How To Sprout Your Own Lentils

When the weather is warm, or there’s a warm spot in your kitchen, it’s great to try sprouting your own pulses. Give it a go! But why bother you ask. Well there are many health benefits to making and eating sprouted pulses.

They support your immune system, improve your digestion and provide a great energy source. In particular, pulses help support detoxification and elimination of any unwanted toxins from the body. Plus by sprouting your own pulses, you help to make the minerals more easily absorbable.

Smaller pulses such as lentils, and seeds such as broccoli, are the easiest to sprout. Puy/black/Beluga/caviar lentils and broccoli seeds are my fav for sprouting. Quinoa and small seeds, such as alfalfa, also sprout well. The smaller the seed, the faster they sprout. Larger pulses when sprouted, like chickpeas/garbanzo beans, can be a bit too crunchy (for my taste) and contain higher levels of lectins, which can make your stomach bloat and feel uncomfortable.

Interestingly, research studies have shown that the absorption of beneficial nutrients in lentils is almost equal whether they are cooked or sprouted. I find them easy to sprout and love their delicious flavour and crunch in salads. 

Soak overnight half a cup of dried lentils in water in a big glass jar (roughly 1-litre capacity) or a bowl. The lentils should fill about ¼ of the jar, and the water a bit above that. Cover with a tea towel or clean cloth and leave on your kitchen bench.

Next morning, drain the lentils and wash them in fresh water a couple of times. Tip back into the washed glass jar/bowl. Cover the top with a cloth, so that the lentils can ‘breathe’; you could seal the top of the jar with a rubber band. The reason you pop a cloth over the top is simply to stop insects getting in.

Leave on your kitchen bench all day, or in winter time, a warm spot in your home.

That evening, remove the cloth top, gently rinse the lentils and drain away the water. Rinse the glass/ceramic container; put the lentils back into it and cover and seal again. Leave overnight on the kitchen bench, or a warm (not hot) spot in your home. After 24-48 hours your lentils will begin to sprout.

Keep rinsing and draining in the morning and again in the evening. Depending on how warm your kitchen is, the lentils should begin to sprout well by day three. Let them sprout until the root is about double the length of the lentils or longer. Keep carefully rinsing and draining each morning and evening for 3-5 days.

Once they are well sprouted (that’s roughly when the root length is about double the length of the lentil or a bit longer) place the lid on the jar and put them in the fridge to keep fresh. They should last for a week.

Use them anyway you like. I put them into my rice paper rolls, tossed into salads, and stirred into warm dishes. Or I make a tangy dressing and add in some cherry tomatoes, plus chopped parsley and have an instant dish to scoff if I’m in a hurry.