Mung Bean Sprouts
The most widely consumed sprout on our planet! Absolutely unique, Mung Bean Sprouts are fun to grow and lend themselves to many great Recipes. great, grEAT, GREAT!
Vitamins A, B, C and E
Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium
Amino Acids
Protein: 20%
Super bean sprout, so fresh and crunchy-sweet.
The amount of Mung Bean Sprouts produced by 1 unit of Seed. For Example 2:1 means that 1 pound of Seed will produce 2 pounds of Sprouts or whatever crop you are growing. You do not have to grow them all at once of course, unless you wish to =:-D
The time it takes to grow a finished 2 - 5 days, or other crop (Micro-Greens, Grass, Greens) from a dry Seed. Note: This "finished" Sprout is our preference. you may grow them for as long as you want! In fact, we suggest that you taste them at every rinse to discover when you like them best.
How to Grow Mung Bean Sprouts
- Soak 1/3 to 1 cup of beans in cool water for 8-12 hours.
- Drain off soak water.
- Rinse thoroughly.
- Drain thoroughly.
- Rinse and Drain with cool water every 8-12 hours.
- Bean Sprouts don't need light. Keep your Sprouter in a low light location.
- Harvest on day 2 or 3, when most of the beans have short roots. Refrigerate your crop.
- Mung Beans can be grown bigger. See our Detailed Instructions to learn how
Dry Mungs await their Soak.
12 hours later... Soaked, Rinsed and Drained.
Here is the weight we use when growing in Easy Sprout. The top is a water filled Solid Base with a Solid Lid. That is sitting directly on our Mung Beans in the lower Easy Sprout's Growing Vessel - which is of course sitting in its elevated position within another Solid Base.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle. You can be done now. They're small but perfect.
Here is what they look like if you harvest now (the same time as the picture above). If you are going for big thick roots, keep on sproutin'!
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... Harvest Time! Once you manage to get the sprouts out, they will look something like these.
Dry Mungs await their Soak.
12 hours later... Soaked, Rinsed and Drained.
Here is the weight we use when growing in Easy Sprout. The top is a water filled Solid Base with a Solid Lid. That is sitting directly on our Mung Beans in the lower Easy Sprout's Growing Vessel - which is of course sitting in its elevated position within another Solid Base.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle. You can be done now. They're small but perfect.
Here is what they look like if you harvest now (the same time as the picture above). If you are going for big thick roots, keep on sproutin'!
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.
12 hours later... Harvest Time! Once you manage to get the sprouts out, they will look something like these.
Yields approximately 4 Cups (1/2 lb.) of Sprouts
Seed Prep
Measure out 2 Tablespoons of seed* (slightly heaping) into your Sprouter or a strainer.
Rinse your seeds to remove dust and debris.
Soak
Transfer your seeds into your Sprouter (if necessary), or to a bowl.
Mix seeds up as you slowly add water to assure even water contact for all.
Add 2-3 times as much cool (70-80°F) water.
Allow seeds to Soak for 4-12 hours.
Do Not Ever Soak Again. Soaking is done only this one time.
We start counting days at this point - when the Soak is done (post-Soak is the phrase we use).
A crop of Leafy Sprouts usually takes 6 days - from This point in time to harvest.
Sprouting
Empty the seeds into your Sprouter (if necessary).
Drain off the soak water.
You can use it - it has nutrients in it. We use it on house plants.
Rinse thoroughly with cool (70-80°F) water.
Drain thoroughly.
Draining Thoroughly (Maniacally even) is the key to great crops. The smaller the seed (all Leafy Sprouts are small seeds) the more thorough you must be. Do Not skimp on Rinsing - but focus seriously on Draining.
If you need to see what we mean by Thorough Draining - check out our videos.
Set your Sprouter anywhere out of direct sunlight and at room temperature (70° is optimal) between Rinses.
This is where your sprouts do their growing. We use a counter top - in the corner of our kitchen, where the sprouter won't get knocked over by cats, dogs, kids or us. Indirect sunlight is fine, as is your regular room light - because light just does not matter much in the first couple days.
