Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mushroom-growing box sprouts new use


Reduce, recycle, repurpose. I don't put the last one into practice nearly as much as I'd like to, so to turn out a small batch of daikon sprouts using an old mushroom kit just opened another door into kitchen counter gardening. Sprouting always seemed a big mystery that included a set-up with multiple trays and constant rinsing - too much trouble when I can purchase a half pound tray of soy sprouts for a little over 1 euro - yet the thought of throwing out more trash simply bothered me.

A packet of daikon seeds had been sitting in my stash for quite some time, and when I came across last year's plastic black bottom/clear top mushroom kit, the idea of sprouting popped into my head. After giving the kit a good sterilizing wash and rinse in hot water, I placed the rinsed daikon seeds (soaked overnight) onto a damp paper towel and plastic netting (cut from a mesh bag holding oranges). The reason for the mesh was that I figured that the sprouts would need something stable to adhere to as they grew taller but a second experiment proved that they only need a paper towel.

I followed the exact steps for sprouting by rinsing twice a day and using a fine wire sieve to drain them into before replacing the seeds back into the box. Once the seeds began sprouting it was tricky to rinse them but again, a fine sieve makes an indispensable kitchen tool. When the sprouts put out leaves, I stopped rinsing and placed the box in a spot with indirect sunlight. When they grew to about 4 inches in height, I snipped them from the root bottoms and used them in temaki sushi. Delicious!


I found these at a natural foods store: mung beans, red cabbage, fenugreek and a mix that contains alfalfa, garden cress, fenugreek and mustard; it should be interesting to see how they taste.

6 comments:

kat said...

looks great! were the sprouts spicy tasting?!

Rowena said...

They were a little hot - gotta get more, they are so yummy!

Andrea said...

I must admit the time spent rinsing sprouts(and remembering) has always put me off but looks like the trouble is well worth it.
Red Cabbage sprouts sound interesting..............
Happy Easter.

Rowena said...

Andrea - it's the curiosity factor that weighs in here. Had no idea that there was such a thing as carrot sprouts!

~TastyTravels~ said...

Good job recycling! I love daikon sprouts! Yum!

Rowena said...

I even put them on pizza!