Moong Sprouts - Green Gram Sprouts - How to make at home

Sprouted Seeds are rich in nutrients and proteins. They are rich in antioxidants,enzymes ,minerals and vitamins (vitamin C and B12).. Also, Green gram gets digested very easily and sprouted green gram is very low in calorie when compared to actual green gram. I have started adding sprouted green gram salads to our diet very frequently.

I prefer making things at home rather than buying. So started sprouting Green gram also at home. Many people have asked me - how to do this. Also some people came back saying it took 4-5 days for them to make sprouted green gram and they don't feel like eating it after 4-5 days. So I thought of sharing how I go about making it and for me this is ready in 36 hours.


Ingredients:

Green gram - one cup - 125 grams
water - to soak
A cotton cloth - about 4 feet * 4 feet
A closed lid container


Method:

Select good quality green gram. Wash it thoroughly. Soak it in enough water. Add enough water. Remember that green gram would become double the quantity after some time. Soak it overnight or for 12 hours.



After 12 hours, remove the water from the green gram. Take the cotton cloth and wet it. Squeeze out the excess water. Put the soaked green gram into this cloth and tie the cloth loosely Keep it in a container at room temperature. Container should be dry. Close the container with a lid. I kept it in a Hot pack!!

Don't disturb the container for about 14-16 hours. Then open the cloth and check. Sprouts would have definitely started but if you want long ones tie the cloth again and keep it aside for anouther 6-8 hours. Mine was done in 24 hours.

Please check the recipe Sprouted Moong Salad to enjoy a nourishing salad!!!

Home made Sambar Powder

This is a long pending post in my drafts. Sambar powder is very useful and handy for the preparation of everyday sambar, we use it for making kootu, poriyal, sometimes for specific rasams too, what not? I also add this to roast potatoes and brinjal fry. Some may find it weird, but it lends a great flavour to these. After all this is nothing but mainly dhaniya (coriander seeds) and red chillies, which we use separately in other recipes, so I replace those with sambar powder. Many of us don’t know the multi purpose use of it, but I find it very useful to me.

My mom used to make sambar powder at home earlier but now she uses store bought ones as well as her preparation. I have actually combined MIL's and mom's sambar powder and made one. 

Sambar powder is kerala and Tamil nadu are made different. And the difference is coconut. Yes roast coconut is added to sambar powder in Kerala but not so in Tamil Nadu.

Ingredients:
Red chillies (long red variety) 35 grams
Coriander seeds (Dhaniya) 50 grams
Channa dal 10 grams
Toor dal 5 grams
Pepper (black,whole) 5 grams
Jeera 5 grams
Fenugreek seeds (vendhayam) 5 grams
Asafoetida - 10 grams
Coconut - 15 grams

Method:

• Roast all ingredients individually until nice aroma comes. Roast the coconut until it turns brown. Let them cool.
• I powder all the ingredients except coconut and then at the end add coconut and powder.
• The powder resulting from the above mentioned quantity lasts for about 50-60 days for me. So I prepare in small batches.
• If you want to prepare huge batches (like 1KG) then I would recommend to sun-dry the ingredients and powder them in a mill.
• We can also add turmeric to this powder but I generally have fresh home-made turmeric powder separately. 
• After powdering allow the powder to cool and store in air tight containers. I usually store in  One big and one small container in which I transfer weekly for everyday use. By that way, even if we touch it with wet hands, it will get over soon and the big container sambar powder is saved.
• Just add 2 spoons of this powder to make sambar for serving 4.

Notes:
Do not use wet hands while handling the sambar powder, always use clean spoons.
Adding channa dal more in the above recipe will make the sambar overflow while boiling and also the sambar will turn too thick after some time.