Sprout Living...Living Sprouts - Right to Your Door!
A few months ago Alex Malinsky of RawGuru emailed us with the exciting news that he was starting a website with his brother Mark that would provide online ordering for fresh sprouts delivered to your door.
First off...wow! What a feat to accomplish! Can you really sell and send sprouts across many miles and keep them fresh and good?
"I'll have to send you some samples!" Alex said excitedly.
And then, we all got busy and it got pushed back. Then a few weeks ago when the whole Sproutgate thing happened, it seemed to be the perfect time to show there is more than one "Sproutman" out there. And what perfect timing for us, because we wanted to give sprouts a chance.
A few months ago, we just weren't "into" sprouts. Sure, we liked sprouts, but there always seemed to be a bit of a stigma with sprouts being a raw food trend from the 1970's. Sprouts aren't hip, and besides, we thought sprouts tasted bland. Go to most non-raw restaurants where they have sprouts, and you'll end up with limp wilted green stuff that tastes like pesticides. And if you go to some raw food restaurants, they pile on the sprouts and expect you to eat them plain or maybe with one flax seed cracker. Surely there had to be another way.
Lately we had been thinking about sprouts, and wanting to try them, but there aren't any quality sources to get fresh sprouts in the Twin Cities, and growing them ourselves seems like a lot of work.
When we received a surprise package from Sprout Living, you would have thought we won the lottery! We were giddy with delight, as our minds raced at all the recipe possibilities.
We were ready to give sprouts a second chance.
We opened up the box, and took out each variety of sprouts, and we were blown away. There were so many different kinds of sprouts!
FYI, the following photos are actual photos from our shipment from Sprout Living. This is what we actually received:
Red Russian Kale
All of the sprouts were packed in durable plastic containers and surrounded by lots of reusable mini freeze packs, all delivered overnight via FedEx. Believe us...these are fresh sprouts!
MMMMMM...flowers
Do you love edible blossoms but worry that they aren't organic? Take a look at this variety pack we received in our shipment.
Aren't they beautiful? This edible flower pack was bursting with flavor and added so much color to our salads. We have to admit that they were so pretty that we didn't eat them all, we just kept looking at them as decoration in our fridge. And from now on, if anyone wants to woo a certain lady friend who is into raw food, sending edible flowers from Sprout Living is the most romantic idea ever!
Pesticide sprayed roses? No thanks!
Give me edible organic flowers!
Our pick for romantic edible blossoms? A trail of rose petals, and eat them all the way to the bedroom!
Fresh Sprouts Are Economical
Sprout Living gives you incredible value. As just an example, 16 oz. of sunflower sprouts could feed an entire family of four with yummy sprout filled salads for a week. And if you are single or living with someone, there are lots of things you can do with sunflower sprouts, including putting them into raw sandwiches, adding them to smoothies, or juicing them with other green juice.
Since sunflower sprouts have a pleasant flavor with a slightly crunchy bite, they are a great sprout to try for beginners!
Celery Has Never Tasted So Delicate
For a tasty sprout for raw sandwiches or on top of pate's and other spreads, we recommend the celery sprouts. They had a delicate flavor with just a hint of celery if you knew what to look for. These were the first sprouts we ate until they were gone. And after we ate them all we felt a little sad that they were gone because we could eat them nearly every day.
Too Many Sprouts To Mention Here
We actually sampled more sprouts from Sprout Living, but we don't have the time to wax poetic about all the varieties here. We will say that we loved the Wasabi sprouts as one of our top favorites. The Broccoli sprouts were really great in many recipes and they are probably the best value per weight of sprouts at Sprout Living.
Our Ultimate Favorite? If you want to just try sprouts, and you've never had them for the first time, we highly recommend trying the Sprout Living Onion Sprouts. These onion sprouts are the most flavorful of all of the sprouts we tried. If you like onions, you will love these sprouts because they have a full bodied almost intoxicating and delicious onion flavor without making your eyes water.
You can have the onion flavor and eat them straight this way! YUM! We actually munched on them straight out of the bag! Wow!
The other reason why we love the onion sprouts is because of all the sprouts we had delivered, the onion sprouts are still in our fridge over a week later. Onion sprouts can last up to 3-4 weeks! That means even if you aren't in a sprout mood every single day, you'll get your money's worth out of onion sprouts.
Fresh Sprouts or Packaged Gourmet Raw Food?
We believe that Sprout Living is a much better value than ordering gourmet raw food from places that deliver overnight like RAWvolution. We realize that for some people RAWvolution is a special treat, and we can understand that. But in our opinion ordering a bunch of sprouts from Sprout Living is a treat because they are delicious, they save time and you are getting some of the best nutrition on the planet. If we had to choose between gourmet raw food or an order for Sprout Living, we'd go with the sprouts hands down. Probably better on your digestion too!
Make Your Own Gourmet "Microgreens" Meals
On the first night we received our sprouts, we decided to make Alex's recipe for Sprout Nori Rolls, which is the featured recipe on the Sprout Living website. We ate so many Sprout Nori rolls that night that we actually overdosed on them! We were so full because we packed every sprout we could into our rolls. It was so good, especially the sesame vinaigrette dressing. We managed to snap a photo before the sprout binge began. Check it out:
So there you have it! We went from thinking sprouts are ok to falling in love with sprouts, all from one box of Sprout Living sprouts.
Don't believe us? Try some truly fresh vibrant sprouts and see for yourself!
Sprout Living.com
- Heidi and JS
Raw Food Right Now!
P.S. A special thanks to Alex and Mark for setting up such an incredible business and service to the raw community!
