Sprouting Garbanzo Beans
With a good glass sprouting jar, making your own sprouts is fun, nutritious and quite convenient. In the past I’ve had mixed results with garbanzo beans. The first time I tried to sprout them, I got beautiful little sprouts after 3 days but the next two times, I couldn’t get them to sprout at all. Perhaps the seeds weren’t raw to begin with or were not of good quality. They just seemed to “rot” before they would sprout. I asked my daughter, Linda, what her experience was with sprouting garbanzos and she gave me her secret. She sprouts them in the refrigerator! Since my house is generally cooler than hers, I kept the sprouting jar in the refrigerator during the heat of the day and took it out at night. As you can see, it worked beautifully. I wouldn’t do this with most other sprouts as they generally require a more steady environment of about 70 degrees.
For nutritional information on garbanzo beans, see my July 13th and August 14th posts . Flax seed oil is added to balance out the high omega 6 content of the tahini, garbanzos and olive oil giving it an optimal 4:1 ratio.
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Raw Hummus with Sprouted Garbanzo Beans [serves 4]
1/2 cup dried raw organic garbanzo beans
2 tablespoons raw tahini
1 cup peeled zucchini, chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
pinch cayenne (or to taste)
1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil for drizzle
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Four days in advance, place the dry garbanzo beans in a large sprouting jar. Cover with cool, filtered water (about three times their volume) and gently swirl the jar to remove air pockets. Soak for 12 hours. With the sprouting lid on, drain the water, rinse, and drain again. Place the jar upside down and store out of the sun. Rinse and drain every 8 to 10 hours and keep jar inverted. To prevent rotting, you may store the inverted jar in the refrigerator during the day and leave out of the refrigerator at night. In about 3 days, you will see a little "tail" about 1/4 inch long. Rinse well. They are now ready to use. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of sprouted garbanzo beans.
Place the sprouted garbanzo beans, tahini, zucchini, garlic, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, flaxseed oil and 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, occasionally scraping down the sides. Put the mixture in a serving bowl and stir in the parsley. Taste for salt and cayenne pepper and adjust if needed. Drizzle with the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil, garnish with another pinch of chopped parsley and serve with raw vegetables or crackers (see my raw cracker recipe).
Per serving: 182.1 calories, 9.7 g fat, 1.2 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 6.9 g protein, 19.0 g carbohydrates, 5.1 g fiber, 0.7 g omega 3 and 2.7 g omega 6 fatty acid.
