Bean Sprouts Delivery or Pickup

Bean sprouts contain many vitamins and minerals with positive health benefits. You can find several types of bean sprouts in grocery stores. You might see kidney bean sprouts, soybean sprouts, chickpea sprouts, pea sprouts, Adzuki sprouts, and lentil sprouts. However, you'll most commonly see mung bean sprouts.

East Asia cultivates the most mung beans, but this tasty and nutritious superfood is popular worldwide. You can find mung bean sprouts in many restaurants and grocery stores throughout the United States.

Bean sprouts have very few calories and add a tasty crunch to your meal. Bean sprouts play a prominent role in many Asian dishes. You'll find this delicious vegetable cooked in everything from stir-fry dishes and fried rice to egg roll stuffing and even soups. You don't have to cook bean sprouts to enjoy them. You can top off your favorite salad with a handful of bean sprouts for a delicious texture.

The small, round mung bean measures less than 1/4-inch in diameter with a faded green coloring. When a mung bean sprouts, a white shoot grows out several inches from one side while leaf tips begin forming from the bean itself. At this point, you can eat the bean sprout either raw or cooked.

Bean sprouts can have either green or yellow leaf tips depending on how much sunlight they were exposed to when cultivated. More light turns the leaf tips green, while darkness results in a yellow hue. Sprouts with green leaves generally taste fresher and offer higher nutritional content. The shoot should be white and flexible with a firmness that will produce a gentle snap when broken.

You want to find bean sprouts that measure at least 1.5 inches long. At this stage, the lectins within the bean have been converted to digestible proteins, allowing you to benefit from the vitamins and minerals packed into every bite. Although lectins have been linked to allergies, inflammatory conditions, and auto-immune diseases, sprouting converts the beans' lectins into digestible proteins.

Any slimy feel or brown coloring indicates that the sprouts are old, and you should avoid purchasing them. You should also pass over soft or mushy sprouts as they may be in the decomposition stage.

While you can grow bean sprouts on your counter, you don't want to keep them there once they've matured. You should keep your bean sprouts in the refrigerator in your crisper drawer. In the fridge, they can last up to a week. If you have the time, you can pick off the tails, which may help extend their shelf life. Layering bean sprouts between absorbent paper towels and keeping them in an open container will increase airflow and help reduce the moisture buildup that leads to spoilage.

You can freeze bean sprouts for more extended storage, but most chefs don't recommend this. While the freezing doesn't affect the nutritional value of bean sprouts, it will turn them mushy once thawed. You want a crispy crunch from your bean sprout, not mush.