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Bean sprouts are a healthy and tasty vegetable that are easy to grow at home. They’re crunchy and perfect for throwing in stir fries and salads!
Bean sprouts are home gardening at its simplest! Take a few dried beans, add a little water, wait a while, and boom – magic! You can sprout most dried legumes and seeds of all sorts. We’ve experimented with mung beans, the source of standard bean sprouts available at the grocery store. Keep reading for how to grow them!
Growing your own bean sprouts
Bean sprouts are young, sprouted mung beans that can be eaten just a few days after sprouting. Sprouting mung beans can take anywhere from 2 to 5 days, depending on how big you want them.
The photo above shows them at 2 ½ days, which we thought was about perfect (though they were tasty when they were smaller as well). You can expect the beans to expand 2 to 4 times their original quantity by the time they are fully sprouted.
It’s a lot of fun to make sprouts at home. While they are easy and cheap enough to purchase at the store, there is something special about watching them grow in your own kitchen. It feels wonderfully healthy to eat something that is so alive and and tasty. Enjoy them on salads, in a stir-fry, or just by the handful.
To get started, head to the recipe below!
Frequently asked questions
Yes! They are packed with Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Iron.
Raw bean sprouts can harbor bacteria if left in a warm and humid environment. If you are pregnant or young, you may want to only use them in cooked recipes like a stir fry.
No! You can easily sprout mung beans with just a jar, cheesecloth or a mesh lid, and some water.
It typically takes 2-5 days to grow mung bean sprouts to a desirable length (1-2 inches). You can harvest them when the tails are visible and the bean itself has split slightly.
More DIY recipes
Whether it’s how to grow bean sprouts or hard boil eggs, try these easy DIYs to make at home:
- Find out How to Hard Boil Eggs.
- Make Everything Bagel Seasoning or Homemade Taco Seasoning.
- Learn How to Make Homemade Salad Dressing.
Home Grown Bean Sprouts
Bean sprouts are a healthy and tasty vegetable that are easy to grow at home. They’re crunchy and perfect for throwing in stir fries and salads!
- Prep Time: 4 days
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 4 days
- Category: Pantry
- Method: Raw
- Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
- ½ cup mung beans (or other sprouting start of your choice)
- Water
- Jar
- Cheesecloth
Instructions
- Rinse ½ cup of mung beans thoroughly, picking out any nasty-looking beans.
- Place the beans in the bottom of a jar and cover with several inches of water. Cover the jar with cheesecloth (or some foil with holes punched in it) and secure the cloth with a rubber band or jar band.
- Place the jar in a dark location at room temperature. Let the beans soak for 8 to 12 hours, or overnight.
- Drain the water from the beans and rinse the beans in the jar. Drain all of the water out of the jar, re-cover with the cheesecloth, and return to the dark location.
- At least twice a day over the next several days, rinse the beans in the jar thoroughly, drain the water completely, and re-cover. This prevents the beans from getting musty or moldy. Remove any suspect sprouts.
- When the sprouts have reached the desired size (around 2 to 4 days), remove them from the jar and rinse well. Eat immediately, or store dry in a container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
I have never had the courage to experiment with with food that I know nothing about, but your tutorial made it sound so easy and exciting so I’m going tp give it a go — wish me luck as I can burn water!
All the best,
Stay safe,
Jack
Good luck!
Thanks a lot for your instruction on how to grow beansprouts at home. It is so easy to follow and now I do not have to buy it from the grocery store. Actually very few grocery stores sell bean sprouts but now I know how to grow it myself.
WOW, I am glad I looked at this WEB site. It more than doubles the shelf life. I hate having to through away my homegrown sprouts, all the cleaning, sorting out the husks, and bad stuff.