How to sprout Moong Beans Perfectly each time

YES !!! You heard it right, each and every time.

It is a delight to see perfectly sprouted moong beans / pulses everytime you sprout them. It makes my mornings more merrier and bring a happy smile on my face. What about you ? So are you ready to learn HOW TO SPROUT MOONG BEANS PERFECTLY EACH TIME...

I remember shopping in vegetable markets in India, you can site various sprout vendors selling sprouted grains and pulses for the grab-n-go busy shoppers. I wondered why would one buy these and not do the homemade version like my Mom did. After marriage I learnt to sprout pulses at home myself. Well managing work and household chores and other hobbies, sometimes I would forget that I had put the pulses to sprout and then would see very long grown sprouts sometimes and sometimes it would be a disaster, but somehow I found a way out soon to avoid my mistakes.

It has been a tradition since childhood in my paternal and maternal home to eat something related to moong on Wednesdays still we follow this and being a reason to eat moong once a week at least. Now I sprout moong beans twice a month leaving alternate wednesdays for other moong recipes like moongdal palak, moongdal tadka, masala moondal, or if I skip making moong in the morning lunch then making moongdal khichdi or moondal chilla / pancakes / pudla in the evening for dinner.

INGREDIENTS 

whole dry moong beans

water

colander with holes

muslin cloth OR old cotton dupatta / cloth

plate to cover OR appropriate lid 

PROCESS 

I soak moong beans on sunday night before sleeping in normal tap water and cover with lid let it soak throughout the night.

The moong beans soaked sprouts three times it's original size, so soak accordingly. I sprout one cup moong beans so that makes almost 3-4 cups. Do soak in sufficient water, more water does not do any harm.

Monday morning you can see little sprouts. Not all moong beans will be sprouted and that's OK. 

Now take a broad bottom bowl OR a broad base container / box.

I put a colander over the first container. It should have holes to let the air pass to enable easy sprouting.

Drain the moong water in the thin cotton dupatta OR thin muslin cloth and wet the cloth all over properly, squeeze out excess water but do not squeeze out all the water. This moist layer will create enough moisture for sprouting. 

Loosely lay the wet cloth over the moong beans.

IMPORTANT STEP : Now cover this with a plate OR if using the container / box close it and leave it at some warm place in your kitchen OR inside the cupboard. I keep it inside the microwave OR oven. Sometimes I do switch on the oven light in winter's due to chilly Chicago weather for that warmth. You can even do this to sprout it earlier within 2 days, but I am in no hurry any day as I preplan.

I see more sprouts on Tuesday morning. 

Do sprinkle some water if the covered cloth feels dry.

And finally the day of reveal, Wednesday morning sight... HAPPY ME :)

It's almost more than an inch long sprout. There would be a few hard moong beans too, if you are cooking them then do not worry use them, or you can even discard them if you like.

SPROUTED MOONG BEANS BASIC RECIPE / Sprouted moong bean saute
For sprouted moong beans salad form, means eating them raw as is, is more popular and the highest form or protein benefit is received when consumed raw. Eat them as salad as is, or by adding more ingredients to it. I often use them in raw form in my chaats like pani puri, bhel chat, katori chaat OR mix in some lettuce or cabbage, onion, cucumber, tomato, kale leaves, cut orange pieces, pomegranate seeds, dry fruits like walnuts, almonds, dried grapes, dry berries, cilantro OR parsely
( what ever  you can find handy at home use it ) 

For salad dressing : I mix up some olive oil OR avocado oil, mince in a garlic clove, salt, pepper, lemon juice and honey mix well into the salad and serve.

Today I decided to make sauted moong sprouts today, here goes the recipe - heat olive oil OR ghee in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, finely chopped garlic OR fresh herb garlic also tastes delish, ginger green chilli paste, turmeric powder and added the sprouts, salt and mixed well on a medium low flame, add red chilli powder and squeeze lemon juice and loads of freshly cut coriander.

My Wednesday lunch platter is ready with ghee smeared puffed / phulka roti, fresh amba haldar, sauted moong sprouts, kale salad variety mix.

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