The Small, yet Mighty Sprout - www.cook-with-love.com®

Remember sprouts? The fresh, crunchy, always welcome addition to many a dish. The thing with sprouts is that they pack a mighty nutritional wallop as well to up your antioxidant game.

I received the gift that keeps on giving from my bro last Christmas. A bag of sprout seeds and a couple of sprouters (shown in the image above). For lack of a better term, sprouters are the jar/mesh sieve, drain-tray set-up to grow sprouts! You just soak the seeds for 6-10 hrs, then drain, rinse, drain again and place the jars upside down in the tray. The next thing you know, you’ll have sprouts coming out of your ears! I had forgotten about sprouts to be honest, not sure when it happened, I just hadn’t eaten them in over a decade or so. They can be added to a cream cheese or hummus, tomato, cucumber bagel, to top off a salad or just snacked on, to name a few tasty ideas. The coolest thing about these microgreens though is that they contain an extremely high content of glucoraphanin. You may be thinking, gluco-whaa? Well let me tell you, it is a powerful antioxidant that turns into sulforaphane. Sulfora-whoo? You may ask. Or maybe your already in the know that it is an anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, anti-inflammatory phytonutrient powerhouse that is also good for the heart, can detoxify your system and provide ongoing cellular protection, effectively preventing oxidative stress. The tiny, yet mighty sprout has especially high concentrations of the stuff. For example, sprouts (especially when consumed prior to 3-7 days after sprouting and sprinkled with mustard powder, yes mustard powder) contain up to 100x the amount found in a head of broccoli. In other words, you would have to really like broccoli and eat a ton of it to get the same health benefits as 3 ounces of sprouts. Cooking the broccoli brings down the health benefits as well. So eat your sprouts, man!

Anti-inflammatory, Cellular Protection, Detox Sprout Sando Extravaganza

Ingredients

3 ounces sprouts
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
dash of cayenne, optional
salt/pepper, to taste
cream cheese or hummus
cucumber, peeled and sliced
heirloom tomato, slice
everything bagel, toasted

Method

Combine vinegar, mustard powder, cayenne and salt/pepper in a small bowl. Drizzle over and toss with the sprouts. Slather the bagel with your choice of either cream cheese or hummus then load on the veggies topping with the sprout salad.

The Deets

You have to, have to, have to (I could keep writing have to and can’t say it enough, but you get the idea) rinse the sprouts 2 or more times day. No ifs ands or buts about it. Its a good idea to refrigerate your microgreens at the 3 day mark after sprouting to preserve their fresh goodness and continue to rinse until they are eaten up. I also add a bit of vinegar when I rinse as an added measure to dissuade any potential, unwanted microbial visitors. They are most nutritious when eaten within 3-5 days of sprouting.