December 18th, 2024Glen, about the house…

Salads in a jar – growing delicious, nutritious salad vegetables without the need to step out your back door.  

It’s amazing it took so long for Western civilisation to catch on to  one of the most nutritious, quickest growing and tastiest forms of fresh  food that has been produced in the East for thousands of years.

From seed to ready-to-eat sprout  takes only about four days and only a  matter of a few minutes a day is needed  to tend the ‘crops’.  

From a food value point of view,  seed sprouts provide large amounts  of vitamins A, B and C. The nutrients in the seed multiply by something like 200 per cent when sprouting takes place.

It is claimed that a half-cup of any form of edible seed sprouts will provide the same amount of vitamin C as six glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice.  

The sprouts can be served cold in a salad, cooked with other foods such as  vegetables, baked in bread and cakes, or roasted, ground and used as a base in various  recipes.  

Practically any food plant seed can be sprouted and eaten, but care must be taken  to use only seeds that have not been chemically treated against pest and diseases.  

Healthfood shops supply untreated seeds and several of the major seed firms are now  packaging sprouting seeds.  

Among the most popularly grown sprouting seeds are lucerne, alfalfa, mung beans (the traditional Chinese restaurant ones), almonds, cabbage, barley, radish, lentils, chick peas, corn, cress, soybean and rice.  

Growing sprouts is easy. Sow them at any time, regardless of the weather and they  never need to be cultivated or weeded. When it comes to sprouting containers there are many options available as well as  the glass ones, specially designed for the purpose.

I have found the best containers are  those inexpensive, near indestructible plastic, seal-top freezer containers. All that is needed is a lot of small holes punched in the lid for aeration and to aid in drainage. But make sure they are smaller than the seeds, to avoid losing them down  the sink.  

The mung beans can be a little tricky because they tend to sweat if they’re jammed too closely together. The best container for them is a draw-string topped muslin or  some other porous, fabric bag.

Preparing the salad  

You do not need to use many seeds at a time, a tablespoon will do, because seeds  produce anything from four to 10 times their original volume.  

Wash and soak the seeds in lukewarm water. Mostly, this will take an hour or so  but some varieties need to be soaked overnight.

Next, place them into the sprouting container and in a dark, warm spot. The only treatment then is to fill the container with water, shake it up well and  then drain the water away.  

This must be done every morning and evening to freshen the seeds and keep them slightly moist. Most seeds will take between three to five days to mature.

When this has happened wash the husks from the seeds and store them in a plastic bag until they are needed. The sprouts will usually last for up to a week if stored in this way.  

My favourite way of eating the sprouts is to make them the feature of a salad, using plenty of oil, garlic and any other spicy salad vegetables.  

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