A plant can only perform photosynthesis when it has leaves. Until a plant has leaves, light has little if any effect. Sprouts also happen to like air-circulation, so don't hide your sprouts. When leaves do appear, this will be plenty of light for them to green up. You can also use Grow Lights if you like.
Rinse and Drain again every 8-12 hours for 3 days.
Always be sure to Drain very thoroughly. The most common cause of inferior sprouts is inadequate drainage. Even the best designed Sprouting Device holds water, so pay special attention to this step.
Greening
On the 4th day (post soak) relocate your sprouts, if necessary.
If you've been keeping them away from light - move them. Avoid direct sun as it can cook your sprouts, unless you are growing in a Tray Sprouter - in which case direct sunlight is great. Indirect sunlight is best for non-tray Sprouters but grow lights work well too. Experiment - you will be amazed at how little light sprouts require to green up. Photosynthesis is a marvel!
Continue to Rinse and Drain thoroughly every 8-12 hours.
Your last Rinse and Drain will be either at the end of day 5 or the start of day 6.
Always Drain Thoroughly.
Finishing
Your sprouts will be done about the end of day 6.
The majority of sprouts will have open leaves which will be green. You'll recognize them.
De-Hulling
Hulls are the thin coat on a seed. In most cases they separate themselves from the sprout. They are only a problem when it comes to the shelf life of your finished crop. We've eaten them for years and consider them extra roughage, but the crop looks better and lasts longer without them - so removing them is good.
You may De-Hull your sprouts at any time during day 5 or 6.
If you have a Salad Spinner - De-Hulling can be your last step. You can harvest and refrigerate them immediately after you finish.
You can also remove hulls prior to harvest...
If you are growing in a Jar - using the Coarse Mesh Screen will allow some hulls to float out through the screen while Rinsing. Repeating and agitating your sprouts will allow more hulls to escape.
If you're growing in an Easy Sprout Sprouter - transfer your sprouts to the Solid Base, fill with water, and agitate with a fork. This will help hulls get to the surface - where you can skim them off. When you've gotten all you can - move your sprouts back to the Growing Vessel, Rinse again, and Drain Thoroughly.
If you're growing in our Stainless Steel Sprouter you can get rid of most of the hulls by Rinsing Upside Down. Instead of writing words - let us direct you to our short video on the subject: Rinsing Leafy Sprouts Upside Down
Here is our video on De-Hulling.
Harvest
If you De-hulled with a salad spinner - you can go right to refrigeration. If not... Your sprouts are done 8-12 hours after your final Rinse and Very Thorough Draining. If we minimize the surface moisture of our sprouts they store much better in refrigeration, so we let them sit for 8-12 hours after that final Maniacal Draining.
Storing Your Crop
Transfer your sprout crop to a plastic bag or the sealed container of your choice. We have Produce Storage Bags that can extend shelf life substantially.
Leafy Sprouts are best within a week of harvest, but we've had some crops last for over a month in the fridge.
Great work sprout farmer!
*Amount of Seed to Use
* If using Sproutpeople's Single Harvest Pack - use the whole bag (for a one-quart Sprouter). It will produce a crop of approximately 8 ounces.
These seeds yield approximately 7:1 - which means the sprouts will weigh 7 times as much as the seed you start with, but, they will increase even more in volume - so don't start with more than 2 (heaping) Tablespoons per quart/litre of sprouter capacity.
The most consumed sprout on Earth, Mung Bean are grown primarily in China and are used extensively in Asian cuisine. Perhaps the most exciting sprout to grow, Mung Beans offer fun and unique challenges - if you grow them with big, thick roots.
Mung Bean Sprouts are possibly the best of all sprouts when it comes to cooking - especially if you like Chinese food. Some of our finest recipes call for Mung Bean Sprouts.
