I've decided to give some sprouting a try. I love sprouts but stopped buying them some time ago as they seem to have a propensity for foodborne bacteria. I want to start adding them to my salads and wraps and sandwiches and...anything that you might like to have some sprouts in. Alfalfa sprouts were the first thing to come to mind, and I did a little research. It turns out you can sprout all sorts of things. Who knew? Many many people on the internet, but not me. Anyway, as I didn't have any alfalfa seeds handy I decided to sprout some red lentils I bought a couple weeks ago for the lentil and sweet potato shepherds pie my family was so fond of (I jest, they hated it). I'm also trying to sprout some yellow ones, but they seem unaware of it, as they are doing nothing. In all my reading (20 minutes worth) everyone seemed to agree that you should soak your lentils first. Many lentil bought specifically for the purpose of sprouting will tell you to soak your lentils in bleach water. I plan on eating mine, so I decided a little vinegar water would do. I soaked my lentils overnight, then drained them and put them in a jar the next morning. Here's what they looked like.
It's got a teeny tiny little sprout on it. Isn't it adorable? So I soaked em, drained em and put them in a jar. I topped the jar with a bit of old hosiery and a screwband. In theory they can still breath because of the holes in the hosiery. You can also use just a paper towel (I have old hosiery laying around, but no paper towels. What are the odds?) and rubber band. You just don't want any bugs flying in there, or other things... Place them out of direct sunlight in a not too warm place.
I put them on their side. I was worried they would get too crowded in there.
That was yesterday. Here is today.
Day 2
He's graduated from adorable to kinda creepy looking. They are supposed to take 5-7 days to sprout to the point that you are going to want to eat them, though I'm told you can eat them at any point along the way.
My jar of red lentils looks fuller today cause they are actually sprouting. My jar of yellow lentils is mocking me.
Day 3
Alright, today I had to throw out my jar of yellow lentils. It went from just mocking me to smelling funky and getting a slimy. I think all of the yellow lentils were split and that was the problem. I'm fine with that. I think I was a little ambitious with 2 jars of lentil sprouts to start out. I don't know how long they'll keep in the fridge.
You can see the red lentils have made quite a bit of progress over the last 24 hours. I'm hoping they will be ready to eat soon. They look delicious. As usual, I just rinsed them out and drained them today.
Day 4
Today I was a little worried that my sprouts were getting slimy. They smelled fine and they looked OK, but I thought I saw what could be a little slime in there. I let them soak in a little vinegar water, but if the vinegar is going to inhibit the growth of bacteria will it also inhibit the growth of the sprout? I don't know. I only let them soak for a couple minutes then I stirred them out and rinsed them twice. I hope I wasn't too vigorous with them. I also ate one today. I was surprised at just how good they were. I'm making a creamy Mexican kale salad for dinner tonight and I think I might throw some in there. They are really quite flavorful. I need to start another jar. Seriously though, they are good.
Day 5
As you can see they are doing wonderfully. I'm thinking about moving them to my fridge. I'm not sure how long you are supposed to let them grow and I ate about 1/3 of the jar today. So yummy. I really want to try the alfalfa
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