoli sprouts are good added to a salad, or use them to top a sandwich. The mung bean sprouts are nice in soups. Tonight I made bean and ham soup and garnished with the mung bean sprouts. They added a nice, refreshing crunch to the soup!

2 years ago:
Snow day

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