So I bought a sprouter and a packet of mixed salad-y sprouts. I followed all the instructions, and soon was proudly in possession of around 2 cups of sprouts.
They tasted like sprouts. Despite the fact I had all kinds of different seeds in there (the packet said things like lentils, peas, radish, onions, etc.) they just all tasted sprouty.
I dutifully put them on salads and sandwiches, but didn’t enjoy them.
So, am I out of luck? Maybe the alfalfa in the blend is too overpowering? Do sprouts all just taste sprouty? Or are there magic special seeds that will actually grow sprouts that I like?
(Oh, I also tried to make a small batch of mung bean sprouts, which failed horribly, getting twisty and rooty and attracting fruit flies. I think my batch size was just too small. I also saw an awesome video online of mung bean sprouts growing in sand to give the long, straight sprouts we know and love.)
I can tell the difference between various sprout varieties, but it’s a subtle difference. If they were in a blend like yours, I think the only flavor I’d notice is generic sprout-flavor and I’d lose the nuances that would let me identify the different varieties.
I’d compare it to the flavor differences between lettuces. They all have a lot of core flavors in common - even extremes like butter lettuce and radicchio have more in common than different, if you ask me. (At least, compared to non-lettuce vegetables.) If you mixed them all together, they’d just blend in generic lettuce flavor again.
You say that you were disappointed - what flavor were you looking for?
Oh, I dunno, just something a bit more flavourful or complex than standard alfalfa sprouty flavour. What’s the strongest flavoured sprout - onion? Think if I grew a bunch of JUST onion sprouts, I might like it more?
elbows, I can never finish a whole bag of beansprouts. Also, they’re a very common source of food poisoning when bought commercially. My sprouter is, apparently, not ideal for mung beans, unless you want to make a whole lot. And that was… kind of the point
