Sprouting aduki and mung beans

Sprouting is one of the easiest and most economical things you can do to enhance your health. Of course you must eat the sprouts for the best benefit.

Sprouts are beans, grains, seeds, and nuts germinated in water.

Sprouting increases nutrients in plants by up to 600%. Sprouts are easily digested and spouting reduces phytates that interfere with absorption of minerals and other nutrients.

Sprouting is the best way to eat raw food in the winter when local veggies are scarce. Since ideally about 50% of your diet should be raw, eating sprouts is your gift to your family’s health for little effort. There are so many choices that finding seeds to sprout you and your family will enjoy is a fun activity to do with your kids.

While any bean, grain, nut, or seed can be sprouted, some sprout more easily than others. Mung beans, for example, send out shoots in a day or two; other seeds, like rice take forever.

My newest favorite grain is quinoa. It softens and starts to sprout in 2 days, and has a lovely semi-crunchy texture. It tops a bowl of soup or a sandwich nicely.

To sprout you need only some recycled glass jars, some squares of cheesecloth, and rubber bands. First, choose the seeds or beans you’d like to try. I recommend starting with mung beans because they sprout so easily. Put about a quarter cup of seeds into a jar and cover with water. Put a square of folded cheesecloth over the top and secure it with a rubber band. Let it sit overnight on your counter. The next morning, turn over the jars and drain the water—I use this water on my plants. Let the jar sit, upside down at an angle to drain off the water. Mine drain in the dish rack on my counter. Change this water several times each day.

Within a day or two you will see tiny sprouts starting on mung beans, other seeds will take longer—some up to 3 or 4 days. Once you’ve got sprouts showing, drain well and store in the refrigerator. The finished sprouts will double or triple in volume depending on the type of seed. That’s it.

Sprouts are to be eaten raw, so toss a handful on your soup after it’s in a bowl so the high temperature doesn’t destroy the enzymes you’ve just released. Sprouts are also great on sandwiches in winter when fresh greens are scarce.

A small book with all the information you need is “The Complete Sprouting Cookbook” by Karen Cross Whyte, published in 1973.

I can’t remember ever not loving peanut butter. We ate it a lot as kids. Because my family was Catholic and couldn’t eat meat on Fridays then, I always looked forward to Friday lunches. My favorite Friday lunch was a peanut spread my Mom made by grinding Planters cocktail peanuts and carrots with a hand grinder, mixing it with Kraft salad dressing then spreading it on white bread.

Today to save the grinding step, I keep a jar of organic sugar-free crunchy peanut butter in my refrigerator. I also slather peanut butter on my morning apple slices. Ymmm.

Peanut butter sandwiches are my go-to meal—easy to make, nutritious, and portable. Whenever I’m travelling I take along a sandwich with crunchy peanut butter, Umboshi plum paste, and grated carrot. This is my version of Mom’s peanut spread.

The first time I flew following September 11^th when airport security tightened, I was pulled aside after my back pack passed through the X-ray machine. The security agent asked me to remove my shoes which he carefully examined. Then he asked if he could look into my backpack. Of course. I was curious and nervous, as I removed everything from my back pack. He looked through what I had—the usual stuff: reading materials, water, and a peanut butter sandwich made from the heels of dense whole grain sprouted bread. He picked up my sandwich and gave me a puzzled look. I smiled politely and said, “It’s a peanut butter sandwich.” He handed it back, and sent me on my way.

After breathing a sigh of relief I found it hilarious that my peanut butter sandwich could set off a red flag for security agents. After that experience, I no longer make a sandwich from the heels of bread when I travel by air; I just use the regular inside slices. That seems to have solved the problem—no security agent has questioned me since then.

I travel through the Detroit airport fairly often. The last time I was there I found a food court shop on Concourse A called PB&J. They offer a choice of breads, peanut or cashew butter (smooth or chunky) and some kind of jam or honey. I watched a young woman make a humongous sandwich on thick slices of bread. I didn’t want anything that huge.  So I asked if I could get just one slice of bread, half a sandwich, and pay the full price ($4.49). After a discussion, the sandwich makers decided that would be OK. I got whole grain bread, and crunchy peanut butter, and that’s it. I’m not fond of jelly or anything sweet with my peanut butter. Later, when I got hungry on the flight back to Portland, I had mineral water, courtesy of the airline, with my peanut butter sandwich. I was happy to have something so easily portable that I could save until I was hungry. All airports should have a PB&J’s.

I wish I’d thought of the idea.

