Friday, July 1, 2011

Sprouts!

First, a shout-out to my homeboy, Chia Scooby, the inspiration for the whole crazy thang:

I figured that if we could sprout a thousand chia seeds off a terra cotta dog's head, we could probably sprout some actual food for eating, and stop paying the guy at the market big bucks for a few pennies worth of seeds and water. We're really into eating sprouted grains and vegetables because when they're sprouted, the nutritional value increases astronomically (plus they won't break your teeth). You could trust me on this or you could go to the Google and learn more, like find out what actual nutrients and phytonutrients are miraculously generated when you expose seeds to a little water and sunlight.

So we headed down to the local health food store and got a few packages of premixed seeds (expensive), a few hundred grams of various seeds from the bulk bins (cheap), and dug through the pantry at home for some other beans and seeds (free). 

And here is the part where it gets very tricky and complicated.  Pay close attention to the following instructions and follow them to the letter.

HOW TO SPROUT SEEDS:
  • Toss the seeds into a couple of Mason jars with cheesecloth or some other fine mesh under the lids.
  • Soak them overnight
  • Rinse and drain twice daily, keeping them damp
  • When they look the way you think they should (after 3-5 days), eat them. 

Here they are after a day

and here they are after five days


After a final rinse and drain, they are all ready for John's salad
 The image above shows the contents of the two jars combined: organic chickpeas and regular brown lentils, with A. Vogel prepackaged "Fitness Mix".  Next we'll be sprouting chia seeds as an homage to Scooby, broccoli, black mustard (spicy!) and red clover.

Total cost, about $10, and we now have enough seeds to keep us in sprouts well into the fall (John was spending about $5 for two small bags at the market).  We would have paid about half that if we'd passed on the prepackaged seeds and just put together our own mix as we did with the lentils and chickpeas.  I think by Googling up the sprouting times and nutritional benefits of the various seeds you could easily figure out some good combinations.

Thanks Chia Scooby!