3.5
I picked this book up hoping for tips on how to get over my decades-long resistance to sprouting seeds to eat, for better health. I needed no convincing of the benefits! But for you, dear reader, let me first mention a few of the facts herein. Not only are sprouts one of the cheapest superfoods on the planet, the nutritional values are beyond compare.
If you ate sprouts for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack, you would barely get eight hundred calories into you system (and feel full) but the equivalent of three to found thousand calories of nutrition.
My inner Guides have emphasized the value of these unassuming powerhouses for years. Besides the nutritional profiles, there are enzymatic miracles these perform in the body.
Doug lets us know that the old images of limp alfalfa sprouts or stir-fried bean sprouts in Chinese food are highly outdated. We have adzuki, alfalfa, broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, chia, chickpea, clover, fenugreek, lentil, mung, mustard, onion, pea, radish, sunflower...for tastes from nutty to hardy, hot, crisp, powerful, sweet, and spicy. I've tasted some marvelous types from my farmer's market and I agree that there are so many incredible types (he doesn't even mention two of my faves: arugula and scallion sprouts!).
Besides sprouts, there are microgreens which are equally nutritional and he includes the information on what they are and how to grow them here (they are grown on soil or other medium, unlike sprouts).
He nicely proceeds with categories by chapter, what options there are and how to grow them: Salad Green Sprouts, Legume and Bean Sprouts, Shoots, Grasses (which I call microgreens), and Grains/Nuts/Seeds.
What I did like was his inclusion on page 124 of how to sanitize your process against mold with hydrogen peroxide, grapefruit seed extract, or other options. For me this concern has been one of several stumbling blocks for me getting into this, as I am super mold sensitive, and know this can be an issue with sprouts.
And he has some truly great-sounding recipes! So no, you won't have to sit and eat mouthfuls of plain sprouts.
However I feel like he made the process of making these seem even more complicated. I am so seriously wanting to get into this and even for a long time have been in a Facebook group for sprouting, hoping for inspiration to just try it. But the constant rinsing of them, all the detail to growing...still has me blocked. Maybe it gets easier if I would try. I so seriously want to include these miracles in my daily life!
A good starter book for the less intimidated and more energetic.?