It's a Matter of....Yummy Bean Sprouts....at home!

Aren't they lovely?  Yes, I am saying "lovely" about Bean Sprouts, but these look and taste great.  I wanted to show you my experiment and slight changes that I made to a method from Rita Bingham's Natural Meals in Minutes.  She gives you directions to use a 2 quart container to sprout with.  For my purposes, that was just too large, so I went looking around my house and found the following items which I used to grow these yummy sprouts.

I used a 1/2 Cup of Mung Beans and soaked them over night.  Can you see how much they expanded over night in this mug? I then found an empty #10 can, a nail, and a large clear disposable cup.

I used the name to puncture holes in the cup for drainage.

Puncture the sides and bottom.

Placed the soaked Mung Beans in the cup and place several layers of a cloth that will protect the beans, but also keep them moist. I think next time I will use Burlap as Ms. Bingham suggests.

Because I was sprouting a smaller amount, I only used a 2.5 pound weight.  This was a little tricky to find something of the weight, that I didn't care if it got wet and could fit in the cup.  Thanks to Rooster Senior, I used some of his nails for his nail gun, put them in a baggie and weighed them on my kitchen scale to calculate how many I needed.  

Layer the beans, cloth, and weight in the cup.  (I also got the cloth wet by running water over the whole unit and let the drainage holes release the excess water.  

I inverted a saucer and placed it at the bottom of the can.  This allows water to run off and reside under the plate.  This could be obtained at the dollar store if you didn't want to use your own dishes.

Place the filled cup into the can.

Here is where you get to make a choice.  You can either rinse the beans 4x/day and then keep them in the dark with a lid. (By the way, keeping them in the dark gives you beautiful white sprouts).

You can also cover them with a towel and drip water on the towel throughout the day and night.  As it is soooooo cold here right now and as one of my neighbors has had a frozen pipe issue, I chose to dripping water method.  

Now can you see why I chose a Clear Cup?  See the thick white sprouts working hard because of the weight on top?  

I could have waited another day to take them out of the cup, but I was just so curious I didn't. They taste wonderful and even Rooster Senior, who doesn't like anything that looks like a pea liked them.  He cautioned me though, only put them in salads or sandwiches.  He said that "if they were cooked, they would be too much like peas", which is a big no-no around here.  I don't think that would be the case, but it is his own reality.  I could also put them in the bread dough if I were baking bread.

If you want to see it in video form....here you go!

I think this experiment was a success, and I will do this again.  I loved the fact that I could do this with things around my home.  Also, I love the fact that I made about 2 cups of Bean Sprouts for pennies.  

Try it!