I haven't had much interest in sprouting before, but a blog post I read recently related sprouting to year-round indoor gardening. I've been longing to have a garden ever since moving to Philadelphia and not having a space to do so! I decided to give it a shot and boy has it been fun watching one of the many miracles of life: a seed growing into a plant.
On Sunday I took a handful of the French lentils I got from the bulk section at Whole Foods. I rinsed them off in a fine colander that I use for everything from sifting flour to steaming veggies. I placed the wet lentils in a clean pickle jar, covered them with a (used) plastic baggie, and stuck them near the window in the kitchen. Every day since then, I've dumped the lentils back in the colander and rinsed them off twice a day. After the first day, little shoots started popping out. It's now been a full three days and you can see the sprouts in the photos.
I was surprised to see that sprouting lids (containing a screen that you can just screw onto the top of the jar, which makes it easier to rinse) aren't as widely-available as I had thought. I didn't see a single listing for one on Ebay! I think my current method is absolutely fine, but I also realized that I have some screening left over from a craft project. I might just fashion myself a sprouting lid soon.
The dried French lentils, posing with my cauliflower sheep.
Day 3 of the lentils in the jar.
Just look at those cute little sprouts!
"A dozen sprouted lentils in the hand is worth two dozen unsprouted in the bag." Isn't that how the saying goes?
The sprouted lentils taste like fresh peas or what I would imagine fresh lentils tasting like.
The lentils covered with a plastic baggie.
BTW: The furniture that the lentils are resting on is a piece I recently rescued on garbage day, cleaned up real well, and have been using to store canned goods. Above it are my botanical paintings, featured in an earlier post. :)
Lately I've been motivated to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, so this is just another opportunity to try something new! Apparently there are a ton of nutritional reasons to sprout, and I think they've been summed up well on the Nourishing Gourmet blog post: "Why Sprout".
I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to let these buggers sprout before DocDufresne and I eat them, but we'll probably put 'em in a salad.
I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to let these buggers sprout before DocDufresne and I eat them, but we'll probably put 'em in a salad.
Hi, I just found your blog and enjoyed your post on your sprouts. You can take an old nylon and cover the top of your jar with it and a rubber band. I got my lid for my jar at Whole Foods. In my store they hang on a stand with sprouting seeds near the produce department. My lid is green with little drain holes in it. You have given me the desire to go home and start some lentils sprouting. :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information, Veg-a-Nut! I let the sprouts grow two more days, and then we finished them. (We had been munching on them throughout.) It's fun, isn't it?
ReplyDeletehere's the post!!
ReplyDelete--b