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.

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.

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.

To mix a softened ingredient, like butter, alone or with another ingredient, like sugar, till completely blended and soft.

My soaking bowls

When I first started teaching myself to cook beans and grains, I dutifully presoaked beans as recipes recommended. At the time, I thought the function of presoaking was to make the beans cook faster. I never noticed much cooking time difference between presoaked beans and non-soaked beans when I forgot to soak them, so I gradually stopped the practice altogether. That is until I learned there is another reason for soaking.

Soaking dried beans, grains, nuts, and seeds deactivates phytates naturally present in plants. Phytates make growing plants insect resistant. Phytates also inhibit absorption of several important nutrients including phosphorous, calcium, iron, and some vitamins. People who consume a mainly whole grain vegan or vegetarian diet can suffer ill effects. These range from tooth decay to inadequate bone production.

This is especially important for growing children. Consider breakfast, which is often grain based. For convenience, cereal has become what we feed kids, along with maybe a piece of toast or a granola bar.

Luckily, most people eat their cereal with milk. Whole milk counteracts phytates in cereals. However, the modern practice of eating lower fat milk products doesn’t produce the same beneficial results that full fat milk or yoghurt does in reducing the effects of phytates. Citrus fruits also help neutralize phytates.

An easy way to neutralize the negative effects of phytates is to presoak beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. So this was the reason I originally soaked foods. In addition to neutralizing phytates, soaking also releases important, otherwise unavailable, phytonutrients and vitamins.

• To soak:

Put 1 to 2 cups of the dry food(s) you are going to cook into separate bowls large enough to handle the swelling—especially the beans which can swell to twice their dried size. Pour in enough water to keep everything underwater during the whole soaking time. Add a tablespoon or two of vinegar or lemon juice. Cover with a lid and let sit on your counter overnight or longer—at least 7 hours. Tip: if you get past 24 hours, be sure to change the water. If longer than that, put the bowl in the refrigerator or the food will sour.

When you are ready to cook your beans, drain the soaking water and put your soaked food in a pot with fresh water to cover. Bring to a boil. Once the beans have come to a boil remove the foam, containing impurities, into a bowl and discard. From this point follow whatever recipe you are using.

Some studies claim that phytates may help prevent colon cancer. I’d rather eat a healthful diet, including the nutrients in whole foods, to increase my resistance to cancer. The idea that phytates may help prevent cancer is controversial with no definitive answer.

I sometimes skip the soaking step when cooking grains based on how I’m going to use the food—some grains, like rice, have few phytates. I regularly soak beans because soaking also improves the texture of most cooked beans, and because it helps with digestion.