Bean sprouts!

We're down at the boat now - just relaxing for the evening. We'll get moving tomorrow doing the final few things before shoving off Saturday morning. Just have to get a few more provisions (groceries!) and such. We'll have to motor over to the main marina in Oriental to get diesel fuel - our marina doesn't have fuel. Fill up our 240 gallons of water and we'll be ready!

I just got this series of photos together for your gastric enjoyment (or horror, depending on your viewpoint!!)

Bean sprouts - I've never grown them, but lot's of "cruisers" grow them on board their boats to give them "fresh, crunchy" veggies no mater where they are.

So, I had to experiment!

I went to Whole Foods (in the backroad town of Chapel Hell, of course) and bought a bag of mung beans. This is actually the bean used to make the canned/fresh bean sprouts you can buy at your local grocer.



This is the amount I sprouted for these photos. It's just a couple of handfuls. I tried to include the same spoon over the different days so that you could get a sense of size.


I covered the dry beans with a couple of cups of water and let them soak overnight. This is what they looked like drained on the first morning. See that they've swollen some and are starting to "burst" a bit.


Then I put them in a colander and set them in a dark corner. I covered them loosely with a paper towel to prevent drying.


You're supposed to rinse every day - this is day 3 - see they're starting to sprout for real now.


This is day 5. Rinse each day - set back in the corner.


This is day 6 - we had gone to the boat last weekend - I put the sprouts in a ziplock bag and brought them with me. Here the sprouts are in a pan on our gimbaled stove on the boat.


I tossed them with olive oil and some salt/pepper. They were really good! I put them over a bed of lentils that I had cooked earlier. You can let these sprout for several more days - I might try that with the next batch. Fun-with-food!!