Sprouting for Energy
Hello Everyone!
For those of you who’ve purchased my Easy Veggie Meal Plan, thank you so much for your awesome feedback! It’s been so great to hear your experiences with the plan, so keep them coming!
I wrote an article previously called Sprouting for Beginners showing you the variety of nuts and seeds that you can sprout. I’m doing one more article about sprouting since I received some more questions so I want to make sure I answer them for everyone.
In the video, I am showing you how to sprout mung beans but this method can be used to sprout any other seeds you want to sprout.
The Power of Sprouts. Soaking and sprouting seeds in water releases the seeds dormant energy and begins to predigest the amino acids, fats, and carbohydrates in the seeds making it easier for you to digest and utilize the nutrients, giving you lots of energy The nutrients in sprouts is the total nutrients needed to sustain life and develop a living plant. Amazing… This gives you an idea of the full spectrum of macro and micro nutrients seeds have available.
Sprouts are known to posses vital nutrients you won’t find in processed foods. They have been known to slow down the aging process. For example, look at me, I look pretty good for 50 years old! Sprouts have done well for me. Just kidding! But you get the idea.
For those who have flipped through all the recipes in the easy veggie meal plans, you may have noticed several recipes that call for mung beans or other soaked or sprouted seeds. This blog will be helpful to you if you are not familiar with this process.
First thing’s first when buying seeds—get organic. There’s a lot less chemicals in organic seeds, so buy organic whenever you can.
SPROUTING: Once you have your seeds, get yourself a glass jar like a big Mason jar or some type of glass bowl. Pour enough seeds to cover the bottom of the jar or bowl and then pour water about 1-2 inches above the seeds. It may seem strange to only pour a small amount of seeds into such a big jar, but the seeds will grow to fill up most of the jar.
If you have a sprout lid (aerated/ holes), put the sprout lid on the jar. If you don’t have a sprout lid, pick a lid to gently lay on top. Pick a lid that will still let air in or lay a cloth on top of the jar—otherwise you’ll kill the beans! They need oxygen.
Let the container of seeds sit for 8-12 hours. If you start the seeds in the evening, you’ll be ready to change the water in the morning before you start your day. This is a great way to rinse and make the sprouts on your schedule!
Keep container of seeds out of the sun if and when you are ready to infuse chlorophyll into the sprout leaves. You may not sprout some seeds this long. Actually most seeds you won’t sprout this far.
After the first 8-12 hour soak, drain the water, then re-fill jar with fresh water and re-seal. Then let the seeds sit again for another 8-12 hours. Check the beans in the evening to see if they need a third soaking. If so, just rinse and re-fill the water for another 8-12 hours. Usually you’ll need 2 days minimum then you’ll have enough sprouts for 1-2 weeks.Anytime you are sprouting seeds into full sprouts, the process will take 2-4 days. So be a little more patient and keep rinsing morning and night.
You’ll have superfoods for days.
Once mung beans are sprouted, you’ll see little tails on the beans. This means they’re ready to be eaten! Once sprouted, they have a lot more Vitamin C, and they’re a great source of protein, amino acids, calcium, iron and potassium.
Storing Sprouts: You can easily store your sprouts in the refrigerator. Just keep it drained (no water) and sealed. They should last one to two weeks. But I always recommend the “smell test” before you use them. You know, bad odor=bad sprouts! Rinsing them about every 4 days will help keep them fresh.
To Store Sprouts in Water or Not: Here’s how I determine if I store the sprouts in water in the frig or not.
Seeds that are sprouted with long plant tails or leaves: store sprouts without water, just slightly damp.
Seeds/legumes soaked but not fully sprouted like sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, lentils: store in the frig IN water. Rinse about every 4 days to keep them fresh.
Be inventive and share your creative food experiments with me! I love 
hearing about your fun and fabulous meals!
Have fun and be healthy,
Kardena Pauza
Author, Easy Veggie Meal Plans
I tried to keep the article short, which didn’t happen. I needed to give you this foundational information so you can make amazing foods that are going to give you so much energy and help you lose weight.
Thanks for giving us more information! I think I’m ready to start this now.
