How to Sprout Buckwheat & Sunflower Seeds
Hulled buckwheat and sunflower seeds are excellent candidates for sprouting because of their nutritional value. You can easily add these raw foods to your diet by eating them as a snack, sprinkling them on your salad or other food, juicing or making raw hummus. The process of sprouting either of these seeds requires a soaking period of less than 24 hours and a sprouting period of up to 48 hours. Once they have sprouted, you can rinse and enjoy your freshly-grown sprouts. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Hulled buckwheat seeds
- Hulled sunflower seeds
- Filtered water
- Wide-mouthed glass jar
Instructions
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Sunflower Seeds
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1
Pour 1 cup of hulled sunflower seeds into a colander, rinse thoroughly with filtered water and drain.
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2
Pour the sunflower seeds into a wide-mouthed glass canning jar with a lid. Add 2 to 3 cups of filtered water to the seeds, or enough to cover the seeds, and place the lid on the jar.
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3
Soak the seeds for about eight to 14 hours. Drain the seeds by pouring the water and seeds into a colander. Rinse the seeds with filtered water and pick out any pieces of seed skins.
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4
Leave the seeds in the colander and place the colander on a plate to catch any water that happens to drain out. Allow the seeds to sprout in the colander over the next 18 hours.
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5
Rinse the seeds every nine hours (twice over the 18-hour period) by pouring filtered water over the seeds with a cup. Hold the colander over the sink to prevent water from leaking over the edges of the plate. Put the colander back on the plate after draining.
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6
Rinse the seeds with filtered water at the end of the 18-hour period, transfer them to a bowl and store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them. Each seed should have a green "tail" emerging from it, which is a sprout. Discard any leftover sprouts after 72 hours or three days.
Buckwheat Seeds
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7
Place 1 cup of raw buckwheat in a colander and rinse with filtered water. Drain and place the buckwheat in a wide-mouthed glass jar. Fill the jar with 2 to 3 cups of filtered water, or enough to cover all of the buckwheat.
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8
Soak the buckwheat in the water for four to six hours or overnight. Pour the buckwheat into a colander, and rinse to get rid of the thick, syrup-like substance that may be present on the groats after soaking. A groat is a seed that has had its hull removed.
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9
Place a plate under the buckwheat to catch any water that may drain out, and allow the seeds to sprout over the next one or two days.
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10
Rinse the sprouts every six to eight hours over the next one to two days to encourage growth. Once the green "tails" emerge from the sprouts, they are ready. Do not rinse. Store the sprouts in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them or for no more than three days.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If the holes in your colander are larger than the buckwheat or sunflower seeds, then you will need to use an alternative method to drain them.
If you use a wide-mouthed glass jar, you will need to put a piece of fine mesh screen over the top to filter the water out of the jar. Then, when allowing seeds to sprout, you will need to affix the screen mesh to the top of the jar and position the jar at a 45 degree angle over a sink, or other container, to allow the water to drain out.
Keep the seeds out of direct sunlight when sprouting. They are delicate and they may sustain damage.
References
- Photo Credit sunflower seeds image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
