Don’t panic. Sprouting from home is actually a simple and relatively low maintenance process.

I love it because sometimes when I soak beans/legumes, grains or nuts overnight, there is a small window in which they need to be used. With sprouting, I find that as long as I am mindful of rinsing regularly, there is a little more flexibility in when the product can be used. If I start soaking my mung beans on Sunday, I can really choose any day throughout the following week to stop the sprouting and prepare my soup. As you may know, soaking and sprouting breaks down some of the anti-nutrient components that serve to protect the seed/grain in nature, but make it more difficult to digest in the body. Although this process involves just a small amount of planning in advance, it isn't much more complicated than adding water to dried mung beans and rinsing periodically.

As mother nature welcomes new life back into our surroundings, springtime is the ideal season for enjoying sprouts.

We can take cues from nature to understand the best ways to eat for each season. Spring is also a great time to consume bitter greens and take lighter meals (i.e. soup) to counter the heaviness of the predominant earth and water (kapha) qualities present at this time. You can easily adapt this recipe for other seasons by varying any additional vegetables and greens that you choose to incorporate!

Ingredients

1 Cup green mung

6+ Cup water

2 carrots, chopped

1 celery stock, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 cardamom pods

3-5 whole black peppercorns

1” fresh ginger root, grated

2-3 chard leaves, chopped

½ C parsley, chopped

½ C cilantro, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

1-2 tsp salt

1-2 Tbsp ghee

½ tsp brown mustard seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp ground cumin

- black pepper to taste

Optional

¼ tsp powdered fenugreek

½ tsp ajwain seeds

Sunflower seeds

Advanced Preparation

Begin sprouting 2 DAYS BEFORE: Soak green mung overnight. Rinse in the morning. Place in a metal strainer over a bowl, covered. Splash water water on the sprouts 2x/day to keep them from drying out. Once a little tail emerges, you are ready to use the mung sprouts in your soup recipe!

Method

Drain and rinse mung.
In a medium to large pot, add mung, water, cardamom pods, bay leaf, peppercorn and fresh ginger. Bring to a boil, them summer for about one hour, periodically skimming off any foam.
Chop vegetables and herbs.
Add carrots and celery to the soup, simmer 15 min.
In a small pan, saute spices in ghee until fragrant, then add to pot.
Lastly, add salt and chard. Then, cover and turn off heat and wait five minutes.
Garnish with cilantro, parsley, green onion and sunflower seeds.

Other considerations…

Six cups of water should be plenty, but you can always add more if it's taking a little longer to cook the mung, or if you want more liquid-y soup.
When sprouting mung, allow for at least 24 hrs of soaking. Strain water and add fresh every 12 hours or so. If you have time, try sprouting for 3-4 days. Always check in with your sense of smell, to make sure the sprouts haven’t gotten past their prime.
If the sprouts start to smell strange and unappealing, compost them. Then, start over, bringing heightened awareness to maintaining a clean sprouting environment. This is uncommon, but important to be aware of!
While rinsing the mung, notice the slight foam that comes to the top – this is what we’re trying to get rid of to optimize digestion. As you begin to cook the mung and notice more foam coming to the surface, skim that off.
Fenugreek and ajwain are typically available at your local Indian grocery store.
If you are interested in using fresh turmeric root, grate about ½" and add it in with the ginger.
You can use as little or as much parsley and cilantro as you like! I prefer to add quite a bit to increase the nutrient density of the meal.
If chard is not your preferred green, substitute kale, spinach or whatever else is in season.
For greater variety, try adding other vegetables (zucchini, radish, leeks, etc.) in with the carrots and celery.
If you're feeling adventurous after making this recipe once or twice, experiment with a different bean or legume.

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