Sprouting Lentils

Go buy a bag of dry green lentils right now.

It cost me $1.89 and lasts a very long time. They're great protein addition to pasta dishes or stir-frys, great snack by themselves (although I don't like them this way myself), once sprouted awesome addition to a toss salad and are probably the best-cheapest things you can buy for your pantry.

You'll probably find them in the beans section next to the dry split peas. Careful to get green lentils and not red ones if you hope to sprout them. Red lentils are generally split and wont  sprout.


Take a look at the nutritional info right from the bag ~~>
Amazing source of Protein, Iron, and Fibre... what else could you ask for?

So how do you make them edible? They're as hard as rocks in the bag!

I'll briefly talk about 3 ways, spending much more time on the third (sprouting). Any way you choose make sure to rinse them first. Both the first and second way would also work for split lentils (including red lentils).

If you've got no time, cooking right now and didn't really think ahead... boil them. Pretty simple, much like split peas. They wont really get much bigger them the original size. Just throw 'em with your soup or in a pot alone, adding it to your dish afterwards. You'll know they're done when you can bite threw one.

If you've got anywhere from 4 hours to a day, measure out half the amount you want, rinse, and soak them in water. They will double in size, so make sure they have enough water to cover them even at double size. Drain the water, add them to your dish.

The pictures depict the same lentils before and after soaking in water overnight.

Finally, sprouting. This four days but feel free to use some on even the third day if you feel like it. But most importantly, be prepared to use them all between the fourth and the sixth day, they wont keep well beyond that.

I used a medium size mason jar, about a 1/2 cup of dry lentils and a bit of cheesecloth (found at dollerama). I used the mason jar lid without the actual lid, just the screw on sides, to keep the cheesecloth in place.

The first night, just soak them in water, easy peazy. The 2nd day, drain all the water out (why the cheesecloth is useful), fill it back up and swish it around and drain it again. After that first night, you always shake out as much water as possible. For the next four days, repeat this 2-3 times daily. This is so you don't get anything else growing in there.

You'll notice the lentils starting to sprout after the 2nd night (pic to the left) and after the 3rd night you get something like the picture to the right. At any point these are edible after about the 4 hour mark but when you really want to chow down is when you see leaves, after the 4th night. (See first picture at beginning)

Now don't forget to eat them all before 6 nights have passed!

I heard about sprouting from this fine blog here: http://honestfare.com/windowsill-sprouting-through-the-winter/