Joys of sprouting

Om Amriteshwaryai Namaha

The days are finally getting longer and a feeling of hope and new beginnings that spring brings is in the air thanks to the blooming snowdrops. Most of the keen gardeners I know are making plans for the new season of gardening and itching to get sowing and planting. There is nothing better than home grown vegetables from your own garden eaten within minutes of harvesting or even better shared with family and friends. Having said that, it’s still early days and a while before we can harvest this year’s plants with only a few vegetable varieties being suited to sowing indoors at the moment (e.g. in February: leeks, lettuce, beetroot, kale, purple broccoli and spring cabbage).

In the meantime, you can enjoy a different form of “gardening”, yet full of benefits for your body and yielding fast results — that is sprouting. Sprouting is a process by which seeds germinate and grow shoots ready to eat within days and providing some of much needed minerals and vitamins for sustaining a healthy body. During sprouting, the content of vitamins and essential fatty acids increases and minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, bind to protein making them more bio-available.

Your beautiful and nutritious sprouts can be added to most things you eat e.g. wraps, salads, garnishes that go with any main meal. They bring colour and vibrancy to your food and are fun to grow.

You can sprout seeds in an old jar, muslin or in a sprouter, if you have one. You do this by rinsing and soaking approximately two teaspoons of small seeds or a tablespoon or larger seeds. Then draining, rinsing again and placing the seeds on a sprouting tray, in a jar or on a muslin. Here is a photo of my seed tray with Broccoli Calabrese seeds.

The seeds should be rinsed and drained at least once daily to ensure that they don’t get mouldy! You may want to spray water instead of rinsing them under a tap. Typically, you see baby sprouts emerging after 1–2 days and they are ready to eat within 4–7 days depending on the seed variety. Here are photos of my Broccoli Calabrese about 2 and 5 days later.

You can sprout many varieties of seeds but the most common ones include: alfalfa, broccoli, beetroot, cabbage, chickpea, and mung beans. Here is more information about some of my favourites:

What are your favourite sprouts and sprout recipes? We would love to read all about it and see some pics! Please post away your comments.

Wishing you much fun sprouting!

May you be well, happy, healthy and full of homegrown sprouts.

Domi & GreenFriends UK