How to Grow Mung Bean Sprouts Made Easy

Growing your own sprouts is super easy, you’ll never need to eat canned sprouts ever again! All you need are mung beans, 2 containers, water and 3~4 days.

(I didn’t even know you could can sprouts)

Went  to the grocery store the other day and was shocked/impressed/amazed/confused to find bean sprouts in cans! I didn’t have the courage to buy a can and try it, I should’ve. I imagine it tasting soggy, like over cooked fresh sprouts… or rotting ones.

Canned sprouts is actually pretty expensive. It costs at least $1.39 for a can, you can buy 1lb(16oz, 453g) of organic mung beans for $9.36, and you will only need less than 1oz of beans to grow 1 can worth of fresh beans sprouts. You can also check out your local Asian market if growing sprouts is not something you’d like to do or need those sprouts right away. I found a 1lb bag of sprouts for $0.99 at the Asian food store downtown Rochester and they’d even picked the roots off already.

 


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Sprouts are often used in Asian cuisines, especially noodle dishes. Mung bean sprouts are the most commonly used among all other sprouts (followed by soy bean sprouts),  mung bean sprouts are seen in a lot of popular Asian dishes such as pho, pad thai, chop suey, Taiwanese spring rolls.

I like sprouts, it is a veggie I can grow in a cabinet without dirt in any season and doesn’t get destroyed by typhoons. People often eat sprouts after typhoons in Taiwan since it is the only vegetable that doesn’t have an insanely expensive price tag. Sprouts are perfect when you don’t have land to grow, it’s too cold to grow outside or just want something really short term(4 days).

Before growing my own sprouts, I did some research and most how-tos requires at least 5 different equipment and really want you to baby your sprouts. I wanted the lazy way to grow sprouts, did some trial and error to find out the essentials on growing mung bean sprouts and simplified the whole process so anyone can do it at home with minimum effort!

Lets start with what you will need for growing sprouts:

2 of the same stackable food storage containers

1 lid for a container above

Mung beans

Water

Yup, that’s it.

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How to grow mung bean sprouts:

  1. Lay down a even one-bean layer of mung beans in the bottom of your container
  2. Cover them with 3 times as much water and let it soak over night(or for 8h) in darkness
  3. Drain the water, some beans will have cracked by now
  4. Rinse with water and drain
  5. Fill the second container with water and put the lid on so the water doesn’t spill
  6. Set the second container on top of the one with growing sprouts
  7. Keep the containers in a dark place
  8. Rinse and drain the sprouts at least every morning and every night(or every 4 hours) for 4 days
  9. Rinse and drain one last time after they’re grown, keep in the fridge for up to a week

Notes:

  • Keeping the sprouts in the dark will prevent them from getting bitter.
  • Setting something slightly heavier on top of growing sprouts encourages healthier growth that leads to longer, thicker, prettier sprouts.
  • Sprouts last longer in the fridge if they are dryer

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The difference between sprouts growing under pressure and without is quite noticeable, and for some reason the sprouts that grew without pressure tasted more bitter to me as well.

 

To the left are the sprouts grown without pressure, the roots are more grown and they are shorter. The right ones are grown under pressure, the stems are longer, whiter and they have less roots.

Happy sprouting!!

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