15 Creative Ways to Use Sprouts

1. Stir fry mung bean sprouts in sesame oil with mushrooms scallions grated ginger and soy sauce

2. Blend garbanzo bean sprouts lemon juice minced garlic olive oil salt and pepper into a thick paste chill and serve on crackers for a healthy snack

3. Combine soy bean sprouts fresh corn kernels and sliced red onions with an oil and vinegar dressing for a lively salad

4. Save the water the sprouts initially soaked in for a nutritious soup base to mix with fruit juices or for watering house plants

5. Make a wonderful sandwich with peanut butter and alfalfa sprouts

6. Replace wild rice with rye sprouts in soups and rice combinations

7. Chopped raw lentil sprouts give a peppery taste to cream cheese for a cocktail spread

8. Combine raw mung bean sprouts with raisins apple and tomato slices avocado and cucumber chunks toss with a salad dressing

9. Wheat sprouts bananas wheat germ honey and milk blended make a quick high energy drink

10. Add alfalfa sprouts to scrambled eggs just before serving

11. Chopped meats stretch further if you add fresh soybean sprouts and it really tastes even better with them added!

12. Stir fresh pea sprouts into a canned tomato soup for for extra vitamins and flavor. The kids will never know they had their veggies.

13. Mix tuna-fish with fresh sprouts sliced apples chopped mushrooms lemon juice salt and pepper for an exciting low cal lunch

14. Keep sprouts on hand and add them when ever you add herbs and spices to soups, main dishes and sauces

15. You can always add sprouts to sandwiches instead of lettuce , and on top of a salad to pick it up with spicy flavors such as mustard, radish, or a spicy sprout mix. Have fun and experiment. The flavor in a sprout is concentrated so use a small amount first then add more.

If sprouting is new to you, make sure to check out our SPROUTING PAGE!

If you have been following along with our Extreme Food Storage Makeover you will have already been introduced to my mom, Grandma Lori. I remember growing up we used to eat homemade strawberry jam and bottled peaches and my mom would make alfalfa sprouts on the kitchen counter. As I got older my mom kind of stopped doing those things and when I got married I was so busy I didn’t give it a second thought.

When we started our blog people started to ask us about some of the “food storage swear words” like gardening, canning, dehydrating, and sprouting and we realized we knew nothing about them. I asked my mom why she never taught me how to can and she said “When you can buy canned tomatoes at the grocery store for $0.50 why would you waste the time to can them yourself?” Because I wanted to LEARN HOW, Mom!

I decided it would be good to learn some of these self-reliance skills even if I don’t ever “HAVE” to rely on them. Plus there truly are some legitimate benefits to processing your own foods such as the health factors, you CAN save money, and a lot of it tastes so much better home grown and processed then store-bought. Not to mention it is really fun and satisfying to know you did it yourself. I am still a beginner to much of this stuff, but here are some of the fun projects I’ve attempted so far:
 

	COMING THIS SUMMER! As part of a series I’m going to be doing on self-reliance

I had never tried any of these things before I started blogging about them, so if you have been scared to try, believe me, if I can do it so can you!

How to Grow Easter Grass With Wheat – Instructions

Step 1: Soak a heaping cup of wheat kernels in a bowl of water overnight.

The wheat should have teeny tiny sprouts. Aren’t they cute?

Step 2: Line your Easter basket(s) with saran wrap.

Step 3: Fill the basket with soil

Step 4: Soak the soil with water, get it nice and wet

The kids think this part is really fun

Step 5: Spoon a thick layer of wheat onto of the soil. Mist with a little more water.

Doesn’t that look so nice?

Step 6: Wrap the basket(s) in plastic or a ziplock bag. Try to make it airtight.

Look how cute our baskets (and kids) are before the plastic.

Step 7: Set in a warm place and leave the plastic on until most of the seeds have started to sprout grass. Remove plastic and mist daily if it looks dry.

Step 8: Enjoy a nice thick blanket of REAL Easter grass in a few weeks!

Don’t forget to try to have at least one accident along the way. It makes life exciting

HAVE FUN and HAPPY EASTER!!!

Next up on our list is Legumes! Legumes can be very intimidating to a lot of people so this is a great one to help people realize they aren’t so bad. Here are some ideas to help people use, and understand legumes a little better:

Options that are Free or Under $1

12 Bean Soup

Purchase a 1 lb bag of 12 bean soup mix from the grocery store. Tie a ribbon around it and include the Day 7 Tags. If you want to be really ambitious you can include this 12 Bean Soup Recipe on a cute recipe card too. It’s delicious!

An Option that is $5-$20

Sprouting Kit

Ever tried sprouting? Well if you know someone who wants to get into the really good stuff, give them this sprouting kit and as a bonus, include a few of the legumes that are good for sprouting! Sprouting is a great way to use some of your food storage, and it’s super healthy and nutritious! Add your Day 7 Tags and it’s the perfect food storage gift.

