How to Sprout Beans – Mung Beans

mung bean sprouts, day 2

I was so ready to start sprouting some beans that I couldn’t wait for a professional set-up. Honestly, I was having a hard time in Chicago even finding any equipment, and the internet wasn’t helping much either. I did find these sprouting strainer lids on amazon.com that fit mason jars, which is really all you need, a large mason jar and a strainer lid, but it just felt wrong paying almost $8 in shipping for a $4 item. Besides, if I got my creativity going, I could fashion something to do the job.

I found a large jar, seen here, and some mung beans in the cabinet, purchased when our friend had shown us how he had eaten them boiled as a child, and since forgotten. I soaked a half cup of mung beans for 12 hours in about three times as much water as their volume and drained them well. I tried to make a strainer lid by punching holes in this jar’s plastic lid with a drill, but it wasn’t porous enough. So I set up this strange sprouting station using the splatter screen for my pan. Hey, it works, what can I say?

wash your sprouts

The most important part of sprouting any kind of bean or grain is the rinsing that you’re required to do every 8-12 hours. When I first come back to the mung beans after that period of time, they smell musty and not appetizing. But as soon as I thoroughly rinse and drain them, they smell fresh and green, like new plant life again.

Mung bean sprouts don’t require light, like other sprouts. But some people say that their need for lack of light is also exaggerated. Just put the sprouts somewhere in your kitchen that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight and they should be fine. After soaking and regular rinsing, your sprouts should be ready in 3-5 days depending on how large you want them to be when you eat them.

These sprouts aren’t going to look like the mung beans you find in big bags in the produce section, and the reason is that those commercial operations use machinery and chemicals unavailable (and undesirable) to you. Sprout People has a good article on sprouting mung beans, and techniques for making the sprouts big and thick.

mung bean sprouts, day 3

sprouting in general

Sprouting is a way to consume beans and grains on a raw-food diet. When I first read about raw-food diets, I literally sat there for a few minutes and thought, But how do they eat beans? imagining my beans on the stove cooking for over an hour after being soaked. Mystery solved!

Sprouting grains and beans increases the nutritional content of the grain or bean. The sprouts have more protein, fiber, vitamins, and essential fatty acids. They also have a lot of enzymes which aid in the digestion of other food and nutrients, enzymes that are present in a lot of plants, but are destroyed by cooking and are usually inactive in plants anyway. If you’re someone who used to eat yogurt before you stopped eating dairy because you wanted some help with digestion, this might be an interesting aspect of sprouts for you.

what you can sprout

You can sprout all kinds of grains and beans. Here’s wikipedia‘s list: kala chana, alfalfa, adzuki bean, almond, amaranth, annatto seed, anise seed, arugula, basil, brown rice, navy bean, pinto bean, lima bean, broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, canola seed, caragana, cauliflower, celery, chia seed, chickpeas, chives, cilantro (coriander, dhania), clover, cress, dill, fennel, fenugreek, flax seed, garlic, hemp seed, kale, kamut, kat, leek, green lentils, lupins, pearl millet, mizuna, mustard, oats, onion, black-eyed peas, green peas, pigeon peas, snow peas, peanut, psyllium, pumpkin, quinoa, radish, rye, sesame, soybean, spelt, sunflower, tatsoi, triticale, watercress, and wheat berries.

Keep in mind that kidney beans are toxic unless cooked and for that reason should not be eaten as raw sprouts.

When you sprout at home, you don’t have to worry about all the scary stuff associated with sprouts, like food-borne illnesses. Sprouting is easy, inexpensive, and you have control over the quality of your food, you know where it came from. Just make sure that you’re buying consumer-grade beans and grains and not the ones that are intended for planting (unlikely, but still) as those are treated differently, chemically.

Comments About How to Sprout Beans – Mung Beans

// 9 comments so far.

