Sprouts and microgreens are a healthy addition to the early spring menu, especially as the veggie supply frozen from summer dwindles. My favorites — and the easiest to grow indoors — are pea shoots and sunflower greens.
Soak the seeds for a day, rinse and drain them for a couple of days until they’re sprouted, and spread the sprouted seeds on an inch of good soil in a container. Pea shoots and sunflower greens easily root themselves.
Mist with clean water 2-3 times per day to keep the soil moist, but not too wet. I add 2 tablespoons of food-grade 3% hydrogen peroxide to 1 liter of filtered water in my handheld mister. Hydrogen peroxide is found naturally in rainwater and helps keep the soil contaminant free.
Harvest the pea shoots and sunflower greens when they’re 3-4 inches tall by snipping near the soil.
They’re both great raw in salads. Pea shoots taste like young sweet peas, and sunflower greens retain the nuttiness of the sunflower seed. I also use them in stir fries, risottos, and pastas. Just be sure to add them near the end of cooking so they stay green and keep their flavor. For this batch I’m also testing radish greens. They’re coming along nicely — we’ll see how they taste when they’re ready.