I recently learned how to sprout wheat. It’s so easy! I’ve heard that sprouting a kernel of wheat increases its nutrition by 600%. Wow, that’s a lot! I don’t know if that’s really true, but I sure do feel healthy when I eat them. I’ve tried doing it with hard red wheat as well as hard white wheat, and I think I prefer the red wheat. It seems like the white wheat has more white starchy stuff inside the kernel that I’m not a huge fan of. But both work for sprouting.
So here we go –
How to Sprout Wheat:
1. Put as many wheat kernels as you want to sprout into a large bowl. How much you do at a time depends on the size of the jar you have to sprout them in. I usually don’t do more than a cup at a time.
2. Fill the bowl with water and rinse well. Then drain.
3. Put rinsed and drained kernels into a glass jar.
4. Cover jar with a cheese cloth or some kind of fabric that can let air in. I used a clean nylon with a rubber band and it worked great. They also sell sprouting jars that are specifically built for this purpose. But if you don’t have one of those, this is how you can make do.
5. Put jar somewhere dark, like in a cupboard. Lay it on its side (as shown above) on top of a small towel and then use something to prop it up 45 degrees, so that the side with the nylon is facing down. This allows the extra liquid to drain off.
6. Let sprout for 2-4 days, rinsing and draining the kernels twice a day. The picture below shows what extremely sprouted wheat kernels look like. You may want to harvest them before they get to this point – when they just start to bud. I usually don’t let them get quite this long, but they are still good. The longer they sprout, the “greener” they taste.
Once they are as sprouted as you like, store them covered in the refrigerator and eat within a few days.
7. Use as a topping for salads or smoothies, sneak it into other dishes, or just eat by the handful 🙂
