• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Course
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Subscribe
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Subscribe
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Edible Garden

Home grown bean sprouts

Published: 01.26.2022 » Last updated: 03.18.2022

My daughter's effort paid off beautifully. It took five days from germination to harvest. She took photos every 24 hours to document the entire process of growing bean sprouts indoors.

Home grown mung bean sprouts

We’ve been growing herbs for years. We have vegetables and fruit trees too. But growing vegetables inside the house was not something we’ve done until recently when we couldn’t get good bean sprouts.

Growing sprouts from dried beans isn’t something complicated. We used to do it in grade school as part of some science experiment. When my daughter, Alex, said she was going to do it, I had no doubt that she’d be successful.

What I didn’t expect was that she would be able to grow sprouts so long and so plump in five days flat. Perhaps, it was the difference in the process. While we used to soak the beans as children, she watered and drained them repeatedly from the second day up until the sprouts were harvested and cooked.

Day one

Growing bean sprouts, day 1: soaking mung beans in water

A quarter cup of dried mung beans were soaked in water. The container was kept loosely covered inside a kitchen cabinet.

Why inside a cabinet? Sunlight is not good for sprouting mung beans. They have to be kept in a dark and cool place, and inside a cabinet was the ideal location.

Day two

Growing bean sprouts, day 2: seeds have germinated and are transferred to a container with holes to allow excess water to drain

The dried mung beans have germinated, the skins have burst and small sprouts were visible.

Alex poked holes on the bottom of a plastic container and inserted the container into another container of the same size. For drainage.

The mung beans were laid on layers of cheesecloth, watered, and allowed to drain for a few minutes. Then, the cheesecloth was placed in the prepared container. The sides of the cheesecloth were folded over the beans and the container was covered loosely for ventilation.

Again, the container went into a cabinet.

During waking hours, from the second day until the sprouts were harvested, the process of watering and draining the mung beans before being replaced in the container was repeated every two to three hours.

Days three and four

Growing bean sprouts, days 3 and four

The sprouts were about an inch long on the third day.

On the fourth day, they were longer, firmer and standing upright. The cover of the plastic container had to be ditched. Inside the cabinet, the sprouts were loosely covered with nothing but the cheesecloth.

Day five

Growing bean sprouts, day 5: ready for harvest

Alex intended to harvest the sprouts on the sixth day but, on the fifth day, they were starting to grow leaves. Definitely ready for the cooking pan.

Harvest

Cooking home grown bean sprouts

The fifth day, harvest day, fell on Alex’s birthday. Per her request, I cooked chicken and noodle stir fry to which I added half of the mung bean sprouts that she harvested.

Happy birthday, sweetie. We’ll get you proper sprouting equipment and accessories so you can continue growing your indoor vegetable garden.

Connie Veneracion

Lawyer by education. Journalist by accident. Writer by passion. Photographer by necessity. Good food, coffee and wine lover forever. Read more about me and Umami Days. Find me on Flipboard, Substack and Pinterest.

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #40 A toast to the awesomeness of Filipino adobo
    09.18.2023
    No, Filipino adobo is an not adaptation of Mexican adobo. I’ll explain why. Plus, there’s a recipe for a not-your-usual Filipino pork or chicken adobo.
More Edible Garden
Fern growing on palm tree

Fern on palm tree trunk: good or bad?

Lemongrass

How to grow and propagate lemongrass, and how to use it for cooking

Banana in our garden almost ready for harvest

Fruits and trees in our garden

Peppermint growing in a pot

How to grow and propagate mint

Wild mushrooms growing on decaying log

Wild Mushrooms in the Backyard: Edible or Poisonous?

Pandan growing in soil

How pandan leaves are used in cooking

Dill growing in the garden

What is dill? Is it the same as dill weed?

Lawn of a tropical garden

The right grass for a lawn in a tropical garden

Okra in a home garden

Okra: how to grow and how to cook

Basil in pot bathed in sunlight

How to grow and propagate basil

Oregano with white flowers

Oregano in the kitchen and garden

Colorful moth on bedroom wall

Should you get rid of hairy caterpillars (higad) in your herb / vegetable garden?

Sidebar

Green beans tempura
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

No AI is used in the creation of Umami Days content · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved