Home Grown Bean Sprouts

It doesn't get fresher than this. I don't have land, so I can't really do farm to table, but how about random container to table? Bean sprouts can be grown any time of the year.

You start with dry green beans. The hard kind that comes in a plastic bag in most Asian or Italian grocery stores. I'm sure plenty of other stores have them too.

Then you need a container that has drainage. I use the level of my steamer with the smallest holes, but you can use a plastic container with holes punched through the bottom or a jar with a cheesecloth.

I like to layer my container with 2 sheets of paper towel before I dump in the seeds (well dispersed, and pick out the broken ones if you want... they're not going to turn into bean sprouts, I can assure you of that).

I then layer on another 2 sheets of paper towel, and wet the whole thing so that all the seeds and paper towels are damp. Don't drown the seeds... they just need to sit on some damp paper towels.

I then cover the container and leave it some place dark.

I re-dampen the bean sprouts every day....

On day 3-5 they should be nice and tall. Little yellow flowers should be coming out of some of the sprouts. Don't worry... they are tender and delicious.

I wait until they're about 2 inches tall. I think the speed of their growth depends on the weather more than anything. In the summer, it took about 3 days, and in the winter, closer to 5.

I then pull them off the bottom paper towels and put them in a big bowl. I then rinse it and dump all the green shells and runts that float to the top.

Don't be afraid of the green shells. Most of us can use the extra fiber!

I sautee them with a little garlic, oil, and salt until translucent You can flavor it however you like really. It only takes about 2 minutes. Put in some soy sauce. Go nuts.

I refrigerate the rest covered for up to 3 days.

Well we couldn't eat it by itself.... so my boyfriend kindly cooked some tomato and egg; "kung pao" shrimp and cashews; and we had a pork belly bao left over from lunch (post coming soon on how those were made. I'm a little behind with the holidays!).