Does anyone do this sprouting malarky?

[Hopefully]

Quite tempted to try sprouting some seeds/beans, but not sure if I'm being sucked into a celebrity craze... Does anyone except my (clearly very healthy) friend who has inspired me to try it do this in real life? Can you answer some questions for me?

• Is it economical? I'm thinking sprouts will mostly be used as well as/instead of salad in sandwiches, so is it comparable cheapness wise to salad? How much sprout do you get from, say, these packets?

• are they actually nice, or do you eat them because they are incredible virtuous?

• Where do you get them from?

Don't know about being virtuous or economical. We get them in our veg box and I eat them (sacrilegiously stir-fried with some bacon, I'm afraid) but the only ones I would grow would be the mung beans. They are lovely.

yes!!!

It's easy-peasy and you feel tremendously virtuous.

I sprout mung beans, chickpeas, puy lentils and green lentils.

I get a mixed handful of them (my problem is that I always overestimate how many I need and they don't really keep that long, so it's better to do little and often) and soak them in about twice - 3 times their volume of water for at least 12 hours.

Then drain them and spread them out in a fine mesh sieve over an empty bowl. Leave them on the side in your kitchen.

Every 24 hours, you need to give them a little bit of a rinse. Personally, I always use slightly tepid water because my 3rd form biology makes me think it will be more conducive to sprouting seeds than icy cold.

Anyway, after about two days they sprout. You need to leave them where they are until the sprout is as long as the seed itself, after which you can put them in the fridge.

I use them in salads, stir-fries or in sandwiches (mixed sprouts and crunch peanut butter is yummy stuff).

A couple of things: obviously you can't do this with kidney beans or you will be horribly poisoned. And you can't do it with anything that is already split, e.g. red lentils. And you learn pretty quickly that some things sprout much faster than others, e.g. mung beans are off at a rate of knots, chickpeas take a lot longer. Oh, and in very warm weather you might want to do the rinsing thing twice a day instead of once.

Hope this is helpful - I'm honestly not the earth mother type, but sprouting is cheap and nutritious and educational for small people.

sorry, missed your last question: you can buy bags of dried pulses and beans in health food shops or pretty much every supermarket (our co-op even has them). I don't buy a special mix, I just have a few bags of different ones on the go.

Ooh, thanks! Didn't realise I could just use bog standard bags of pulses/beans, had visions of having to buy enormously expensive eco-beans of some description.

Will find a jar and purchase beans forthwith

I do it in a bowl in a warm cupboard, mung beans usually, bought in bulk from asian shop.

Soak for 30 mins in water.
Drain, cover with saucer, put in cupboard.
Rinse every 4 to 12 hours ie whenever you remember!

Once sprouted to reqired length, rinse and store in fridge to arrest growth.

We sprout alfalfa, once in awhile mung beans, and wheat berries-which the kids just like to eat after they've soaked a day or two but before they've sprouted.

We just used to stick them in a jar by the kitchen sink with some water. I can't remember any rinsing! They are nice, but do need to be eaten pdq (as do shop bought ones). We did mostly mung, sometimes alfalfa, with the seeds from our local health food shop. I really like them but dh and the children aren't keen.