AndrewBoldman // June 04th 2009
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.
Kelly Pierce // July 26th 2009
Thanks for posting this. Where’s a good place to find large, wide-mouth mason jars in Chicago? I live on the north side in Lake view. I was so happy to find someone else in Chicago interested in sprouting. I just started sprouting in the last month. I want to start off the day with a high-protein breakfast and I find sprouts so energizing and satisfying. I ordered the three seeds that seem to have the greatest amount of digestible protein. Soon five-pound containers of sunflower seeds, mung beans and adzuki beans arrived on my doorstep from wheatgrasskits.com. To grow enough sprouts to last a week, I found I need to sprout half a cup of seed. Unfortunately, I have small jars. After the mung beans burst through the cheesecloth at the top of the jar, I use a colander to finish the sprouting process. I would like something better to work long term. Have you tried sprouting in a nylon mesh or cotton/hemp bag?
Also, how do you store your mung sprouts? My friend feels plastic containers from the discount store are okay. I feel that sprouts are still growing in the refrigerator and will absorb the chemicals in the plastic. Are you concerned about this? If so, do you use an inert material to store sprouts in the refrigerator. If so, what kinds of containers do you use?
This post is from several months ago. Have you tried sprouting other things in addition to Mung beans? I’ve sprouted adzuki beans and sunflower seeds. I’m so happy to have found someone in Chicago interested in making their own food rather than eating out of bags, boxes and bottles!
Greg // August 16th 2009
Thanks for your reply. You can get wide mouth jars at Jewel for a very cheap price. You can buy beans to sprout at nearly any store… I’m not sure why you ordered them from a strange website. As for “high-protein” foods, many people fall victim to the protien myth. Being protien deficient without starving yourself is quite simply impossible. If you need inspiration:Running Raw will help dispel some of your misconceptions.
I know of no serious research that suggests storing food in plastic is harmful. There was that plastic water bottle scare a few years back, but that had to do with heated bottles leaching into the water. As I understand it, that research turned out to be highly questionable at best.
While we eat a diet of entirely whole food, plant-based, nutrient dense foods, a lot of our food sill comes in bags and boxes. Gardening is high on our list of priorities for next summer though! I’m eager to turn my thumbs green for sure.
Katherine Daly // November 04th 2009
Hi Kristen,
This is a clear, concise encapsulation of sprouting for us new to the home-grown game. Would you be willing and available to teach a 30 minute (or so) class on sprouting this weekend at Green Grocer Chicago? We could probably provide jars, beans, etc. for the class if you let us know what you need.
You could bring sprouts in various stages, and discuss health benefits, materials, techniques, and resources. If all goes well, we could follow it up with more classes on different aspects of vegan and raw cooking.
Let me know if this is something that interests you. I think it would be a great way for you to bring some publicity to The Casual Vegan and meet some simpatico folks. We’re a small grocery store at Grand & Noble in West Town that specializes in local and organic food. Check us out and see what you think: www.greengrocerchicago.com.
We’re a fun bunch and we’d love to work with you!!
Best,
Katherine Daly
Feel free to email me, call me: xxx-xxx-xxxx, or leave a message at the store: 312.624.9508 Of course, the sooner I hear from you, the better.
P.S. Sorry this is such short notice- another teacher cancelled last minute. Good thing we’d been reading your blog, eh?
Caroline // June 28th 2010
Is it too late if the sprouts start growing baby leaves?
Greg // June 30th 2010
I doubt it. Worst case scenario you get some extra fiber in your diet. We sprouted some kidney beans that I didn’t like at all, but most bean sprouts were light, pleasant and appetizing. I made quite an impression at graduate school bringing a tupperware full of sprouts with a touch of dressing for lunch.
kristen // June 30th 2010
Those were cranberry beans. Kidney beans are on the list of beans that you aren’t supposed to eat as sprouts, as this post indicates!
Bob Parrott // July 07th 2010
I’ve sprouted mung beans, but getting the jackets (hulls?) off them after the sprout is ready is quite tedious. Any hints on a quick way to do this?
kristen // July 08th 2010
Hmm, well, we ate the hulls. I try to eat all the edible parts of a plant that I can to maximize nutrition. So unless they are irritating to your digestion, I would suggest doing that. But I’ve read that one way to remove the hulls is to place the sprouts in water, and the hulls will float.