this modern veg

I’m quite a fan of sprouts in my cooking. They’re great for salads and I’ve used them to great effect in making burgers. I’m also a great fan of shiso, and heard much about the use of shiso sprouts in cooking, so when I finally tried them at Bacchus, I decided this was one ingredient I would like to add to my cooking.

I’d like to find a quick, easy and convenient way to grow this though, as you obviously need to pick and use them quickly and you don’t want such a lead time to grow them.

I’m no stranger to growing stuff to use in my cooking, I grow a wide variety of chillies every year, and am always dabbling i growing herbs that are hard to obtain in the shops. However, I wanted to see if I could find an alternative to growing the sprouts in soil, to save the time required to prepare this method.

So it was, I turned to my BioSnacky seed sprouter. It’s one of those things you can buy in health food stores and organic supermarkets with packets of seeds of radishes and various legumes that sprout well. It’s easy to sprout the seeds, you just sow them in the plastic container and add water, and that in theory is all you need to sprout your seeds, water and heat.

I set up a tray of the shiso and another of a radish seed I knew was good for sprouting in this method so I could compare progress and results.

Sadly, results weren’t good, the radishes sprouted in a couple of days and were picked and eaten way before the shiso had even started sprouting. Once they finally did sprout, they remain small and although not unpleasant to taste, they don’t have any of that shiso flavour I like so much.

So it’s back to the drawing board on that one. I’m going to go the soil route next to see what the results are there.