Mung Beans will pale as they swell with water. Before you end your soak, check them: If you see that on a lot of your beans, part of the bean (one end usually) is still as dark as it was before soaking, they may need a little more time to soak - to make sure they have taken up all the water they need. This is difficult to explain, but I will of course try. If that dark green is no more than 20% of the seed, consider it fully soaked. The seeds continue to take up water even after soaking, so they'll be fine. If more of the seed than 20% is still dark green, drain the soak water and add fresh water. Soak for a few hours more and check them. You'll be done soaking when the seeds are at least 80% pale. Of course, if you got your seed from us, we will tell you here if you need to soak them for more than 12 hours. We haven't had a lot of Mungs that required such special treatment since the last millenium, so don't sweat it - if you are using Sproutpeople Mung Beans.
In any case, we soak Mung Beans for 12 hours. If we are in a hurry we'll use warmer water - 80-90° is a good starting point if you want to experiment with shorter soak periods, but be careful not to go too hot - that can cook your seeds in which case they will never sprout.
Hard Seeds
Mung Beans also tend to have hard seeds once in awhile. If you buy your seed from us this is not much of a concern, but these are beans after all, so it is always good to check for hard seeds - as well as rocks (hey, these grow on farms! Dirt Happens!). If you buy Mung Beans or other seeds elsewhere be sure to examine them after soaking to make sure there are no hard seeds (seeds that are as hard after soaking as before) . If there are - throw those (the hard ones) out (or better yet, compost them)! Hard Seeds are easy to spot as they are smaller than those that are swollen with water, as we detailed above.
Big and Thick Mung Beans - Growing With Gas
We are still working on this, so the details will not be here until we have firm conclusions. When we do, they will replace this text: Our tests to date seem to validate the theory...... Here's the theory. It runs counter to our rap on Air Circulation, but hey, there are always exceptions to any rule, right? Fruit off-gasses as it ripens. The gas is ethylene. Ethylene is a gas used in commercial Mung Bean production. Ethylene gas seems to promote the root growth of Mung Beans. We use a large paper bag - from a grocery store. Allowing space for the Sprouter, we put in the bag; bananas and apples. We use organic fruit. We will be experimenting with other fruits to determine which work best. Here are fruits that emit ethylene gas: Apples, Apricots, Avocados, Bananas, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Kiwi fruit, Mangos, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Tomatoes. We don't know yet whether there are more, nor which produce the most gas. We work on this as time allows. Here is the rest of what you need to know if you want to experiment yourself: We use the exact same technique we detail in our Sprouting Instructions (above), though we are still trying to determine if applying weight to the growing sprouts is necessary. We are trying to grow in an Easy Sprout with a second Easy Sprout, partially filled with water as a weight. Our alternative method is to grow in a standard Easy Sprout with no weight applied to the seeds/sprouts. Isn't education grand?:~) Ironically we sell a product which helps keep sprouts and other vegetables and fruits fresh longer. Our Produce Storage Bags do so by allowing the ethylene gas to escape the bag. Perhaps we should try using them in our tests. Hmmm.
De-Hulling Mung Bean Sprouts
We do not try to remove the hulls of Mung Bean sprouts. They are thin, inoffensive, have no noticeable affect on shelf life, and they add color. The hulls are very difficult to remove, so we advise leaving them in your crop. We've eaten these hulls for 2 decades. They're swell. For those who want to know why store bought mungs often have no hulls - the answer is that commercial growers have big de-hulling machines that agitate the sprouts as they pass through a trough filled with moving water. It's a very elaborate process with no home version - at least not one we've figured out to date. As we like the hulls, we probably never will find a home solution, so enjoy your crop - hulls and all. Happy Sprouting!
Recommended Sprouters for Mung Bean Sprouts
love these mung bean sprouts—they are my favorite
My favorite!
haven't tried them yet but know they'll be great
Easy to sprout, instructions, more quell, fairly quick to get to eating stage.
The day I received the order, I soaked some of the beans overnight, then put them in my Tribest sprouter and covered them up with a towel. The next evening when I went to change the water, the sprouts were several inches high already! And there was 100% germination. We harvested and ate the sprouts the next day, and they were delicious.
