Incorporating whole grains into a raw foods diet is hard. If wheat and rice raise your glucose level it gets even harder. Luckily for us there is SPROUTING. For thousands of years breads were made from sprouted grains. Not only does sprouting include all the nutrition of whole grains but you also get added vitamins like C. When I eat sprouted wheat my glucose level does not spike. Once you start sprouting you will realize you can “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war”
There are many good web pages on how to sprout. My favorite is www.sproutpeople.com Do not stress over how long the seeds need to soak or at what stage are they edible. Nature has allowed for much flexibility. If the web says to sprout Rye seeds for 8 hours then anywhere from 6 to 14 hours works fine. Some of it depends on the quality of your seeds. Smaller seeds such as quinoa only take 20 minutes of soaking and are ready to eat 18 hours later. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get good quality, organic Non GMO seeds. It is best if you can buy seeds directly from growers.
In the photo below you can see Wheat Berry seeds I bought directly from a farmer at the Tower Grove Missouri Farmers Market. In the bowl on the right are the seeds and the bowl on the left are seeds that were soaks for 10 hours and sprouted for about 16 hours. Wheat Berries take a little longer than other grains. Sprout them between 12 and 24 hours. Keep checking on their chewiness until you decide what sprouting time length works for you.
In the next photo is Kamut, another type of wheat grain. They take about as long as wheat berries. Kamut has a milder less wheaty taste.
In the next photo are Mung Beans. These are familiar to all. Until you have selected very high quality Mung Beans you do not know why these have been used in Asian dishes for 5000 years. The stuff you buy in US markets has such an overwhelming mungy taste that I feel they overwhelm a dish. Yet when I sprout my own, I only sprout for about 3 days and end up with a wonderfully tasteful addition to many dishes.
The next photo is the surprisingly overlooked Oat seed. Oats that have been soaked for 12 hours and sprouted for 12 hours have an amazingly beautiful sweet taste. These you must sprout at least once in your life. Sprouted Oats, walnuts, nutritional yeast, flax seeds and honey mixed together make a truly delicious and nutritious breakfast. You will never eat instant oatmeal again.
Below is Quinoa. This grain does not taste the same sprouted as it does cooked. The sprouted version is a little more bitter. Soak for 20 minutes and sprout for 12 to 36 hours. The photo shows Quinoa seeds that have been sprouted for about 36 hours. The seeds must be rinsed thoroughly before soaking. Because sprouted quinoa has a slightly off taste I use about 1/3 as much as I would in a dish with cooked Quinoa.
The last photo is rye. Rye is the least expensive of grains so I use it the most. In the photo is Rye that was soaked 12 hours then sprouted about 20 hours.
These grains should be put in sealed containers in the refrigerator when they reach the sprout length you like. Each hour in the fridge causes them to lose a little taste so eat within 60 hours. The first 24 hours in the fridge is when they taste best. Rye is the one grain that keeps growing while in the fridge. The key to this is not to sprout alot of each. I do about ¼ a cup of each. In any given day, I have 3-4 grains, beans and seed going. I also sprout garbanzo beans and lentils.
Be sure the bowl holding the seeds and water has at least 3 times the volume of water as seeds because the seeds will swell. If a sprouting attempt does not work, look for another source of seeds and try again. I buy cheap colanders and use them to hold the sprouting seeds. Sprout trays are great but are $15 each whereas colanders are a dollar. Metal colanders are the least toxic.
Once you start sprouting you will not stop. Why are politicians and economists promoting the idea that we must instill confidence in investors in order to help the economy? I say sprout!
