Monday, March 19, 2012

Mustard Seed Sprout Salad

Spicy Mustard Seed Sprout Salad with Asian Dressing
Mustard Seeds are one of the easiest sprouts to grow and really add a great flavor to salads, smoothies, soups, etc.  They are packed with nutrition:  http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=106#healthbenefits



The ones I used today were grown just since Saturday morning, so just 3 days and they're ready to eat.  The taste is something like a radish married to brown mustard except not nearly that strong.  They do have a slight heat to them but nothing to make you need a drink.
http://sproutpeople.org/mustard.html

So how do you grow these tiny guys? 
First you start out by purchasing good quality seed.  I got a bag from my Asian market for about $4 for over 2 cups of seeds.  I normally don't soak more than 1/4 cup at a time.  1 1/4 cup brought me
over 2 Quarts of sprouts today with very few seeds unsprouted.  That's a whole lot cheaper and healthier than bagged salad from the store.
Mustard Seed Sprouts after 1 day of growth

For a detailed process of Sprouting techniques, there's no better source than 'Sprout People'.  They'll guide you step by step on their website through all kinds of sprouting seeds and have plenty of video too if you like.  I'll just brush through the basics I did here for my mustard seeds. 
1.  Rinse your seeds in cool water to clean them.
2.  Soak seeds in filtered water to cover them for up to 8 hours.
3.  Rinse off soak water (you can use the rinse water on your plants to give them a boost)
4.  Drain the seeds well and let them stand for 12 hours.
Soaking sprouts in final rinse
5.  Rinse again and drain for another 12 hours.
6.  Rinse again and drain for another 12 hours.
7.  Get the hint?  That's all there is to it.  You just watch to see their progress and then give them one last good rinse and then store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.



With some seeds, the hull needs to be removed although it isn't harmful and can add fiber to your diet.  The hulls on mustard seeds are so tiny I wouldn't normally remove them but for this post, I went ahead and did it to show the process. 
After the final rinsing, pour the sprouts into a colander set inside a larger bowl and fill with cool water once more.  When you swirl your hands gently through the sprouts in the water, the hulls will fall to the bottom and also float to the top of the water as you can see here. 
Scoop up most of the hulls and then lift the colander up and rinse ones more.  As you can see, most of the hulls have been washed away.  As I said, they only add to the health benefits of the sprouts, but if you'd rather remove them, they wash off quite easily.
Drain and dry your sprouts REALLY well before storing them to prolong their shelf life.
"Sprouts grow in nutritional value right up until the time they are eaten. This is very different from vitamins found in fresh vegetables and other produce where nutrient values steadily decline as soon as they are harvested"

Please check out Sprout People for so much more information on sprouting.

Enjoy!

Congratulations to Donna, winner of the Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway!

2 comments:

  1. Love this!! Do you just sprout them in a mason jar and do you put the lid on while they sprout? Many years ago I had mason jars with plastic lids that had a mesh top to allow air to get in and it was perfect when rinsing them... you just rinsed them right in the jar! I'm going to have to try to find them again... and an Asian market here! Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly, they sell the jars and those screened lids on line or I got a few at my health food store. They make it simple to rinse the sprouts. I do it while I'm feeding the cats usually LOL> Just sit the jar under the facet and fill it up every 8 hours or so and then tip it over to drain. I have a bowl I set the jar in at an angle then to drain and grow! Really simple. I lived off of these greens last year, quinoa, lentils, beans, my favorites have been sunflowers though that you grow in dirt in about a week. More on that later....

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...