Hi Jayne,
You will kick butt, you will feel and look great! Kardena
Hey Kardena~
You not only rock … “you’re all that and a bucket-a-chicken” … well actually … you rock way, way better than that! Thank you for teaching me how to sprout Mung Beans. I am most enthusiastically shocked at what you’ve done for me. I followed your video exactly (even though I have about 7 books on raw food preparation), and it was amazing. I have an 80 oz. pickle jar (2.36 liters)that has about the same width/base as your jar in your video, but it is a lot taller. I covered the bottom of the jar with probably less than 1/4 lb. of Mung beans and covered them with 1 inch of water. That was about 4pm in the afternoon and I checked them upon rising the next morning. Well …
They had not only germinated, but some of them had already started shooting a very small tail … and some had not. I rinsed them and covered them in water again and later thought–maybe I’m now drowning them since some are already starting to sprout. Then I thought, “some will, some won’t, let’s just drain them and see”. They ALL started sprouting within the day. I thought, certainly they won’t fill this big jar up. Every morning and evening when I came into the kitchen I was always pleasantly surprised. I would rinse and drain them and lay the jar on it’s side and tap on it and say, “grow babies grow”. Started on a Thursday evening … had to use tongs to pull out 3 quarts of full Mung Bean sprouts on Monday evening. Freakin’ amazing! So …
All that said to say this: I have been without a steady income since Halloween of last year. I am re-starting my career within the next two weeks and things will change. Buying organic has not been on my radar as this has been a very bad year financially for me. What a great time for me and everyone in this recession to start seriously thinking about eating a plant-based nutrition lifestyle. I can afford better groceries because I’m not buying meat. I’m not all the way there yet; however, I am about 80% raw food vegan–I’m an “aspiring raw foodist”. Having been a pro-cook in New Orleans … I still eat a cooked meal in the evening and it can involve eggs and or chicken. But hear this … anyone can afford organic mung beans and lentils–it will stretch your grocery dollar like nothing else. One pound of organic lentils at Whole Foods cost 1.39; and, one pound of Mung beans cost 1.69. I can eat a couple of man-sized hand-fulls of mung sprouts a day and that 1 lb will last me an entire month if not longer! I can do 1 lb of lentils in about 10 days. Since I get as excited about grocery shopping and special prices on food as most women do about buying shoes and handbags–I’m totally stoked! Girlfriend–thanks to you, my frig & pantry are loaded with some of THEE best food on the planet and I’m saving money eating it during a recession. Tell everyone, Kardena …
Folks need to just trust you and try this lifestyle–it’s not a diet … it’s a live/alive nutrition lifestyle that will jazz you way up over the “dead-food” crowd. You choose to eat life, or eat death. I use to be an insomniac and now with my training and nutrition program I sleep like a baby. And at 52 years young and only 13 days of training on my new program this morning I did 144 lunge jumps and 72 pull-ups (broken up into small sets of 6’s & 3’s) within 17 min. 21 sec. I could go faster but I’m an asthmatic and have to be vigilant about managing my breath.
I don’t buy or need supplements anymore (I only use creatine ethyl esther), because I’m getting pumped up on raw-alive-live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and chlorophyll just the way nature made them. I’m sorry I write so much … but I cannot control my zeal and my gratitude for you, Kardena and what you’ve already done for me. I hope everyone will follow your advice.
Take Care Sister Super Girl,
Ever Thine,
Chuck
Hello Chuck,
Wow! I don’t know what to say! I have a very big smile on my face. 🙂 You took the knowledge and ran with it and have the wonderful benefit of reaping the rewards mentally, physically, and through saving money and feeling freakin’ amazing!
You put it perfectly about eating simple, no meat is not only less money but more energy and nutrients for your bod. How ironic is that!?
You know, the wealthiest man in the world can not buy back or reverse the damage he has done to his body, with a “rich man’s diet.” It is the perfect time for everyone to right-size spending, and say “my health is up to me and it starts now.”
I am so impressed with your workout routine. You would put most of my clients to shame:)
Chuck you said everything so eloquently, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Keep rockin’ and Sproutin’!
Your the man! Kardena
You mentioned you have a water filtration system. What kind of filtration system to you have?
I have a reverse osmosis system and I recently bought a water distiller.
Hi Kardena,
Just to clarify on sprouts. I’m not a grower — time, patience, etc. I purchase sprouts at the store. I find they go bad before I can eat them all. (its just me — my husband isn’t convinced — yet) I haven’t been rinsing everyday.
If I rinse everyday or every other day, I should be able to get the sprouts to last longer? It just never occurred to me. I always kept them damp in their container (container has holes in it for breathing) — but I never thought to rinse frequently.
Another money saving tip? 🙂 Thanks.
Kathie,
You definitely need to rinse everyday. Actually you need to rinse morning and night, so twice a day! If you don’t they will go bad and turn soft and moldy. The lid with the holes in the lid is perfect. Plants need fresh water and fresh air. Also, make sure when you have the jar on the counter, keep it in the shade, not in the sun or they will go bad and once they sprout fully, keep them in the refrigerator. Once you do this you will have beautiful sprouts!