Sprouting is the practice of germinating seeds to be eaten raw or cooked. Sprouts can be germinated at home or produced industrially. They are a prominent ingredient of the raw food diet and common in Eastern Asian cuisine.

Sprouting, like cooking, reduces anti-nutritional compounds in raw legumes. Raw lentils, for example, contain lectins, anti-nutritional proteins which can be reduced by sprouting or cooking. Sprouting is also applied on a large scale to barley as a part of the malting process. A downside to consuming raw sprouts is that the process of germinating seeds can also be conducive to harmful bacterial growth.

soybean sprout and mung bean sprout

Sprouted mung beans

Bean sprouts are a common ingredient across the world. They are particularly common in Eastern Asian cuisine, made from sprouting beans.

There are two types of common bean sprouts:

• Mung bean sprout is made from the greenish-capped mung beans.
• Soybean sprout is made from yellow, larger-grained soybean.

It typically takes one week for them to be completely grown. The sprouted beans are more nutritious than the original beans and they require much less cooking time.

The germination process takes a few days and can be done at home