DEAR SPROUTMAN: Good eve! I have been Googling, binging, and swearing all afternoon trying to find nutritional information about sprouted quinoa! Do you have any information, or a place you could direct me? I would be truly appreciative! (So would everyone here at Barnes and Noble) Smiles! – Tiffany
DEAR TIFFANY: There are a few reasons why you cannot find nutritional info about Quinoa sprouts.
1) The Quinoa available in health food stores is not sprouting grade. Qunioa comes with a bitter sheath that is removed prior to its arrival to the public. This small amount of processing reduces the germination of quinoa to a point where sprouting it for more than one day will develop fermentation and eventually decay.
2) Although I have come across 3 small companies that market a “sprouted quinoa,” they all grow it for only one day. To my knowledge, none of them has invested in testing the nutrition in their product.
One day of sprouting is not real germination. Sprouting occurs when a shoot develops. In the case of Quinoa, this takes 4 days. I have successfully sprouted quinoa to the grass stage, but I used the un-polished seed. However, that version of the seed is only available in 1,000 kilo size orders.
I’m sorry sproutman but I have to kindly disagree with you. I buy all of my quinoa (red & white, I don’t like black) from whole foods and local grocery stores in the bulk bins. I’ve never had an issues with them sprouting properly before. I always go for about 3 days and they have beautiful tails about 1/6 – 1/4 inch long by the time I’m done. I then dry them @ 105 degree F and grind them into flour =) The most important part about doing quinoa sprouts is rinsing. I have to rinse mine 3-5 times at each 8-12 hour rinse. Its a pain but the wonderful aromatic sprout I get at the end is totally worth it.
-FaylinaMeir from Faylinameir.com
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How can i obtain more info regargding Quinoa. And order one lb of seed.
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I like Quinoa as a grain. It is a great nutritional seed. But I do not promote it as a sprout for three reasons: 1) It is hard to acquire the right form of the unhulled seed. Health food stores don’t sell it. 2) If you are willing to invest the time to track down the right seed, often the germination is too low for successful sprouts. That leads to potential mold and rot problems, which I consider unsafe in the raw state. 3) Lastly, the sprout from 3 day old Qunioa is a relatively insignificant shoot. Not a lot of food or flavor. If you do grow it for 7 days it turns into a red grass which too chewy to eat. This grain is ready to eat with only very light cooking. I feel that this is the most practical way to include the benefits of quinoa in your diet.
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