Friday, January 6, 2012

Sprout Chili Beans







Sort through your chili beans for rocks and broken beans before sprouting.


Chili beans, also known as pink beans, look and taste almost like pinto beans, but appear smaller, rounder and pink-brown in color. When you sprout chili beans before cooking them, they become more digestible, reducing the gas you may usually experience. Your sprouted beans will have half the starch content and will receive a boost of 2 to 3 times the minerals and vitamins. You will also notice that sprouted beans, such as pinto beans, cook faster, taking about 20 to 45 minutes instead of hours to cook.


Instructions


1. Sort through the beans, pick out and discard any stones and shriveled or broken beans. Broken beans will mold rather than sprout. Although manufacturers take steps to remove stones before packaging, some can slip through.


2. Place the chili beans in a quart-sized jar, fill it with cool water and cover the jar opening with cheesecloth or a plastic sprouting screen. Secure the cloth with a rubber band or the screen with a metal canning jar ring.


3. Soak the jar containing water and dried chili beans for 8 hours or overnight.


4. Drain out the water through the cheesecloth after soaking, fill the jar with water to rinse the beans, then drain the water once again. Ensure you drain all of the water out to prevent the beans from rotting.


5. Place the jar containing the drained chili beans in a dark place, such as a cupboard. Lay the jar on its side.


6. Rinse the beans with fresh water and drain them twice daily, then return the drained beans to the cupboard, laying the jar on its side each time.


7. Put the chili beans in a large bowl when you see sprout lengths of 1/2 to 3 inches. It takes about 3 to 5 days for the beans to sprout. Rinse them with cold water, discarding any loose skins you may find floating.


8. Store your sprouted chili beans in the refrigerator and cook and eat them within a few days in your favorite chili bean recipe.

Tags: chili beans, beans before, beans will, chili beans, drain water, fill with, pinto beans