Sprouted Beans

Well, it's spring cleanse time for me! I'll share a few more nutrient-packed recipes that I enjoy. First off, here's how to sprout some beans! These pack a punch of nutrients and add an interesting nutty crunch to salads, stews or stir-fry (oh my!).

Step 1: Start with a handful of dry beans (I used mung beans-- they're weird and green and cool and I feel super healthy using them :)
You can use just about any bean like lentils, chickpeas, adzuki, white, black. What cool bean have you tried?
​Soak them overnight (or 8 hours) in water. Mason jars look hipster, so that's why I like them. Any container that you can drain water in and out of will do. They will triple in size so start small.

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Step 2: For the next 3-5 days, rinse the beans with water a few times each day and drain the water out. Basically you want to keep them looking just barely wet, without being soggy. 
Some awesome people have cheese cloth lying around (do you?), and those rockstars could use that to cover the jar for easy rinsing. Pantyhose would also work. I'm too lazy (and am also afraid that I probably DO have a pair of pantyhose from the 90's buried somewhere) that I just use my hand to keep the beans from falling out when I drain the water. Don't avoid making sprouts just because you don't have cheese cloth :)

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Step 3: Chow down! 3-5 days of sprouting and they're ready to eat! Throw them onto something delicious and chomp away. After they look nice and sprouty, you can move them in the fridge to retard their growth. They should stay good for a week or so, but you can rinse after a couple of days to keep them fresh. They will start growing little green leaves like tiny trees. How miraculous is that??

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Here I've made a veggie-rich lentil stew, dished it into a roasted acorn squash, and topped with sprouts and avocado. Yum!

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