Speedy slow food

There is a lot of experimenting going on in our kitchen right now. I'm trying to perfect my bread, we're working out ways to get free salt, and I'm sprouting.

I'm a vegetarian that gardens so my interest in sprouts has, possible, not come as a surprise to you. It's just... sprouting.

I'm willing to be hippy enough to pick nettles to wash my hair with and to treat myself with plantain leaves when they sting me. I'm hippy enough to get upset looking at a butchers. Hell, I'm even hippy enough to drink organic, fair trade green tea.

What I'm not hippy enough to do is agonize over the amount of enzymes in my diet. Because I sat through GCSE biology. Since most sprout advocates don't agree with me on this I've been a little wary.

But hay. I got a cheap sprouting jar and fearlessly scooped into it a tablespoon of mung beans. Following the instructions in the always inspiring The Window-box Allotment. I have more than enough to last.

Sprouting was fun and home sprouted mung bean sprouts are better than the watery intensive supermarket kind. They had a sharp, almost peppery taste and, of course, the texture in unbeatable.

I made them into a nice Chow Mein. I adapted the recipe to use my Riverford leeks, carrots, and portobellos. Hopefully next week I'll have the recipe for you, it will take me that long to grow more sprouts.