food
Sprouts, let’s talk about sprouts! This past year I took a deep dive into my inner body health. Let’s air things out, I think I may be a bit of a hypochondriac, and if you don’t know what that is, it’s someone who lives in fear that they may have an undiagnosed medical condition. When it comes to exercise, I’m also someone who can be quite lazy; who would have guessed this from an ex-pro snowboarder. But on the other hand, I do spend a lot of time investing and researching the foods that me and my family consume.
My brother, Matt, introduced me to a podcast a few years ago called “Plant Proof” hosted by nutritionist Simon Hill. If you are curious about consuming more plants and gearing your diet towards a more plant-based approach, I can’t recommend his podcast enough. While listening to his podcast, I learned about Glyphosate, which is one of the worlds most commonly used herbicides. It is found in most weed killers, like Roundup, and when consumed it never breaks down in your body. This is a whole other lengthy topic that I will definitely be sharing a full blog post on in the future!
While Jill and I have been eating more plant-based for the last few years, I have to say this Plant Proof podcast really spring-boarded me into this journey and is also how I came across sprouts! If you want to listen to Simon Hill and Doug Evans’s podcast episode is all about Sprouts, you can check it out here. Doug Evans talks about his book “The Sprout Book,” his entire journey discovering sprouts and it’s just sproutingly-fantastic.
https://rstyle.me/+edz9S4mAwNymEyPYIDHFLQ
I love growing our own produce in the Spring and Summer in our outdoor garden, and found it tough to get those nutrient-rich foods in the Fall and Winter until I learned about sprouts! Not only are they wicked easy to grow, but they are also low maintenance, affordable, and out of this world good for you! All you have to do is rinse them twice a day, wait a few days, and then you have little sprouts that are amazing for your gut health and fueling your microbiome.
As many of you may know, Jill and I love ordering our seeds from West Coast Seeds, and when I got into the world of sprouting, they were the first people I reached out to. If you are looking for seeds or sprouts of any kind, I would highly recommend reaching out to them!
What You’ll Need:
You don’t need many tools to grow sprouts; you can either get a sprout rack or use mason jars with specific sprout lids; these lids have tiny holes and act as a strainer. If you are using the racks, you will need a little spray bottle. To be honest, I find the racks to be a little trickier to use. So if you are new to sprouting, I would recommend using the mason jar method for an easier option.
- Broccoli Organic Sprouting Seeds/ Bean Salad Organic Sprouting Seeds/ Any Sprout Seeds
- Mason Jars
- Sprout Lids
- Sprout Racks
How to grow your sprouts!
Day 1
The first thing you will need to do is add 1 tbsp of sprouts into a clean mason jar. Fill the mason jar up with water and make sure all of the seeds are covered. The soak time depends on the size of the seeds you are sprouting, the smaller the seeds the less time they will need to soak. The broccoli sprouts are the smallest and I soak them for about 4-6 hours. After they are finished soaking strain the water (using your specific sprout lid), give them another rinse and after all of the water has been removed spin the seeds around and once they are sticking to the outside of the mason jar, flip the jar upside down and keep them out of direct sunlight.
Day 2-7
The next morning you will need to fill your container a quarter of the way with water, drain, and woosh the sprouts around your mason jar – this will need to be done twice a day. You will keep repeating this step for roughly 4-5 days and then you will have a healthy batch of sprouts!
Day 8
Once your sprouts are done sprouting, it’s time to harvest! Give your sprouts a final rinse, transfer them onto a clean paper towel and pat them dry. You can then transfer them to a clean container and place them in the fridge. They can be quite tricky to wash and are best to enjoyed sooner than later.
There you have it! This is the quick n’ dirty way to grow sprouts and all of their magical benefits. If you are into sprouting as much as I am, I would highly recommend investing in Doug Evans’s book, watching his YouTube videos and even listening to his episode on the Plant Proof podcast.
Justin
