Eat Your Sprouts
Eat your sprouts!
Arugula, alfalfa, lettuce, sunflower, mung bean, alfalfa, radish, beet, lentil…so many options.
You can grow sprouts in any season, but they specifically correspond to Spring and the Wood Element in Chinese medicine and food energetics. I am referring to sprouts broadly including the bigger sprouts from lentils and legumes that don’t leaf out before you eat them, or the micro greens from leafy greens like mustards and arugula that are so popular these days.
A few benefits of sprouts
They are rich in vitamins (incl.many Bs) and minerals (incl. trace minerals like copper).
They have a fair amount of protein — root sprouts (I eat my radish sprouts as I thin my garden patch), lentil, legume and grain sprouts are higher than leafy greens.
They are all rich in fiber
They help regulate blood sugar, cholesterol and the bowels
Their nature is Yin and they help clear heat in the stomach and bowels —spicier sprouts such as mustards and arugula a wee bit warmer than neutral sprouts.
They are all very easy to digest
They carry the energetics and light flavor of the seed or plant that they intend to become. For example - arugula, one of the first cold hardy greens up, have a spicy and slightly sour vibrancy that gets stimulates digestion. Radish sprouts are slightly pungent and help clear phlegm. Mung bean sprouts - the most eaten sprout in the world - are sweeter, slightly heavier and more anchoring.
They are also very inexpensive and it's easy to sprout them yourself. There are thousands of sites online with instructions to help you sprout.
Add the sprouts to salads, sandwiches, toss it with melons or berries, add it to slaws, bean and grain salads.
Happy noshing.
Be well!
April
