How To Sprout Stuff, for Beginners

Sprouting is easy. It works like this: soaking, draining, rinsing.

Step 1: Soaking


Let your sprouting material soak for one night in cold water. One tablespoon seeds should be enough, as they grow much bigger when they sprout.

If you can, buy organic sprouting material.


Those are special sprouting glasses. They are very practical, but you don't absolutely need such a thing. Normal jars are fine too.
In the picture, the green things are mung beans, and the red ones are adzuki beans.

Step 2: Draining

In the morning after the soaking night, drain the water out of the glasses.

Now you can see why sprouting glasses are convenient.

Step 3: Rinsing

From now on, rinse your sprouts twice a day: just fill the glass with cold water and then drain it. Do it once in the morning and once in the evening.
If you are using normal jars instead of sprouting glasses, please drain them carefully, or else your sprouts could mold.
Keep mung beans in a dark place (for example inside a closet). Other species enjoy light. Avoid direct sunlight though.
After some time (a couple hours to a couple days), your stuff will start sprouting.

If you sprout beans like these, they'll drop their green/red skins during the process. Remove the loose ones. Same for sunflower seeds.


And soon the sprouts will be ready.

The time it takes until your sprouts are ready varies. It can take one day or five of them, depending on what you are sprouting, and also on your taste. Some sprouts taste differently as they grow older. Just experiment and find out what is best for you.
You'll find detailed information on appropriate soaking times and rinsing frequencies for each kind of seeds online. In my experience, one night of soaking then rinsing twice a day works for pretty much everything I sprout. I have no experience with sprouting grains and pseudo-grains, though. If you think the sprouts have a too strong or unpleasant smell, rinse more often.
What to sprout?
You can sprout all kinds of things:


small beans (adzuki, mung...)
other legumes (lentils, chickpeas...)
nuts (almonds...)
seeds (sunflower seeds, sesame...)
veggies (mustard, radish...)
grains (wheat, rye...)
pseudo-grains (quinoa, amaranth, rice...)

Truly raw nuts can be difficult to find. Sprouting them is a good method to find out if they're raw: it will only work if they are.

Do NOT sprout large beans (kidney, soy, fava, pinto, navy...). These are toxic!

Is sprouting ethical?

The only problem I have with sprouts is that I always feel sorry for eating them. It's magical to see them suddenly awaken to life, unfold, and, if you wait long enough, grow little leaves. Instead of eating them I'd rather plant them and see them grow. I always feel like an ogre raising cute little babies to devour them. :-(