What are microgreens?
Have you heard of microgreens? They are a mini version of a full grown vegetables,herbs and seeds, such as kale, broccoli, radish, green pea, basil and sunflower seeds etc. They are an abundant source of life energy! Believer it or not, some research shows that those power houses contain four to forty times of nutrients than their mature counterparts.
What’s the difference between sprouts and microgreens?
Before I grew microgreens, I actually have been sprouting for quite a while. I love the crunchiness of lentil and mung bean sprouts. However, ever since I grew microgreens, I fell in love with how lovely and colorful they look, not even to mention how intense the flavor they taste!
A lot of people would think sprouts equals to microgreens. But in reality, they are quite different in several ways.
1. Sprouts are germinated seeds, while microgreens are developed greens.
Compared with sprouts, microgreens go through a thorough process of growing. This process allows them to fully develop the stems and leaves, which makes them a very different composition than sprouts.
2. Sprouts are grown in water, while microgreens are grown in soil or hydroponically on a plant medium.
3. Sprouts take much less time to grow, while microgreens take longer.
Sprouting usually takes a few days. Microgreens, on the other hand, takes one to three weeks to grow fully the developed stems and leaves to be consumed.
4. Sprouts and microgreens do not have the same nutritional value
When you eat sprouts, you are eating only the seeds and undeveloped stems. When you eat microgreens, you are eating a fully developed plants with stems and leaves. This makes a significant difference in nutritional value between sprouts and microgreens.
5. The flavor of sprouts is different from microgreens.
Since microgreens are fully developed, their flavor is much more concentrated and texture is much more delicate than sprouts. This allows you to have a bright punch of freshness or a spicy after-tone with each bite!
How to use microgreens?
Microgreens are super versatile. You can put on top of soup, spread on your salad, blend into smoothie, sneak into your dressings, burgers, wraps and sandwiches. Not only would they add some decorative purpose to your dish, but also a large amount of nutrients and living enzymes!
Check out my recipes on how to use microgreens
Sprinkle them on top of a noodle bowl : https://veganmandala.com/summer-cold-noodle-liangmian