Sprout Quinoa

Intro: Sprout Quinoa

Sprouting quinoa is important to neutralize the phytates and enzyme inhibitors that make it hard to digest. Sprouting makes the grain more nutritional because you are eating a complete plant not just the seeds. The whole possess take about 24 hours and it very simple

STEP 1: What You Need

-You need a glass jar 1-2 quarts works great

- a sealing ring to fit the jar

-screen to cover the top of the jar

-quinoa

STEP 2: Full Submerging

Fill the jar 1/3 full of quinoa, regardless of the jar size 1/3 is the best. You need room for expansion.

place the screen and sealer ring on the jar and fill with water

Leave the quinoa submerged over night on the counter at room temp

STEP 3: Rinse and Repeat

Empty the water from the jar (water from step 2)

Prop the jar to facilitate draining of any extra water, a pie pan work great for 2 quart jars. You can also use a dish drying rack.
shake the quinoa up to lay it out in the jar evenly.

Every 8 hours (or in the morning and evening for those of us that start in the evening) fill the jar with water to rinse the grain, empty and prop up to dry.

STEP 4: The Result

Two mornings after you started soaking the quinoa it should have sprouted enough to eat. Some may leave it longer but it recommended that sprouts be no longer that the length of the grain. The sprouts will look like little tails all curled up against the grain.

Comments

[SilentTearsAnimalRescue]

Thank you, I've been wondering if I could sprout quinoa, and how to do it. Am adding to my collection :)

[Rawfully Tempting]

It's fun to dehydrate them after sprouting and store in the freezer- can be added as "crunchies" to salads, or raw vegan brownies, cookies, etc. I even make "cocoa crispies" cereal from dehydrated sprouted quinoa. Great Stuff!

[ChrysN]

Nice, do you eat them raw or do you cook them after they are sprouted?

[GhostCard]

I eat them in soups or lightly steamed. Sometimes my wife dries and grinds them into for her flour mix. You can eat them raw, however, overconsumption of raw sprouts can irritate your stomach. It can also depend on your own health some people find that they tolerate raw just fine, I have read that pregnant women, elderly, children and people with a compromised immune system should stick to eating them cooked.

[escapefromyonkers]

thanks for the timely info. i have recently tried to go gluten and dairy free for digestive reason,
Quinoa is one of the first grains i discovered that was quick to make and versatile. i have it for breakfasts lunch or dinner.
i need more gluten free foods and also should look into making the flour your wife makes. i wonder if that blendtec machine would make flour?
i remember when buying it that a man ahead of me was asking whether it could make duram flour, as he was from a country where that was popular. i am not sure what duram flour is, but i think it had to do what i would refer to as indian food, maybe roti is made with it? My spellings are probably off too on these ingredients.

[GhostCard]

I don't know anything about the blendtec machine. we have a jupiter mill flour grinder and a dehydrator for drying the sprouted grains to grind into flour. Some gluten free grains you could try are Millet, Rice, Buckwheat and Amaranth. my wife is planning to start sprouting buckwheat to add to her flour mixes and has so far used Millet+Rice+Quinoa+ tapioca flour with success. Tapioca flour would be =the binding grain that holds the course ones together. Here is a link to an article on cooking with gluten free grains.

http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/493-going-gluten-free

If you scroll down a bit there is kind of a chart for how to combine different flours in order to get the desired result. Hope this helps. I looked up Durum flour and it looks like it is a type of Wheat flour.
Thanks for your comment!

[thepelton]

I would be interested in the question of taste. Does sprouting it get rid of that soapy taste?

[blodefood]

Regardless if you sprout or cook it, if you rinse it well, until it stops foaming, that should get rid of most of the soapy taste.

[young skipper]

This Is very cool but we just put it in a large salad bowl. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I just wanted to share my experience with this. We also mix the quinoa with steel cut oatmeal.

[Mandrew]

I am looking forward to sprouting my quInoa, to see the taste difference.

It is worth noting that nutritionally sprouted quinoa is best described as 'different' then quinoa. To suppose that is it is better, is to make a value judgment on different vitamins and nutrients.

The quinoa has however used some energy to sprout, so sprouting quinoa is environmentally less sound, but probably not measurably so... I wouldn't worry about it.

[GhostCard]

Your are right in that sprouting does not measurably improve or change the nutritional content in the grain. The improvement, from my perspective, is bioavailability.The quinoa contains antinutrients that limit the digestion of the vitamins and minerals; sprouting (or at the very least soaking) quinoa makes a higher % of nutrients available for absorption.

Good luck with sprouting

[jstorm1]

This is basically the first step in malting. Is it sweet? Can you toast it to get malt quinoa?

The next inevitable question is: can you extract, and then ferment, the quinoa malt??

[GhostCard]

i know nothing about malting.
It does smell sweet after a few rinses but i have not eaten it until its sprouted and cooked and by then it does not sweet per say.