Mung Bean Sprouts!

Here at Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, we eat mung bean sprouts, also called sprouted gram or green gram, every day.

Mung bean sprouts are simple to make and amazingly nutritious, providing vitamins A, B, and E, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, amino acids, and protein. Sometimes we get so used to having them that we forget how great they are. But Walker Purcell, a current full-time volunteer at the ashram, re-discovered the value of these little green sprouts on a trip last summer. He shares:

“I eat pretty healthy food in general. I became a vegetarian almost 7 years ago after taking an Isha program, and since switching my diet over I have been consistently interested in food and its effects on me. I'm not the person at the restaurant who spends 10 minutes figuring out how to make something healthy out of what's on the menu, but I generally eat in such a way as to feel pretty healthy. I love cooking and making food, so I can take care of my diet in most situations. At home I would prepare and eat raw fruits, vegetables, and sprouts on my own as a regular part of my diet. But nothing could have prepared me for the trip I took over the summer.

I got a summer job with a friend's family driving to different concerts and events setting up a booth. We'd sell books, t-shirts, cd's… that sort of thing, depending on what was appropriate to the event. It was a blast! The hours were long and the work was hard, but I got along really well with everyone. The events were busy and exciting, and we'd pretty much work the whole day.

I didn't exactly have time to cook up a fresh, wholesome vegetarian meal. I'd get up early in the morning and do my yoga wherever I could find a spot, then grab some food on the way to the event and we'd usually be there until I did my yoga practice again and went to bed before midnight. I'd have to get something to eat while we were at the booth, and the only things available were hot dog/hamburger style booths or snack foods like chips and candy. I would bring fruit, but it wouldn't last me the whole time.

Luckily, I had thought ahead and brought 2 lbs of mung beans. I had done some level of work like this before and somehow managed to hold out on a weird diet, but never for this length of time. I knew this time I would need to bring more healthy food into my diet, because there wouldn't be much available. With the mung beans, it was easy: I would find some container, sometimes just a plastic cup or a ziploc bag, and soak the beans during the day. Then, I'd drain them at night and let them sprout, and voila! I'd have a bag of sprouts to supplement all my meals for that day. My friends working with me at the booth called them my magic beans. They really were magic, because they saved me from a french-fry-and-corn-chip diet for 3 weeks. The rest of my diet shifted depending on what I could get my hands on, but the mung beans really saved my life.”

Mung bean sprouts are also highly pranic, which means supportive to your life energy. They are easy to sprout at home. You just need a few things:

Mung beans – You can generally find them at international markets and health food stores, and they are also available online. Dry mung beans are small, green, and hard:

Bowl

A cloth

Step One: Rinse the mung beans well until the water turns clear. 

Step Two: Place them in bowl, add warm water and soak overnight or 8-12 hrs. In cold weather, place the bowl in an area where the temp is over 70 degrees, like a slightly warm oven.

Step Three: Drain the beans. There may be a few hard beans which did not absorb the water (they will be smaller and darker), so remove these and discard. 

Step Four: Wrap soaked beans in a cloth, forming a tightly-bound packet.

Step Five: Place the packet in a bowl and keep in a warm place (over 70 degrees) for at least 10-12 hrs. Sprouting times may vary based on climate/season, etc.

Step Six: Remove from cloth and serve. 

The length of the sprout should ideally be between 1/2 cm – 1 cm. Shorter sprouts may cause indigestion, and long sprouts may result in loss of flavor. 

To retain the nutritional value, it is important to eat the mung sprouts raw, not cooked. Many people enjoy the taste of the sprouts alone, but they are also delicious when added to your favorite salad. 

Have you tried mung bean sprouts at your home or at iii? Let us know your experience and your favorite recipes with mung sprouts by leaving us a comment!