A More Expensive Option

Pressure Cooker

Here’s another one of those – if you’re feeling REALLY generous gifts. This electric pressure cooker is a DREAM come true for cooking dry beans. No pre-soaking, waiting hours, and worrying about your beans turning out ever again! Don’t forget your Day 7 Tags.

Back to the 12 Days List

Common Types of Sprouts:

• Grains
  • Wheat
  • Rice
  • Oats
  • Corn
  • Barley
• Legumes
  • Peas
  • Lentils
  • Soy Beans, Garbanzo, Mung beans
  • Dried Beans (black, pinto, navy, kidney)
• Nuts + Seeds
  • Almonds
  • Sunflower Seeds, Sesame seeds, Alfalfa
  • Vegetable Seeds esp. pumpkin

Health Benefits of Sprouts:

• Sprouting a seed enhances its already high nutritional value (i.e. Oats when sprouted contain 600% more vitamin C)
• Sprouts are high in antioxidants that prevent DNA destruction and protect from the effects of aging
• Sprouts contain concentrated amounts of phytochemicals which help protect against diseases
• Alfalfa sprouts contain saponins which:
  • Lower bad cholesterol and fat but keep the good hdl fats
  • Stimulate immune system
  • Help prevent cardiovascular disease
• Sprouts are a nutritious, low-fat filler for meats or addition to soups, etc.

How to Grow Sprouts:

1. Prepare the seeds
   • Remove broken and discolored seeds
   • Wash seeds
   • Soak overnight (if necessary)
   • Drain
2. Place seeds in sprouting container and rinse thoroughly.
3. Drain off all excess water.
4. Place in a warm area where temperature will remain even.
5. Rinse 2-3 times per day.
6. Once they reach the desired length, place near sunlight until leaves become green.

For a full tutorial with pictures on how Jodi experimented with growing Lentil sprouts visit her post on How to Grow Sprouts.

Sprouting Resources:

The Complete Sprouting Cookbook – This book is from the 70′s but it has everything you could want to know and more. Jodi’s mom had it hidden in a cupboard and we just raved over it when we found it.
Sprouts: The Miracle Food – More recent book on sprouting.
Sprout Master Sprouter – The kit that Julie uses to grow her sprouts.

Have you had successes or failures with sprouting? Share your experiences in the comments below!

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my mom (affectionately known as GrandmaLori around here) about sprouting as I can remember doing alfalfa sprouts with her when I was little. She just happened to have an old sprouting container that she inherited from her grandmother that she doesn’t ever use and she let me “borrow” it for my adventures.

This sprouting container is pretty neat but the holes are too big to do tiny seeds like alfalfa, so I decided to start with lentils which I have on hand from my long term food storage legumes supply.

Day 1

First I rinsed the lentils and picked out any gross looking pieces, discolored ones, or things that did NOT look like lentils (see picture). Then I soaked the lentils overnight as that is what my sprouting book recommended. There are a few types of items you would NOT need to soak so just make sure you follow the directions for whatever you are sprouting.

Day 2

In the morning, I poured my soaked lentils into the sprouting container and rinsed them off again. I set them on the counter beside my stove as it seemed to be one of the warmer spots in my kitchen but out of direct sunlight. I also set a paper towel over the container because it seemed weird to just leave them sitting out with no covering. That evening I rinsed the lentils again. Each time I rinsed I made sure to really let all the excess water drain out before setting it back in the little tray.

Day 3

When I took the paper towel off on day three I had a pleasant surprise. SPROUTS!!! I was so excited. All I did on day 3 was rinse and repeat the instructions from day 2.

Days 4-7

Each day from 4-7 I rinsed the lentils at morning and at night and took a photo of the progress if I remembered to. It’s really so easy, just takes about 30 seconds each time and they just grow on their own!

Day 8

After rinsing on the morning of day 8, I lifted off the paper towel and let the sprouts sit in the sunlight all day. They turned a very nice green and grew even longer!

Day 9

I think I let my sprouts get a little bit too long but I was really busy the last few days of my experiment and didn’t pay very close attention to them. So on the final day I pulled them all out of the sprouting container and put them into a large canning jar and stuck them in the fridge.

And now for my confession. I tasted the lentil sprouts and they tasted like fresh peas. I don’t really like fresh peas all that much so I’m afraid I don’t really want to eat these just plain. I’ll have to try making a yummy salad and sprinkling a few on top. Or I might try them in a meatloaf to use as filler. I have to say my first experiment was a success in that they GREW, but kind of a failure in that I didn’t really grow something that my family will use on a regular basis. Back to the drawing board

Since Julie didn’t “inherit” a sprouter she recently bought this Sprout Master Sprouter at Kitchen Kneads. She hasn’t tried it out yet but it looks like it would work about the same as mine.