live food

The idea was to soak these sunflower seeds overnight, to make some seed cheese for the following night’s meal, but our dinner plan changed and I didn’t use them right away. I kept them rinsed and drained, figuring I would get to it soon. A couple days went by and I realized we had ourselves some live food to enjoy instead. Just the “mistake” I needed to get us back into sprouting again. Fresh sprouts make a tasty, crisp and super nutritious addition to salads, sandwiches, tacos, and are even a great snack all on their own.

To sprout seeds in jars, it helps immensely to have a sprouting jar lid to enable easy draining of the water. There are lots of places to find these, including many local natural foods stores. Here is one I found up with a super brief online search.

Easy sprouting instructions: In this case I used 1 generous cup of sunflower seeds, which is probably the most you will want to soak in a jar of this size at one time. Cover your seeds with cold drinking water and soak them overnight, or about 10 – 12 hours. Drain the soak water. Fill the jar again and swirl it around to rinse, then drain – repeat this once or twice. Drain off much water as you can (you don’t want standing water or things can get funky in there).

Once drained, I like to set my jar upside down in a bowl, leaned against the side, so the seeds can continue to drain any excess water. If you tip the sprouts away from the lid before setting the jar down in the bowl, this will also allow some air flow throughout the jar.

Rinse and drain your seeds a few times daily and you should have sprouts in about 3 days or so (this time can vary depending on what you are sprouting, and the temperature of your home).  Once your seeds are sprouted to the point of your liking (I could have gone longer here and let them green up), give them a thorough final rinse, thoroughly drain them, and store in a clean, covered container in the fridge. Then add them to anything and everything!

Other possible things to sprout with this method include almonds, cashews, quinoa, mung beans, adzuki beans, lentils, and the list goes on. Each has it’s own unique flavor and texture and it’s really fun to experiment.