A few days ago there was a discussion on KGI about sprouting. I followed it with interest as I have always liked beansprouts - well for several years now anyway.
I learned from the discussion exactly how to sprout seeds and decided to give it a try.
I bought some dried red beans - haricot rouge in France - and started to sprout them. I soaked them for about ten minutes in warm water then drained them and put them into a dark cupboard in the kitchen.
I then soaked them for about a minute every day for the next week or so and watched fascinated as each day new progress could be seen with my tiny young sprouts.
Today, for supper, I decided the time was right and I chose some of the best sprouts and ate them.
They were fabulous. Much better than any sprouts I have had before.
I gave a few to my wife. She is not the most adventurous eater and sprouts were not high on her must eat list. She tentatively took a few - not enough to be called a portion, not even a small portion, but a few. She ate them. Tentatively.
Then she helped herself to a proper sized portion saying how delicious they were. She used the words earthy and I think I agree.
Another first for us.
Ian
About me
- Ian
- I moved to south west France in 2004 and created a Kitchen Garden there. The great food I started to grow rekindled my interest in cooking and these recipes have developed from that kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com
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6 comments:
I got a nice little sprouter a few months ago- I was craving living food like crazy, Detroit winters being what they are. I've always hated sprouts, but I was, well, hopeful. Maybe my palette had changed. Maybe my own home-grown sprouts wouldn't taste like dirt. No dice. My own sprouts tasted *exactly* like dirt. I grew 3 kinds- mung bean, broccoli, and raish. I choked them down, purely out of guilt.
Maybe red beans hold a tiny bit of hope for me. If your wife ate them, I'm totally willing to try again.
Do you have a lot of added salt in your diet, ilex? This can make various foods taste...like dirt... because taste-buds are radically effected by salt and sugar. That is how fast food and processed food companies get people hooked because they begin to dislike everything that doesn't have added salt and sugar! Fresh, crisp sprouts are a delight when you develop a clear palette to taste them with.
Kate, I'm a total salt addict. Always have been. No sweet tooth, but salt, absolutely. Hmmm.
I hated fast food as a child, though, so maybe there's hope for me...
We tried sprouting some mung beans a year or so ago. They came out okay. The taste was great! They weren't as big as commercial sprouts, but that's okay because we didn't have to eat the chemicals commercial growers use either.
We used a pasta pan in order to make the sprouts, one with a built in strainer. This way we could put a weight on them to sprout them under pressure, keep them in the dark so they wouldn't get green and still be able to easily rinse them three times a day.
The main problem was the seed coats were still attached to the sprouts, and these didn't taste very nice. I guess commercial growers have some way to remove the coats.
We still have some mung bean seeds left, but now it seems like too much effort for too little reward to try again...
Looks like I'm a couple years behind. but, Like Patrick, I was also wondering if you cut off the bean itself before eating the sprouts.
Hi Clover Cottage,
I found I enjoyed them with the bean still on, eating a kind of mix of beans and sprouts. It saved a lot of work.....
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