A few months ago I was listening to the Rich Roll Podcast (I can highly recommend it, if you want some health and well-being inspiration in your life) and he had a guest on called Doug Evans. I was really intrigued by what Doug was talking about, his enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and by the end I felt like I was missing out on something amazing – sprouting! I set out on my own sprouting journey and wanted to share with our readers all about how to start sprouting at home and moving towards a simple yet genius way to keep your family healthy.
What is sprouting
To be honest, I initially thought he meant sprouts like we know them in the UK, brussels sprouts! But no, Doug meant sprouting seeds, and guess what the health benefits are really something!
Rather than eating seeds / pulses in the form you normally would such as lentil and chickpeas (usually added to meals and bakes), these specialised sprouting seed blends are consumed at the raw sprouting stage. At this point the sprouting seeds have a much higher vitamin content, protein & fibre content and some even have high anti-cancer properties.
Benefits of Sprouting
Sprouted seeds, grains and beans are such a healthy and alternatively fun way to bring fresh vitamins into your diet especially in the winter.
What we love about sprouting is that it can be available to all. Even if you don’t have space for a garden you can always find room in the smallest of kitchen spaces for sprouting jars. You don’t even need to be green fingered.
The aim of the sprouting game is to have a constant supply of fresh greens for your family. Not only will you save money on fresh produce, you will find that sprouting gives you the ability to grow organically and control what your family is eating.
Increases Protein availability, fibre content, aids digestion and may increase antioxidants.
Just one thing worth mentioning, due to the high fibre content as your digestion adjust to eating sprouts, only for the first few days make sure you’re close to the toilet after mealtimes!
How to Start Sprouting at Home
This is a quick & handy ‘how to start sprouting at home’ guide. I will link all the equipment and links at the end of this post.
Equipment
First off you need some sprouting jars with lids that will drain water but not lose your seeds. To begin with I just punched a few holes in an old peanut butter jar lid and used that.
We then moved onto using some lovely jars we have already in our cupboard and invested in some stainless steel mesh sprouting lids for ease of growing.
Next, buy some sprouting seeds. I found these on eBay and they’re a very good mix to start with. They sprout really well and quite quickly so are ideal for beginners. These sprouts don’t taste of much and have a relatively soft (with a slight crunch) texture to them. Our kids aren’t as keen on these ones as we are but will eat a few with meals.
We then moved onto the wonderful sprouted broccoli seeds. These are high in anti cancer properties and punch a high vitamin content. Do make sure you buy high quality germination seeds as they make all the difference and you want to get the quality right with these. Our kids are happy to eat the sprouted broccoli seeds. They have a fine cress like taste and texture to them.
Growing your Sprouts
Put a couple of tablespoons of seed mix in a jar, add water and soak overnight.
Then rinse and drain twice a day or so (less or more is ok, like I said it’s almost too easy!). They should be left in a cupboard as they sprout better in the dark.
After a few days you’ll see them sprout, and roughly when they fill the jar it’s time to eat. If you leave them on the windowsill for a day at this point they’ll green up a bit with little shoots and are just as tasty with or without. Pop them in a tub and into the fridge for storing and consume with 2-3 days.
Ways to Eat your Sprouts
Sprouts can be put on almost anything; salads, soups, casseroles and omelettes are just a few examples.
As a general rule, sprouts are most nutritious when eaten raw, but they do retain some of their qualities when cooked. Try steaming your sprouts for a few minutes, then mix with butter and serve up as a cooked vegetable side dish. We pretty much place them on our family dinner table every lunch or dinnertime. The kids are very used to seeing and eating sprouts on the side now.
Helpful Links for Sprouting
Research
There are tons of helpful articles sprouting up all over the web (sorry, I couldn’t help myself).
A must is to follow the sprouting guru Doug Evans for informative and passionate information on how to start sprouting at home and moving forward on your own sprouting journey.
This sprouting blog post was one I found helpful for my own research.
Equipment
We used our own jars from kilner and home bargains own ones. We then purchased stainless steel mesh lids from eBay. Alternatively buy complete jar and lid sets from one of the many options online.
Seed bags – We buy in organic seed bags from eBay and Amazon but do hope to move forward to a more local supplier when we find one. Here is the wholesaler link we use for Broccoli seeds .
I hope you found this simple guide on how to start sprouting at home helpful? We would love to hear if you fancy giving sprouting a go and hear about your progress.
Dougie Stein – husband of Team Stein Mummy and Head of Sprouting in the family!
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