Preparing bean sprouts
There are many ways to prepare bean sprouts. In this blog, we list the different ways to cook this versatile vegetable.
Stir-fry
Stir-fry is a cooking technique originating from Asia, and is the most common preparation of bean sprouts. Bean sprouts can often be found in stir-fry vegetables mixes in the supermarket. You can also add a portion of bean sprouts to your own stir-fry meal. When stir-frying, it is important to add the bean sprouts last, and only fry them for one or two minutes. This way the bean sprouts stay crunchy.
Did you know that: bean sprouts in stir-fry vegetable mixes are often placed on the side or on top? This makes it easy to set the bean sprouts aside, so you can add them to your stir-fry dish at the end.
Bean sprout salat from Gastronomixs
Blanching
Blanching is a cooking technique in which food is first immersed in boiling water for a few minutes, after which it is rinsed with cold water. As the food is cooled immediately, the cooking process is interrupted. Blanching is mostly used for vegetables and keeps them crispy. This preparation is ideal for using bean sprouts in salads or wraps.
Another dish in which bean sprouts are blanched first is Gado Gado, a well-known Indonesian dish. You can also replace pasta or rice with blanched bean sprouts to eat more vegetables and less carbohydrates.
Mashing
Although less well-known than stir-fry cooking, bean sprouts are also often pureed. Think, for example, of a creamy bean sprout soup, in which you puree the bean sprouts together with potatoes and leeks. Other examples of recipes with pureed bean sprouts are a gazpacho or soufflé. The neutral taste of bean sprouts allows you to combine and puree them with many different fruits and vegetables.
Bean sprout soup
Gazpacho with bean sprouts and watermelon
Soufflé of bean sprouts
In soups
Besides in a pureed soup, you can easily add fresh bean sprouts to various other soups. The same principle as for stir-frying applies: cook the bean sprouts briefly at the end in order to retain the bite. Perhaps the best known soup with bean sprouts is Chinese tomato soup. Besides the fact that bean sprouts often appear in other oriental soups, the Surinamese saoto soup always contains bean sprouts. You can also add bean sprouts to for example vegetable soup, sweet pepper soup or chicken soup. In these recipes carbohydrates, in this case vermicelli, are often replaced by bean sprouts.
In the deep or air fryer
Bean sprouts are deep fried in the well-known spring roll. Spring rolls can be made with all sorts of ingredients, but there is one vegetable that is almost always used: bean sprouts. You can add bean sprouts and other vegetables to the spring roll raw. Usually the ingredients are briefly stir-fried beforehand (after stir-frying, allow them to cool down again). Once wrapped, the spring rolls go into the deep fryer for about 4 to 5 minutes. With an air fryer, this takes a little longer, about 8 minutes.
Baked in the oven
This preparation of bean sprouts is more unique, but certainly just as easy and delicious. Here are some examples of how you can prepare bean sprouts in the oven:
- Place the washed bean sprouts in an oven dish and cover them. For example with a mixture of Parmesan, Panko and chilli flakes. Place the baking dish in a preheated oven at 220°C for about 8 to 10 minutes. Covering the bean sprouts keeps them crunchy.
- Add bean sprouts to an oven dish for the last 8 minutes of the baking time.
- Use bean sprouts as a filling in a puff pastry or quiche.
In conclusion: there are many different ways to prepare bean sprouts. With this versatile vegetable you can create a variety of delicious dishes.
Bean sprouts baked in the oven from Gastronomixs