I’ve been enjoying learning how to sprout brown lentils. I’m thinking of sprouting broccoli seeds next.
Equipment
- 1 mason jar
- 1 screen lid (I bought this green Sprouting Strainer Lid from Amazon)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown lentils
- 1 cup water
Place the lentils in the jar and screw on the screen lid. Let the lentils soak for about 12 hours. After that, drain and rinse out the lentils every 6-8 hours (I confess, I sometimes waited 24 though not on purpose and the lentils were fine). You drain the lentils into the sink and then rinse the lentils. You turn the jar upside down unto a plate and let it drain again. Repeat in about 8 hours. The lentils are ready when they sprout little tails (in about 3 days). You can then store them in the refrigerator. They will last for at least one week.
Why sprout?
- It’s fun.
- The lentils are tasty and add crunch to a salad
- Of course, there seem to be numerous health reasons to sprout.
I covered the lentils with a sock to keep them out of the light. Most of the recipes seemed to suggest this is not necessary, so I left the sock out of the post. Here was one simple post I found that talked about sprouting in general.
I admire how you experiment with food (sprouting, fermenting, sourdough,…). I think that it is the repetitive process that I find a little off-putting.
Sprouting is actually much easier than fermenting. But I absolutely love the result of fermenting (I just made a new batch of sauerkraut), so it drives me to experiment more.
I gave up on sourdough – I did it twice, but my son who loves bread prefers the commercial yeast homemade bread. So I make that instead (I’ve been doing a lot of rye breads – rye flour, white flour, molasses and caraway seeds).
I know it’s healthy, but I need a way without any specially bought equipment
You can use an old nylon as a strainer. Or an old, thin sock.
Another way I read was to use window screen material – but I couldn’t quite figure how to do that. Buying the little green strainer cap from Amazon (it was about $4) was super easy. I realize from Israel that might be more money or more complicated.
Very cool!
Sprouting lentils is fun, and my daughter has enjoyed watching them over the past few days.
Nice to share your interest with your daughter, isn’t it?