Mung Bean Sprouts

For Filipinos and most Asian, mung bean sprouts (known locally as togue or toge) are their first encounter with wonderful baby vegetable seedlings; they’re stir-fried with seafood, stuffed inside spring rolls, sautéed with meat, deep-fried into golden fritters, tossed with noodles or floated on soups.

Alfalfa sprouts were all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s, when they paired with tofu to fill whole grain sandwiches in hippie communities. Daikon sprouts came into my life in Osaka in the 1980s, spicing up vinegared rice wrapped in nori seaweed and sprinkled with shaves of dried bonito tuna.

The 1990s popularized baby vegetables, including very young lettuce, nail-sized carrots and beets. A decade later, we were juicing everything: fruits, vegetables, leaves, peels and roots.

These days, after noni juice and coco water, the health binge is all about sprouted grains in all forms: juiced, powdered or in pill form as supplements. Mankind has just stepped back thousands of years.

SPROUTING IN 3000 B.C. -- All this excitement over sprouts is nothing new; medicinally and nutritionally, sprouts have a long history. Ancient Chinese physicians were prescribing sprouts to cure many disorders more than 5,000 years ago. The Bible, in the Book of Daniel, discusses sprouting. But it took the West a very long time to fully understand and appreciate its nutrition merits.

SAVING SAILORS -- In the 1700s, lack of Vitamin C caused scurvy among sailors, resulting in many deaths during their long (2-3 years) voyages. From 1772-1775, Captain James Cook had his sailors eat limes, lemons and varieties of sprouts; all rich in Vitamin C. These plus other fresh fruits and vegetables and a rigorous program of growing and eating sprouts while at sea solved the mariners’ health problems and reduced casualties.

NOT ALL SPROUTS – My favorite cookbook “The Joy of Cooking” warns that not all plants with edible fruit produce edible sprouts. The book singles out potatoes, tomatoes, fava and lima beans.

DYI GOURMET SPROUTS – One of the most expensive Oriental vegetables is pea shoots, the tender young leaves and tendrils of snow peas, which cost thousands on a per kilo basis. In 1988, I decided to plant dried green peas (gisantes) bought from a Divisoria Chinese grocer. The seeds were soaked overnight, then spread (two layers) on a basin filled with clean (no animal wastes) damp soil. Patted down well, the seeds were covered with one inch of soil and sprayed with water.

The sprouting pot was kept in a shady area and sprayed with water thrice daily. When the sprout stems were more than an inch long and two leaves had opened at the tip of each plant, the pot was moved to a place with a bit more sunlight to let the leaves turn green. Harvesting was done with scissors, by cutting the sprout stems close to where the roots started but above the soil.

CHEAP NUTRITION – “The Joy of Cooking” describes sprouts as “not only one of the wonders of the world but probably produce by far the most nutritively valuable additions to the diet in relation to their cost.”

From ¼ cup of grains or beans, one can harvest a pint of sprouts with rich protein content. Sprouting the seeds increases the already rich vitamin content.

DAIKON SPROUTS -- Radish seed sprouts have a zesty intense radish flavor that adds a nice kick to salads, sandwiches, stir-fry and sushi. They are also rich in vitamins A, B, C, E and K, folic and pantothenic acid, niacin, potassium, iron, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, zinc, carotene, chlorophyll, amino acids, trace elements, antioxidants and protein.

HOMEGROWN IS SAFEST – Because sprouts are usually eaten or juiced raw, there are concerns about contamination during handling. There have been cases in the US and elsewhere of E coli and salmonella in sprouts sold at supermarkets and farmers’ markets. Home grown sprouts are the solution.

DRINKING GRAIN SPROUTS -- Wheat grass and barley are among the most popular grains for sprouting, with their chlorophyll-rich leaves producing intensely green juices and powders. Because of the growing demand worldwide, these products are now available commercially through health food stores, individual agents and internet sites.

BRANDED BARLEY JUICE -- In the Philippines, Sante is one of the more established names for grain sprout products; it has been selling for three years through a network of 40,000 distributors. The brand uses young barley grass sourced from the fertile plains of Canterbury, New Zealand. Among the brand’s barley-based products such are food supplements, barley juice, coffee and soap.

SELLING HEALTH -- Sante Philippines CEO Jesus Joey Marcelo announced that the company has started operations in Taiwan, with the ultimate objective of inviting OFW communities in different countries to join the multi-level marketing network. Priority countries are Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Brunei, Indonesia and Norway.

Rags-to-riches stories of teachers, vendors and office clerks who prospered as Sante dealers serve to inspire others to take the same path to success.

For more information, visit www.santebarley.com.

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