Sprout Salad is a healthy salad with moong bean sprouts and colorful vegetables. I am sharing tips on how to make sprouts at home from scratch along with an Indian-style sprout salad recipe. Be sure to watch the video!
What is Sprouts?
Sprouts are the newly germinated seeds or the tender roots of a legume grown following the sprouting process. The whole process of sprouting turns lentils and legumes into living plants with more Vitamin C, B, and carotene. It also helps in the absorption of minerals.
Mung Bean Sprouts are the most common culinary sprouts used in Indian Cuisine. They are used to make a variety of Indian curries, salad, snacks, and other dishes.
You can also add mung bean sprouts to buddha bowls, poke bowls, hearty soups, stir fry noodles, or wholesome salads.
How To Make Mung Bean Sprouts
Sprouting at home may sound like a complex technique, which requires a lot of precision, but you’ll find it fun and extremely easy once you try it.
It’s so much joy seeing your little sprouts come to life and the longer sprouts grow more proud I feel.
To make sprouts at home:
Wash Lentil: Clean, rinse and soak the mung beans (green moong dal) in filtered water overnight or at least 6 hours. I usually prefer soaking them overnight (ref images 1 & 2). As you notice in images 3 & 4, the size of the beans increases after soaking.
Start Sprouting Process: Transfer the soaked lentil to a colander the following day. Let them sit for 15 minutes. This way, all the water is drained out of the legume.
Take a clean and dry muslin/cheesecloth or any breathable piece of cloth. Spread the drained mung beans in the muslin cloth, bring the corners together and tie them into a loose knot (ref image 4).
Start Sprouting Process: Now, you can keep the piece of cloth with sprouts in a bowl with a lid (ref image 5). Keep the bowl in some dry and dark place, such as an oven or microwave, undisturbed for 24 hours.
Each legume takes a different amount of time for sprouting. For example, Mung Beans take 2 days, whereas chickpeas 3 – 4 days. During the summer season, mung bean sprouts are ready in 24 hours.
Every morning check the legumes for sprouting. If the legumes seem dry, spray with the freshwater to maintain the moisture content. Do not touch the sprouts with dirty hands or a spoon. Instead, use only clean, filtered water to wash or spray the sprouts.
In an alternative method, instead of using a muslin cloth, you can directly put sprouts in a container with a tight-fitting lid.
How To Store
You can store mung bean sprouts for 3 days in the refrigerator. However, I do not recommend keeping them for a longer duration as they have a short shelf life, and spoiled sprouts can easily cause severe stomach infections.
How – Line a fridge container with a clean kitchen cloth, preferably cheese or muslin cloth. Arrange the sprouts over the cloth. Close the lid of the container. The kitchen towel will help absorb the excess moisture and increase the shelf life of the sprouts.
Moong Bean Sprout Salad
It is an easy Indian-style, gluten-free, vegan salad that only requires a few pantry staples.
Soak Sprouts: Add sprouts to a bowl. Pour hot water over the sprouts. Cover the bowl with a lid. Let sprouts sit in hot water for 5 minutes. Transfer to a colander. Allow to cool down. Mung Bean Sprouts have a slightly bitter taste.
The hot water soaking process helps in reducing the bitterness of the sprouts and also makes them easy to digest.
Vegetables: From fresh tomato, cucumber to green lettuce, carrot, you can add any vegetables to the sprout salad. Add pomegranate, parsley, cilantro, or any other fresh herb to make it more colorful.
Seasoning: This is an Indian-style sprout salad with the seasoning of salt, red chili powder, lemon juice, olive oil, and cumin powder. Feel free to experiment with other seasoning flavors such as oregano, fresh herbs, or spices.
Watch Salad Video
FAQ Related To Sprout Salad
Whole green mung bean sprouts, brown chickpeas sprouts, white channa/chickpeas sprouts, mustard seeds sprouts, alfa alfa sprouts, horse gram sprouts are the most commonly used lentils and legumes for making a salad. You can mix 2 – 3 varieties of sprouts in a single salad.
