Growing and Eating Sprouts at Home

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Growing and eating sprouts at home is a great way to stay connected to your own food supply, no matter the time of year, your climate, or your living situation. You might live in Alaska or the Yukon and have just five hours of daylight in January; reside in a third-story walk-up in a city with four roommates and no balcony; or live in an arid or sub-tropical climate, where it’s too hot to grow much of anything outside in summer. In each of these situations, you can still grow sprouts.

In this article, I’ll cover what kind of sprouts you can grow; what you need to grow them and how; harvesting and storage tips; and how to eat them. I’ll touch on food safety, too, because that’s an important part of fresh-food production—especially sprouts.

Why grow your own sprouts?

Whether you have the backyard garden of your dreams or you need to be resourceful with your space, growing your own sprouts indoors can satisfy your green thumb in several ways:

Small sprouts contain big nutrition. The exact nutrients in sprouts will depend on the type that you grow. Bean sprouts, a popular choice, contain vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, plus the minerals magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc. They also have protein, fiber, and as much carotene as carrots.
Sprouting makes some foods easier on your digestion. Lentils, for example, typically need to be cooked for humans to digest them, but sprouting makes vitamin B and vitamin C more bioavailable while creating a crunchy, nutritious food.
You’ll save money on your salad and sandwich ingredients. Have you priced fresh greens or sprouts at the farmers market or grocery store lately? You’ll spend less on purchases of seeds than you will on packages of sprouts.
You can grow sprouts anywhere. You need a jar, plus seeds and water, and that’s pretty much it. You don’t even need a sunny window.
It’s really easy and fast. Growing sprouts requires very little equipment and space, and you can harvest and eat the sprouts in a week, give or take.

fresh sprouts in a dish — It only takes days from that first seed soaking to harvestable sprouts you can add to sandwiches, salads, and grain bowls.

The difference between sprouts and microgreens

Sprouts are the crunchy, tasty immature growth from a just-germinated seed. When the sprout reaches one- to two-inches tall, it’s ready to harvest and eat! The whole process takes a few days, meaning you’ll be growing and eating sprouts at home in no time.

It’s important to make the distinction between sprouts and microgreens, because they’re easily confused. Sprouts are the first stage of a plant’s development, grown without a growing medium (just water). We eat these before they develop leaves. Microgreens are stage two of a plant’s development. They take a little longer to grow in a growing media because you want to let their cotyledon leaves emerge before harvesting.

microgreens at a farmers' market — Microgreens are harvested by cutting the stems from the root system. They require a growing medium and light, which is why growing sprouts is a slightly easier endeavour.

What kind of sprouts to grow

Many types of vegetable, pulses, and grain seeds can be sprouted. While leafy greens would be obvious candidates for growing and eating sprouts at home, you have options, including:

Equipment needed for growing sprouts at home

You most likely already have the equipment that you need for sprouting seeds To begin, gather:

A sterilized jar. Canning jars are convenient, as sprouting screens and sprouting lids are generally available in regular- and wide-mouth sizes.
Cheesecloth or a sprouting screen (You could even use a fine-mesh sieve. It would just be a bit more challenging to get the seeds back in the jar after soaking and draining.)
A rubber band or jar ring
You can also find sprouting kits, which are helpful if you’re curious but timid about growing and eating sprouts at home.

bean screen sprouting lid on a mason jar — You don’t need much to get started growing your own sprouts. It’s possible to create your own “screen” for draining seeds. There are also special kits and lids, such as this Bean Screen Sprouting Lid that I got from Lee Valley Tools, that make it easy to get started.

Do you need special seeds for growing and eating sprouts at home?

Technically any seed can be sprouted. From a food-safety perspective, however, you want to use seeds that are labeled for sprouting. These have not been treated with fungicide or other potentially harmful seed treatments. Look for a label that indicates the seeds are certified, meaning they’ve been tested and are free of pathogens.

