Good Things Come In Small Packages

“Sprouting” grains and seeds—that is, allowing them to germinate and begin to grow—enhances their nutritional qualities, boosting their available vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and even antioxidants.

You may be thinking: surely whatever nutrients are in there, are in there already; how can it be increased?

Well, the grand sweeping miracle of life itself is beyond the scope of what we have room to cover today, but in few words: there are processes that allow plants to transform stuff into other stuff, and that is part of what is happening.

Additionally, in the cases of some nutrients, they were there already, but the sprouting process allows them to become more available to us. Think about the later example of how it’s easier to eat and digest a ripe fruit than an unripe one, and now scale that back to a seed and a sprouted seed.

A third way that sprouting benefits us is by reducing“antinutrients”, such as phytic acid.

Let’s drop a few examples of the “what”, before we press on to the “how”:

• Enhancement of attributes of cereals by germination and fermentation: a review
• Sprouting characteristics and associated changes in nutritional composition of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)
• Phytic acid, in vitro protein digestibility, dietary fiber, and minerals of pulses as influenced by processing methods
• Effects of germination on the nutritional properties, phenolic profiles, and antioxidant activities of buckwheat
• Effect of several germination treatments on phosphatases activities and degradation of phytate in faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and azuki bean (Vigna angularis L.)

Sounds great! How do we do it?

First, take the seeds, grains, nuts, beans, etc that you’re going to sprout. Fine examples to try for a first sprouting session include:

• Grains: buckwheat, brown rice, quinoa
• Legumes: soy beans, black beans, kidney beans
• Greens: broccoli, mustard greens, radish
• Nuts/seeds: almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds

Note: whatever you use should be as unprocessed as possible to start with:

• On the one hand, you’d be surprised how often “life finds a way” when it comes to sprouting ridiculous choices
• On the other hand, it’s usually easier if you’re not trying to sprout blanched almonds, split lentils, rolled oats, or toasted hulled buckwheat.

Second, you will need clean water, a jar with a lid, muslin cloth or similar, and a rubber band.

Next, take an amount of the plants you’ll be sprouting. Let’s say beans of some kind. Try it with ¼ cup to start with; you can do bigger batches once you’re more confident of your setup and the process.

Rinse and soak them for at least 24 hours. Take care to add more water than it looks like you’ll need, because those beans are thirsty, and sprouting is thirsty work.

Drain, rinse, and put them in a clean glass jar, covering with just the muslin cloth in place of the lid, held in place by the rubber band. No extra water in it this time, and you’re going to be storing the jar upside down (with ventilation underneath, so for example on some sort of wire rack is ideal) in a dark moderately warm place (e.g. 80℉ / 25℃ is often ideal, but it doesn’t have to be exact, you have wiggle-room, and some things will enjoy a few degrees cooler or warmer than that)

Each day, rinse and replace until you see that they are sprouting. When they’re sprouting, they’re ready to eat!

Unless you want to grow a whole plant, in which case, go for it (we recommend looking for a gardening guide in that case).

But watch out!

That 80℉ / 25℃ temperature at which our sprouting seeds, beans, grains etc thrive? There are other things that thrive at that temperature too! Things like:

• E. coli
• Salmonella
• Listeria

…amongst others.

So, some things to keep you safe:

1. If it looks or smells bad, throw it out
2. If in doubt, throw it out
3. Even if it looks perfect, blanch it (by boiling it in water for 30 seconds, before rinsing it in cold water to take it back to a colder temperature) before eating it or refrigerating it for later.
4. When you come back to get it from the fridge, see once again points 1 and 2 above.
5. Ideally you should enjoy sprouted things within 5 days.

Want to know more about sprouting?

You’ll love this book that we reviewed recently:

The Sprout Book – by Doug Evans

Enjoy!