The Easiest Food to Grow: Bean Sprouts
April 30, 2009
A lot of people ask what the easiest thing to grow in an apartment is. Well here’s my answer: bean sprouts.
Bean sprouts growing in a sprouter
I always try to focus on efficiency and convenience when growing food. After all, if growing a food proves to be too difficult or too impractical, it is of limited benefit
Sprouts offer a number of distinct advantages:
- They can be grown in minuscule space without light
- They have a number of health benefits
- They lend themselves well to everyday convenience cooking: stir-fries, salads and sandwiches
For these reasons they are the ideal food if you just want to get your toes wet growing your own food or you have a fast-paced lifestyle which doesn’t permit slightly more involved garden and windowsill pursuits.
Sprouting
Equipment:
- Mung Bean Seeds (also possible: alfalfa seeds, sprouting broccoli seeds etc.)
- Option: (i) A pint glass with a rubber band and some muslin or (ii) a sprouter – good place to get these is health food shops from my experience
Method:
- Soak seeds (overnight will do fine)
- Drain
- Rinse daily
- Eat when they look OK to eat (2-5 days)
For some sprouts you may wish to greenify them so stick them on a windowsill towards the end to encourage the chlorophyll.
When done, they can be kept in a refrigerator, often for weeks, and are guaranteed to add a bit of crunch to mealtime. My personal favourite are mung bean but I would encourage people to experiment and mix with different types of sprouts. Let me know how you get on!
Alfalfa seeds sprouting in a pint glass
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This blog is great, totally relevant to my entry to gardening in mini-min-spaces.
It’s bizarre actually, because everything I’ve been planning to do suddenly appears on the blog. We got some planting potatoes off a friend and then your post appeared. Then we got some chilli plant seeds, and that post appeared (but maybe it’s too late for them – i need to check.) Also got some sprouts in the post, but I wasn’t sure if I could get away without buying a fancy sprouter (though in fairness, they probably cost a few pence). And the jar and muslin plan saves me going to the bottle bank!
Anyway, I assume your next post is about sunflowers or courgettes?
Or how to kill the neighbour’s cats?
I love beansprouts. They are so tasty in salads and soups and pretty much have them on anything.
I dont know if you are aware but your blog and mine were recommended in our local evening paper the Evening Echo.(Cork) on Sat 2nd May.
eif:
good to see we are on the same wavelength. we grew some sunflowers last year, but not sure we have the space this time round. Let me know how you get on!
Peggy:
That’s great news, don’t get the Echo around here, sorry I missed it now!
This is a great tutorial on sprouting. I haven’t done it for years but after finish sowing the outdoor crops, I’m going to try some sprouts.
Good to hear Elaine! It certainly passes the time while waiting for some of the outdoor crops to grow.
I love this article! Thanks for bringing back to the essentials!
Beansprouts may also simply be grown on a damp paper towel on any size plate or casserole. After soaking drain and spread out, covering w/a damp tea-towel, spray w/water daily until ready – this avoids roots thru the fancy sprouter. Also, wheat berries, when sprouted (use above method) to a quarter inch are sweet and chewy. Lentils, garbanzos(chickpeas) the same as above. Chickpeas need 24 hour soaking and may be ground to make a fabulous baked patty with herbs…
Also, you’d be amazed at how many greens, salad stuff, kale, pakchoy, arugula, etc may be grown in a window box. They can be seeded every 3/4 inches. Pluck the outer leaves and they keep growing. Have fun!
My third-grade teacher, Mrs. Moomaw, used to sprout alfalfa in the classroom, and she gave each child a small serving of sprouts every day at lunchtime. That was in 1958! I have loved sprouts ever since. My currents favorites are mung beans, which I sprout myself because they are very easy to do, and “Zesty Sprouts,” a mix of radish, alfalfa, and clover that I buy in my local natural food store. I make a great riceless nori roll with thinly sliced carrots, daikon, zucchini and lettuce or Chinese cabbage on a thick bed of sprouts, rolled up in nori seaweed. I might add umeboshi paste, homemade pesto, or some sort of pickle for added flavor. Great stuff–very refreshing, energizing, and of course, cleansing to the body.
@saharadevi Thanks for the tips! We have grown some cress on a damp towel before and have a selection of salad leaves, kale and lettuce on the balcony. We’re also big chickpea fans.. if I understand, you are sprouting chickpeas? Haven’t thought of that before.
@Mishin-Fishkin sounds like you have tried some more involved Asian cuisine. One of these days when I am feeling ambitious I might try something in that vein!
Howdy from big sky country, Montana!
We grow large gardens at our ranch and have one commin’ up and lookin’ good so far even though our growing season is very short. One of our favorite meals is stir-fry and in addition to fresh garden vegetables (including snow peas) we like a generous fist full of bean sprouts.
Our local grocery store will not carry the sprouts and my nearest source is 125 miles away. I want to grow my own and have studied your suggestions, but I’m not sure I understand how to do the jar thing.
After soaking and emptying the soak water, how exactly do I position the jar so the beans can be rinsed daily and still be allowed to rest inside the jar to grow 3 inches to 4 inches long? Doesn’t rinsing disturb the direction of growth? Maybe I’m over thinking this thing, but I don’t want to waste the mung beans I ordered last week.
Can anyone reassure me?
Out in Montana
Nik
@Big Sky Nik No – you can rinse away and won’t disturb them. As I said they are very easy to grow. It’s actually pretty hard to mess up!
Hi have just grown some beansprouts but they have grown leaves. what should i do? are they edible this way?
Leaves are good. Eat ‘em up!
excellent tips
richie@blogtactic
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Very informative article.
This is kind of irrelevant, but what is your favorite soil conditioning fertilizer? I’ve tried Bio-Magic on my veggie garden, but I don’t like the results. Anyone have suggestions?