cdkitchen > feeddaily blog
Not Just Homemade, But Homegrown!
by Guest Writer, Valerie WhitmoreOver the last few years there have been several warnings about consuming/purchasing sprouts (alfalfa, radish, and other types) due to salmonella, e. coli and listeria outbreaks. As a result, many grocery stores no longer carry this yummy veggie.
Of course, I ended up with a recipe I wanted to test that called for alfalfa sprouts. I knew my regular store didn't carry them so I turned to my old friend, the internet, for suggestions on what to do.
The internet told me: grow your own!
Thanks to Amazon's Prime shipping feature, in under 24 hours I had everything I needed to grown my own alfalfa sprouts. And basically all you need are seeds and a container to grow them in. The container I got is supposed to make growing sprouts extra easy. It has a cup insert inside a larger cup with drain holes in the bottom. You can easily soak the sprouts and drain them without having to remove them from the cup.
Sprouts grow fast and all they need is water and proper growing conditions. You don't need soil or even sunlight for them! The seeds I bought came in a one pound package and will produce around 7x their volume. That's right, I have enough seeds to make 7 pounds of sprouts! One note, lots of websites advise that if you are going to grow your own you should make sure you are buying seeds that have been certified organic to reduce the nasty health risks that commercially grown sprouts have encountered.
The first step is to add the seeds to the cup. It calls for 1/4 cup. Doesn't look like much, right?
Next, you fill the container with water and soak the seeds for 8 hours. No more. No less. Then, drain.
After that, once or twice a day you do a "mini soak" by adding room temperature water to the container, letting it soak for 5-15 minutes, then drain.
This is what the sprouts looked like after the first 24 hours. The container is about half full now.
This is after 36 hours. The sprouts are filling up the container even more.
And... 48 hours later, we have sprouts! The container is almost completely full.
I love how fresh tasting they are - better than I ever could get at the supermarket. The one thing I'll do different from now on, however, is use about half the seeds that are called for. I don't think we'll use all these up before they start to go bad so I'll grow them in smaller batches. It might seem like a lot of effort just for one recipe but a) I just can't easily (or safely?) find sprouts at stores, and b) there is just something a little extra satisfying about eating food you've grown yourself!
If you are interested in trying this yourself, I bought this sprouter on Amazon.
Of course, I ended up with a recipe I wanted to test that called for alfalfa sprouts. I knew my regular store didn't carry them so I turned to my old friend, the internet, for suggestions on what to do.
The internet told me: grow your own!
Thanks to Amazon's Prime shipping feature, in under 24 hours I had everything I needed to grown my own alfalfa sprouts. And basically all you need are seeds and a container to grow them in. The container I got is supposed to make growing sprouts extra easy. It has a cup insert inside a larger cup with drain holes in the bottom. You can easily soak the sprouts and drain them without having to remove them from the cup.
Sprouts grow fast and all they need is water and proper growing conditions. You don't need soil or even sunlight for them! The seeds I bought came in a one pound package and will produce around 7x their volume. That's right, I have enough seeds to make 7 pounds of sprouts! One note, lots of websites advise that if you are going to grow your own you should make sure you are buying seeds that have been certified organic to reduce the nasty health risks that commercially grown sprouts have encountered.
The first step is to add the seeds to the cup. It calls for 1/4 cup. Doesn't look like much, right?
Next, you fill the container with water and soak the seeds for 8 hours. No more. No less. Then, drain.
After that, once or twice a day you do a "mini soak" by adding room temperature water to the container, letting it soak for 5-15 minutes, then drain.
This is what the sprouts looked like after the first 24 hours. The container is about half full now.
This is after 36 hours. The sprouts are filling up the container even more.
And... 48 hours later, we have sprouts! The container is almost completely full.
I love how fresh tasting they are - better than I ever could get at the supermarket. The one thing I'll do different from now on, however, is use about half the seeds that are called for. I don't think we'll use all these up before they start to go bad so I'll grow them in smaller batches. It might seem like a lot of effort just for one recipe but a) I just can't easily (or safely?) find sprouts at stores, and b) there is just something a little extra satisfying about eating food you've grown yourself!
If you are interested in trying this yourself, I bought this sprouter on Amazon.