Spring will soon be upon us, and you might be eager to get your garden started. If you’re impatient to have fresh greens again, you might want to try sprouting as you wait for the seeds in your garden to germinate.
Sprouting seeds is a great way to get quick, delicious nutrients you can throw in sandwiches and salads, and they only take a few days to grow right on your countertop. This is also a great option for folks who don’t have room to garden!
Fresh sprouts are not only delicious and easy, they’re actually really good for you too. They contain a bunch of wonderful nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, including:
protein and dietary fiber, as well as vitamin K, folate, pantothenic acid, niacin, thiamin, vitamin C, vitamin A, and riboflavin. In terms of minerals, sprouts contain manganese, copper, zinc, magnesium, iron, and calcium.
- protein
- dietary fiber
- vitamin K, C, and A
- folate
- pantothenic acid
- niacin
- thiamin
- riboflavin
- manganese
- copper
- zinc
- magnesium
- iron
- calcium
These are a great way to get fresh, live, essential nutrients that’s both affordable, fresh, and fun to do. Here’s how:
What you need:
- Organic alfalfa seeds, meant for sprouting
- Mason jar
- Clean, plastic or wire mesh
- Mason jar lid
- Sturdy bowl
Directions:
- First, rinse 2 tbs of your seeds thoroughly under clean, cold water. (Save the rest of them for the next time you want to sprout seeds!)
- Put the seeds in your mason jar, and cover with a few cups of water.
- Leave overnight.
- Drain the seeds in the morning, cover with the mesh and lid, shake the jar thoroughly, and tip over into your bowl, so that excess moisture can drain out.
- Do this daily until you have sprouts that are your desired size. This will typically be a few days. There’s no exact size that is perfect, although if they get too big they will start to mold or rot, but you can “harvest” and eat them pretty much from when they sprout little green shoots on.
- Once they are sprouted to your liking, cover with the mason jar lid, and keep in the refrigerator.
Pictured above is seeds that have been sprouted three days; this is a pretty good example of a desirable “length” of the sprouts.
Once they’re in the fridge, eat them within 3-5 days, and enjoy!
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