Look what's SPROUTing up!

Can anyone guess the most popular sprout in the world? I will give you a hint, it's not brussels sprouts. Mung Bean Sprouts are the most used sprout world wide. As you might of deduced from the name mung bean sprouts are partially developed mung beans. They are are harvested before the plant has grown all the way, with a seed to sprout time of 2-5 days. Mung bean sprouts, while healthy, do not provide a substantial amount of nutrition, making them a great additive to any meal. Many suggestions as to there use were to add them raw to sandwitches or salads, put them in soups, or even on top of pizzas. Mung bean sprouts are also often used in Asian cooking, such as stir-fry. So I decided to try my hand at two mung bean recipes. I made a mung bean sprout salad and a mung bean sprout curry stir-fry. The salad was simply spinach leaves, mushrooms, carrots, bell pepper, and Mung bean Sprouts with a peanut dressing. The dressing was a mixture of peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, salt, chicken broth, and onion powder. The dressing was amazing and I will be making it again. For the stir-fry I cooked the sprouts, some bell peppers, and some onion in some sesame oil. Then, I curry powder and some chicken broth. Next I added a little bit on cornstarch to thicken up the oils and curry sauce that had formed and I served it over some rice. Both dishes turned out nicely and were fairly easy. Mung Bean sprouts were delicious and I could see them becoming a regular in my fridge.

Pepino Melon

Pepino melons are actually not melons at all. They are in the same family as eggplants and tomatoes. They do however have a  sweet melon taste when raw like a mix between a cantaloupe and a honeydew and maybe a cucumber. The pepino is originally from Peru, but is now grown in California and New Zealand as well. Recipes for pepino melons are hard to find but from reading about it I decided to make a dish very similar to an eggplant parmesan. I peeled and breaded the pepino in an egg wash and an Italian cheese, cracker crumbs, and seasoning (Italian seasoning and garlic powder). I put it over noodles and sauce. The pepino kind of tasted like a tomato after being cooked but once paired with the noodles and sauce tasted a little sweeter. All in all I thought the pepino was pretty good and will definitely by it again because of the nice summer tastes it offers in the middle of winter.

Foods you didn't hear about