Sprouting Beans

I first heard about sprouting beans from justingredients.us and am honestly surprised this doesn’t seem to be more popular since it is so easy! 

At our house we rarely use canned beans, we made the switch to cooking from dry beans several years ago when our budget was tight and have kept it up. It is a set it and forget it thing that saves money and resources. 

Sprouting beans is just another easy step to take that yields more nutrition as well as food volume. Simply soaking the beans doubles the volume and then sprouting them can up to quadruple your yield, what an amazing and cost effective way to utilize your food supply.

I start by soaking my beans in a pot of water so they are all covered and let it sit for about 24 hours. This will help get rid of phytic acid and lectins, which are considered to be anti-nutrients. The anti-nutrients have been talked about more recently due to the fact that they inhibit iron, zinc, protein and calcium absorption.

Soaking also helps to break down some of the sugars beans contain that your body doesn’t easily digest. These sugars are often the culprits of the gas and indigestion people associate with eating beans. This is why soaking in plenty of water for plenty of time is so important, to get rid of them as much as possible. 

After soaking I dump that water since it has the anti-nutrients and sugars in it and place the beans in a large colander. They need to be “watered” (rinsed) every 8-12 hours and a wet cloth placed on top to keep them moist. They also need to be kept out of direct sunlight so I used a dishtowel to cover them to help with that. 

You will start seeing sprouting as early as day 1 and the recommendations seem to be in agreement that by day 3-4 you should use or preserve them to prevent them from going bad. After sprouting you still need to cook them since they are essentially raw at this point. 

I prefer to cook them all at once and freeze what I’m not planning to use right away so they are ready to go when I do want them. 

Sprouting helps further rid of the anti nutrients and enhance absorption of the protein and other nutrients contained in the beans. A study done on sprouted black eyed peas showed an increase in vitamin C and calcium as well. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4573095/

If you’re already cooking from dry beans why not take a step forward and increase the benefits of the food you’re already investing in. And if you aren’t in the habit of cooking from dry beans, maybe start there and when you’re comfortable move forward. The road to better eating habits is best tackled a little at a time to avoid being overwhelmed by lots of changes at once ♥

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