Usually, it is best to consume them for breakfast, brunch, or evening snacks. So that the body gets enough time to digest them and consume the nutrients before sleeping.
How to consume sprouts is a debatable issue. Some say it should be consumed raw while others challenge the idea by saying raw sprouts encourage bacteria to grow so it’s best if sprouts are cooked. You can prefer either way to consume sprouts. You can blanch, steam, or soak them in hot water before adding in a salad or soup.
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Healthy Sprout Salad Recipe
- Salad Mixing Bowl
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cup moong bean sprouts (moong dal sprouts)
- 2 Cup water, hot
- ¼ Cup onion, finely chopped
- ¼ Cup tomato (discard pulp and seeds), finely chopped
- ¼ Cup cucumber, finely chopped
- ¼ Cup carrot, shredded
- ¼ Cup parsley or cilantro, chopped
- ¼ Cup pomegranate
- 2 tablespoon roasted peanuts
For Salad Dressing
- ¼ Cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder (jeera powder)
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 ½ tablespoon lemon or lime juice
Instructions
Blanch Sprouts
- Add sprouts to a bowl. Pour hot water over the sprouts. Cover the bowl with a lid. Let sprouts sit in hot water for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, transfer them to a colander. Allow to cool down completely before using for the salad.
Prepare Salad
- Combine sprouts, onion, tomato, cucumber, parsley, and carrot in a mixing bowl. Mix nicely.
- For the dressing, mix olive oil, cumin powder, salt, red chili powder, and lemon juice. Stir to combine. The salad dressing is ready!
- Pour dressing over the salad and mix gently.
- Add pomegranate, roasted peanuts, and fresh parsley. Toss the salad once again.
- Serve healthy sprout salad as a snack or a fulfilling meal.
Recipe Notes:
- If you are using store-bought sprouts for the salad, make sure to check the expiry date on the box.
- Mung Bean Sprouts have a slightly bitter taste. The hot water soaking process helps in reducing the bitterness of the sprouts and also makes them easy to digest.
- I prefer blanching the sprouts before adding them to the salad. You can add raw sprouts as well in the salad.
- It is best to consume the sprout salad immediately. Do not leave it at room temperature for more than 1 – 2 hours after adding seasoning. Or store it in the refrigerator.
Renuka says
Such a gorgeous sprout salad! I love sprouts and I appreciate your presentation. Nice blog!
Tara nair says
I don’t like sprouts at all. But after going through these good looking pics and interesting recipe, I changed my mind. I believe this is a must try. Time to take a healthy turn now 🙂 Good read
Swati ( The Tales of a Traveler ) says
I love sprout salads , healthy and easy to make …:)
Love your food photography .. http://thetalesofatraveler.com/2015/08/04/le-meridien-piccadilly-london-hotel-review/
Hina Gujral says
Yes agree with you Swati it tastes delicious and packed with so much nutrients.
indugetscooking says
Totally in love with the pics!
Hina Gujral says
Thanks dear 🙂
Mobile App Developers says
Hi, Really great effort. Everyone must read this article. Thanks for sharing.
Purvi Agrawal says
Hina, I olso tried d same way bt after keeping for a day….when I checked they were smelling really bad..& they were very sticky olso..?
I had tried a few tymz mre…bt sme thng happens olways…!! Can u pls tel where I m wrong???
Hina Gujral says
Hello Purvi, before putting lentils for sprouting in a bowl make sure they are moist but no excess water remain in the bowl or container in which your are going to sprout lentils. Second, if by next day they are smelling foul, you can rinse them with running water, drain and set again for sprouting. Third, usually keeping them inside the warm place like microwave or oven really helps sprouting faster. Hope this helps.
Charu Sanwal says
Healthy and yummy salad recipe. Thank you
Hina Gujral says
Thank you!
Karandeep says
Good for gym going people like me. Thank you mam for sharing
Hina Gujral says
Always my pleasure.
Shruthi says
This is my go-to mid-morning snack now!
Hina Gujral says
Great! It’s perfect to start the morning routine on a healthy note.