Sprouted lentil & grain broth

[nogutsnoglory]

I cooked up sprouted lentils and grains to create a soup. I am afraid of all the fiber so I simply drank the broth after straining it.

It tasted really good but I wonder how much health benefit I am getting out of it? Is it like chicken soup where nutrients seep out into the liquid?

 

[Ya noy]

I always understood that the entire purpose of eating sprouted foods raw is because cooking destroys a number of the more beneficial nutrients.

The difference with chicken soup is that you boil down the bones to extract the nutrients, because most of us don't gnaw on raw bones.

If you can't handle fiber though, I would think you would still be getting most of the nutrients in the resulting broth.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

It's true that soaking and sprouting increases the bioavailability of vitamins. Much of this probably does get destroyed when I cook it, I can't eat it raw though.

My main reason for sprouting is because it destroys much of the enzyme inhibitors and anti-nutrients present in foods, making it easier to digest and less of an issue absorbing other vitamins and minerals.

 

[Ya noy]

I kind of feel the same about raw milk, which I buy, but pasteurize myself, even though I realize that by doing so is counterproductive to the entire point of buying raw milk.

If you can't eat the sprouts raw, making them into broth is probably the best way of cooking to preserve the most nutrients possible.

 

[mnsun]

I would recommend, maybe through interlibrary loan--if not buying, the book Wild Fermentation. It has mostly fermentation recipes, but some which combine sprouting with fermenting.

For instance an easy-enough recipe which calls for sprouting grains, then food processing, then adding a sour dough culture to make probably a rather easily digested bread.

There are also instructions for nearly every fermented food you can think of. The next one I want to try is culturing a "ginger beer plant". This actually involves combining a cup of boiled water with a tsp of sugar. When that is dissolved/cooled down to room temp, you add a tsp of grated fresh ginger (including grated brown skin of ginger for beneficial microbes). Then, you just let this sit out for a few days and add the 1:1tsp sugar/ginger till a bubbly/slimy fermentation is apparent. From there, you use this as a starter for a large batch of ginger/sugar/water to create authentic ginger ale in bottles. However, this may take longer than they let on. At least two, probably 3/4 weeks.

 

[Ya noy]

Ginger beer sounds really good, although I'm wondering if you can substitute honey or blackstrap molasses or another sweetener for the sugar?

I just started fermenting a batch of "kvass", which is a Russian bread drink, substituting mashed up apples and honeyfor the sugar.

I used rye bread, but you can use almost any grain instead, maybe even sprouts? It is slightly alcoholic, but less than 1%.

@mnsum, I've been looking a good fermentation recipe book, and just ordered the Wild Fermentation book from Amazon for my kindle app. I'm going to go read it now, Thanks!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I havent been making from scratch just buying ready made sprouted foods and cooking them. To actually do the sprouting and fermenting is a goal but its a time consuming pain!