different grains - taste?

[Tanja_swe]

I have a few small bags with different grains that I'd like to sprout and use in different recipes.

The kinds I have are barley, wheat and buckwheat. But what do they taste like? What grain is your favourite grain? Why?

Thanks in advance!

[qetta]

I haven't sprouted any grains yet, so don't know about taste. Do you sprout grains just as you would legumes? What recipes are you going to try?

(You have a very inspiring website, by the way!)

[Analeah]

I am not sure if I have ever had barley before but buckwheat is really great for making pizza crusts and is super easy to sprout. You can also dehydrate it after sprouting and add some raisins or dates and other fruit and it makes an excellent raw granola type cereal. As for other grains, I think spelt is one of my favorites. Sometimes I will eat soaked and just barely sprouted spelt with pesto and it tastes almost like pasta to me. Wheat berries are good too but the flavor changes a lot from just after being soaked to actually sprouting. Rye also has a very good flavor and I have found it to be the easiest and best tasting for making rejuvelac. I love using whole oats to make oatmeal but I have never been able to get mine to sprout yet so I have been trying to eat less as I don't know if the particular grain I am buying is actually raw. As for the sprouting, it is very easy. Just pour the grain into a bowl and fill it up with water and let soak overnight or for at least 8 hours. Then the next day rinse and put back in bowl without water. Keep rinsing 1-3 times daily until they start to sprout. It really depends on the grain though. Buckwheat usually sprouts in like a day or two but spelt takes a little longer. Quinoa is amazing, put some on to soak overnight and the next day when you go to rinse them they have already started to sprout!

[Tanja_swe]

qetta: thank you so much! :) The recipes I'm trying are burger buns and pizza from Alissas cookbook. I'm sooo looking forward to it. I'm also making corn tortillas for tonight *yummy* who would have thought that you could eat all this stuff on a raw diet?

I do it the same way as Analeah does. It's really simple!

Analeah: Thanks for the cereal idea! Didn't think about that, have to try it sometime soon!

One question though... how long should the sprouts be? Is it enought that they are just showing or should they be longer?

[qetta]

I read that the "tail" of the sprout should be about as long as the actual thing that's sprouting, and that's when it's at it's nutritional peak. (Hope that makes sense - hard to describe.)

Analeah - what do you use rejuvelac for?

[Analeah]

Buckwheat works best for cereal but I have also used like wheatberries and spelt that was soaked and sprouted but once dehydrated they do get a little hard again though not as much as they were originally. After you let it soak it almond milk they do get softer. As for the sprouting length it's probably best to let the tails get long like quetta said. I think if you soak them overnight they do change a lot and it is much healthier but the maximum nutritional value probably isn't reached until you wait another couple days for the tails to get longer. So I try to wait when I can but if I don't plan things well sometimes I end up eating them after just soaking them overnight.....probably not the best thing but I am trying to be better about planning things.