Sprouting...

If you're not so interested in my ramblings, go ahead and jump right on down to my quick instructions on sprouting your beans.

Yesterday I cooked my black beans that had been soaked overnight in whey for the first time, rather than just soaked without an acidic medium. I am happy to report that we did notice a difference in how we digested the beans... the household was less stinky than it would typically be.

Last night I soaked kidney beans and chick peas with vinegar for the Millet Garden Medley we had tonight, and I must say that I don't think the results were quite as good, but I still think it was worthwhile.

But typically, if we're planning far enough in advance, I prefer to sprout my beans to increase their nutritional value. So as I began setting out 4 types of beans in a bowl to soak for Thursday's dinner, I realized that I didn't know if I was supposed to still use an acid in the water if I was SPROUTING the beans rather than just soaking them. A quick google search later, and I came across a number of useful blogs covering this topic of soaking and sprouting, such as this one. I can tell you pretty definitively that I do NOT need to use an acid if we're sprouting them, as the sprouting process naturally removes the phytic acid that soaking with whey does.

I started learning about sprouting about 5 years ago. It started innocently enough, because I wanted to make my own mung bean sprouts to put in a salad. The next thing I new, I was soaking all our beans and making things like sprouted black beans and rice. While sprouting black beans and rice alters their flavor, sprouting a ton of other beans doesn't really change their flavor but really enhances their nutrition, so we make a habit of doing that whenever we plan ahead enough to know what we're having for dinner in 2 or 3 days... which is relatively often, actually. (I don't manage a week of meal planning, but we can usually manage to plan for a sprouted bean crock pot meal that will happen in a couple days).

At any rate, now I don't feel so late to the party since we've been doing this method of removing phytic acid for a while now. Can't say I notice the same "aiding in digestion" results, though. So I'm not sure what that's all about.

If you have never tried sprouting beans, I highly recommend you give it a shot! It is sooo easy. I learned for starters from The Sprout People, but to be honest their methods got too complicated for me. Let me tell you what I do.

How to Sprout Beans

What you need:

• A large bowl
• A tea towel or cloth napkin
• A colander
• Dry beans (I'm not picky about what kind. I even get good results from the cheap Hurst's HamBeens 15 bean mix that you find in a bag from the grocery store).

What you do:

1. Before bed, put your beans (however many you need) in your bowl and fill the bowl with water, to at least an inch and a half above the beans. You want the bowl to be able to hold at least 3 times as many dry beans as you're filling it with.
2. Cover the bowl with a towel and set it on a counter, away from direct sunlight, and go to bed.
3. When you wake up (8 or so hours later), dump the beans into a colander and rinse well. Put the beans back in the bowl. Do not refill with water. Cover them and set them back on the counter.
4. 8 hours later, rinse the beans in a colander, and put them back in the bowl, cover, set on counter.
5. Repeat step 5 every 8 hours or so (when you wake up in the morning, before dinner, and right before bed) until the beans have sprouted as much as you want them to. This varies by type of bean, but 2 - 3 days is a good guestimate.
6. If your beans are sprouted enough and you're not ready to cook them, put the bowl in the fridge to stop the sprouting process. If you're ready to cook them, go ahead and prepare them the same way you would prepare unsprouted beans.

I find that most legumes require the same amount of cooking time they would normally, but they do NOT need as much water as unsprouted beans need to cook. This part you just need to play by ear. I usually throw them in a crock pot that I'm going to cook for 8 hours on low. But I also sprout garbanzo beans and then boil them in a big pot on the stove until they're soft, and proceed to use them for hummus, garbanzo bean salad, or roasted for a snack.

You can find more tips from Living Foods, but they're only interested in eating raw foods, not cooked beans. I actually always cook my beans. Although technically you can eat garbanzos, mung beans, and lentils raw, I just don't like their taste raw. I especially hate raw garbanzo beans. And then a lot of beans, like black, pinto, and kidney beans should not be eaten raw.