Slice Napa cabbage leaves—about 12 leaves are enough for 4 – 6 salads. Slice or dice or cut anyway that looks attractive and is easy to eat with a

Winter Salad Blend

fork, any or all of the following: sweet onion; radish: red, black, watermelon, daikon; carrot; jicama; red cabbage. These should be crunchy veggies everyone likes. Store this mix in a  covered glass bowl. When it’s time for dinner place in individual salad bowls or plates and add other, more fragile ingredients like sprouts or a leftover cooked veggie and avocado. This saves a lot of time when you’re trying to get dinner on the table. Dress with your favorite unsweetened dressing or any of mine.

Is also known as celery root or knob celery. Celeriac is a knotty bulbous root that tastes similar to celery.

Celeriac

I prefer it to celery because I’ve never liked celery (except with peanut butter) and it cooks better than celery does. Celeriac is brown and gnarled and sold when it is about fist-size. It’s only about 6% carbs by weight. Celeriac has a tough, furrowed, outer surface that needs to be cut or peeled off before using. It keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Is clarified butter used in Indian cooking as well as in some African countries. Whole butter has a low smoking point making it unsuitable for sautéing or frying, That’s when ghee comes to the rescue. You can buy ghee in stores, especially stores specializing in Indian cooking, but it’s easy to make.

Simply put the amount of butter you need in a pot—if you will be using this often, start with a pound of butter. Or you can start with a stick. Turn on the heat to med-low and let the butter completely melt. Turn off the heat but let the melted butter sit on a warm burner for a while until all of the solids, which is what is burning when whole butter smokes, settle in the bottom of your pan. Then carefully pour the clear yellow liquid into a glass jar and refrigerate. The ghee will last a long time this way and won’t get rancid. Use it to sauté and stir fry foods.

To cook liquids, like soup, in a pot so that the liquid on top is barely moving.

In another blog I cover the reasons for soaking dried beans and grains. Here is information about things that can affect the cooking time of beans. In general, presoaked beans cook quicker than non-soaked; this depends on the type of bean as well as the bean’s age.

Cooking time can also be affected by adding tomato, vinegar, citrus juices, or other acidic foods too early. Since the definition of ‘too early’ is so random, I prefer not taking a chance and add any of these ingredients later on. About half way through cooking I test a few of the beans for doneness before adding the acids. If your beans are soft but not done all the way, I feel OK that adding the acidic ingredient won’t increase the cooking time and will allow time for the beans to absorb flavor.

This is also true of salt—adding it too soon can slow cooking time. For all these reasons I recommend presoaking, and adding acidic foods and salt after the beans have begun to soften.

Some cooks say they never have a problem, I prefer not to take that chance.

Is widely used in Indian cooking. The pods are whitish to light green. They can be used whole and sizzled in oil, or ground as an important ingredient in Garam Masala (literally hot mixture). When using whole remove the seeds from the pod and make sure the skin is broken from the seeds to release their delicious flavor. I often use ground cardamom on oatmeal or in yoghurt drinks. In Ayurvedic medicine it is used in treating digestive problems and has detoxifying properties among other medicinal uses.

I like to prepare garlic this way rather than using a garlic press because it is easier to clean up and you don’t have to dig out the garlic left in the press, or throw it away in frustration. The only waste is a small piece of waxed paper. I keep a small ball peen hammer in my kitchen-tool drawer.

Garlic bulb w/3 cloves

Store garlic in a basket or other container that allows air to circulate. The garlic you buy in stores is sometimes called dried. You can buy fresh garlic at Farmers Markets in summer but it is eaten raw usually as a veggie in salads.

Raw garlic has medicinal uses as an anti-bacterial and anti-viral. If you decide to eat some garlic when you feel a cold coming on, remember why garlic is called the ‘stinking rose.’

• To smash garlic

First, make sure your garlic is fresh with no visible mold or moldy odor. Also, if it’s late in the season your garlic could start sprouting.

Then place your garlic cloves on your cutting board and give them a tap with the hammer. This loosens the papery skin making it easy to remove. Discard the skins. Slice the cloves in half. If they have started to sprout remove the inner green sprout or the garlic can be bitter. This doesn’t matter so much if you are cooking your garlic but is noticeable when you are eating the garlic raw like in hummus or other dips.

Tear off a piece of waxed paper and place it on your cutting board. Place the cut pieces of garlic on the waxed paper and fold half of the waxed paper over the top of the garlic pieces.

Using the hammer, crush each piece until it is fully smashed.

Scrape the smashed garlic from the waxed paper into your food with the flat edge of a knife.

Sprinkle a little flour on the fruit while you are chopping or dicing to prevent the pieces from sticking together.