Garden shops and seed catalogs carry certified sprouting seeds. Sometimes you can find them in natural-foods stores and mainstream grocery stores, too. Start with seed labeled for this year so you can have the best germination rate.

sprouts and seeds — If your seeds are older, they may not have the same germination rate as those labeled with the current year’s date.

Preventing contamination

Most sprouts are safe to eat. However, like eating any fresh, raw vegetable, eating sprouts carries a risk. Bacteria—such as salmonella and listeria—that are already on the seeds can thrive in the dark, moist, warm environment you’ll cultivate while growing sprouts. You can reduce the risk of contamination in a few ways:

Start with certified pathogen-free seed.
Treat your seeds before sprouting them. There are a few methods you could use for an at-home seed treatment. The easiest is to soak the seeds in vinegar for 15 minutes. Use store-bought vinegar rather than homemade vinegar so you’re sure you’re getting the right concentration. Rinse the seed under running water for one minute.
Sterilize your sprouting jar, lid, and screen or cheesecloth.
Wash your hands, and always keep a clean workspace. This also means keeping pets out of the sprouts-growing area.
Use only potable water for washing and sprouting.
Rinse and drain the sprouts regularly to reduce any mold or bacteria growth.

How to grow sprouts in jars

Starting with your sterilized jar and treated seeds from the advice above, follow these steps:

1. Pour a layer of seeds about a half of an inch to one inch deep in the jar. Some seed packets will provide the recommended measurements.
2. Add enough lukewarm water to cover the seeds by at least one inch. Skim off floating seed piece and debris. This also helps reduce contamination.
3. Soak the seeds in lukewarm water for 12 to 16 hours. Use twice the amount of water as seeds (1/4 cup seeds needs 1/2 cup water). To keep out insects, dust, and dander, cover the jar with cheesecloth secured by a rubber band or with a sprouting screen secured by a screw-on jar band.
4. Drain. Rinse the seeds with lukewarm water, and drain again. If possible, set the jar at an angle in a bowl so the water can continue draining. Special lids will allow you to turn the jar upside down to get rid of excess water.
5. Once the water has drained, tap the sides and top of the jar—some will even put the jar on its side to evenly distribute the seeds.
6. About one to two times a day, soak the seeds for about 15 minutes and drain well (following step 4).

soaking sprouts — Soaking your seeds at least once or twice a day will help them to germinate.

Harvesting sprouts

The best part about growing and eating sprouts at home is how quickly you see results. Forget about waiting two months or more to eat your broccoli. Sprouting allows you to eat it in three to four days.

If sprouts are left to grow for too long, they can get mushy and moldy. Keep an eye on your sprouts as you go through the rinsing and draining process. You definitely want to harvest and eat them before the mushy stage.

When the sprouts are one to two inches long, remove them from the jar, and rinse away the seed coats. From here, you can eat them right away or store them to eat within a few days.

Storing sprouts

If you’re not eating your sprouts immediately, store them in a clean, sealed container in the refrigerator. The larger-seeded sprouts—beans and peas—keep just three to four days, while smaller-seeded varieties are good for a week or more. Keep an eye on the texture, and don’t eat them if the scent or quality is at all questionable.

sprouts in a measuring cup — With just a few days of effort, you’ll understand why people get excited about their sprouts. It’s such an easy way to enjoy fresh flavors from your own kitchen.

How to eat and enjoy your homegrown sprouts

Fresh sprouts are typically eaten raw or lightly cooked. They make a crunchy, healthful topping for salads, sandwiches, and egg dishes. Sprouts are a great lettuce substitute—try alfalfa sprouts on a BLT. Throw them in at the end of stir frying vegetables, or top a soup with sprouts as you ladle it into bowls.

Because of the health risk that comes with potentially contaminated sprouts, the US Food and Drug Administration advises people at greater risk for foodborne illness to avoid eating raw sprouts.

With all the ways you can enjoy eating sprouts, their health benefits, and the ease of growing them, they’re surely a vegetable you’ll want to add to your crop plan—even if they’re the only “crop” you’re growing.