I sprouted some lentils and let them grow into greens instead of eating them as soon as they had tails this time and HOLY CRAP have I been missing out. The fresh greens have a taste that’s very similar to fresh snow peas and I am IN LOVE. They worked out great in this simple stir fry of onions, garlic, lentils, sesame seeds, and spices. Full size pics below.

Sprouts that I totally haven’t been snacking on every time I mist them…

Sprouts

Tasty lunch with the same sprouts.

Yum

  • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    20 hours ago

    How is the texture? I accidentally sprouted (little tails) lentils once before cooking them in my normal meal-prep dhal, and found that they started out soft like normal cooked lentils, but got tougher and crunchier over the next couple days instead of softer. Did not like. But maybe it’s better as a salad?

    • FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyzOP
      3·
      12 hours ago

      These are mostly soft. Most of the lentils only had the husk left since the goodness within was used to grow the green bits and the roots. I don’t want to over sell it or anything but the taste and texture are drastically different from what I’m used to when sprouting them to use as bean sprouts with tails. The couple extra days are well worth it IMO and will become part of my regular growing routine.

      I’m sure freshness/storage method would change things some too. One thing I’ve noticed is how incredibly thirsty the little things are. They seem to need a lot more misting to be happy than other sprouts like mustard seed, maybe yours had dried out some?

    • FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyzOP
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Some friends are always encouraging me to be more active in my garden posting 🐝.

      Thank you for sharing the good word of sprouts.

      I feel @hamid@vegantheoryclub.org deserves most of the credit here. I never knew the dried lentils from the grocery store were still sproutable until he told me! I’ve been eating lentil sprouts without the greens for months and only recently thought about trying to let them go longer.

      The best part of this to me is how well they grow even with my garbage tap water. It’s really nice to be able to mist them without extra steps!

      • arcane potato (she/they)@vegantheoryclub.orgEnglish
        3·
        14 hours ago

        You will be pleasantly surprised to know that many things from the grocery store are sproutable! I haven’t met a dried (uncooked) seed that wasn’t able to sprout (on average, there will always be duds).

        You know your water better than I do, but I think when sprouting the water is doing a lot less than when growing a photosynthesizing plan (with true leaves).

        • FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyzOP
          2·
          14 hours ago

          You will be pleasantly surprised to know that many things from the grocery store are sproutable!

          Yeah I probably tricked myself into thinking most of the stuff at the store has been modified to prevent sprouting, etc. I know there are some things locally that are like this so my assumption was it was probably being done at all levels. Clearly I was wrong.

          You know your water better than I do, but I think when sprouting the water is doing a lot less than when growing a photosynthesizing plan (with true leaves).

          Right! A big part of this experiment for me was discovering how long the lentils can go without feeding or specialized care. I will not use my tap water for sprouting seeds, full stop. It’s too unpredictable to be trusted on delicate and irreplaceable plants so I always start them with distilled water. After they are established they can handle the fluctuating parameters a bit better. Now that I know the lentil greens aren’t going to go off just because the water isn’t perfect I’m very happy!