Alfalfa microgreens are an incredibly nutritious plant.
People add them to their dishes all the time. Sadly, it isn’t really something that you are going to be able to pick up in your local supermarket.
However, thankfully, it is something that you can easily grow in the comfort of your own home.
So, how do you grow alfalfa microgreens?
Well, surprisingly not that much.
You will need to put your seeds through a draining and rinsing cycle. They will need to be placed in a sprouter for this. Once they have sprouted, move them over to a tray and wait for the alfalfa greens to fully grow before harvesting them.
We do want to expand upon this a little bit. As in, we want to give you the exact step-by-step process that you need to produce your alfalfa microgreens.
We want to take you from the initial processing of the alfalfa microgreens all the way through to the harvesting stages.
Don’t worry.
This is something that you can easily do, even if you do not have experience in growing anything.
How Do You Grow Alfalfa Microgreens?
As we said, the only thing that you are going to need if you are planting alfalfa microgreens will be:
- a sprouter
- your seeds
- growing tray
You will also need a small amount of soil to layer the tray with.
Some people will also use coconut husk.
Step 1
Your first job is to place the seeds into a bowl.
You should try to ensure that this is a fairly deep bowl:
- You will want to cover the seeds in water. Make sure that they are fully coated. The water should be completely cold.
- You will need to leave them soaking for around 12-hours.
- Once the 12-hour mark has been passed, you will want to drain all the water away. You can then give the seeds a bit of a rinse.
Step 2
Now that your seeds have been cleaned, you need to be moving them over to your sprouter.
You can also do this in another bowl if you want.
However, if you are planning on growing alfalfa microgreens regularly, it may be worth investing in the proper equipment:
- Cover the seeds in some cold water again.
- You will now need to leave the seeds covered in cold water for 12-hours.
- At the 12-hour mark, you will want to rinse off the seeds and cover them again.
Basically, every 12-hours, you are going to be replacing the water that the seeds are in.
Be Patient: After about 3-days, the alfalfa microgreens will start to sprout. This means that you can move on to step 3.
Step 3
You can finally stop rinsing the seeds at this point. However, you will need to drain them properly.
You will need to move them over to a growing tray. There should be a light layer of soil at the bottom of this growing tray.
Underneath the growing tray, you will want to place a secondary tray. This will catch the water that has drained through the soil. This is important. If your alfalfa microgreens do not have proper drainage, then they are going to die.
Lay the seeds evenly across the tray. Try to spread them out a bit, but it doesn’t matter too much if they are touching.
Every 12-hours, you will want to water the seeds. This should also be a partial rinse. This means watering the seeds under a tap. Don’t turn the tap up to the maximum, though.
The water should then, over time, drip through the soil and to the tray below.
After a further 3-4 days, the alfalfa microgreens should be ready for harvesting.
Step 4
The final step is to harvest your microgreens.
This should be dead simple:
- Remove the sprouted plants from the tray and place them into a bowl of water.
- In the bowl of water, you are going to want to remove any hulls.
- Once the hulls have been removed, give the rest of the greens a good rinse.
- You can then consume them immediately or consider the different ways that you can store them.
Step 5
You can now repeat the process.
The alfalfa microgreens are not going to leave any seeds behind. This means that you will need to buy some new alfalfa microgreens that you can grow again.
However, now you know how easy the process is, you probably shouldn’t have too many issues here.
How Long Does It Take to Grow Alfalfa Microgreens?
Alfalfa microgreens should take about 6-days to grow.
This doesn’t mean that you need to harvest them at the 6-day mark, though. You can leave it a few extra days, and some will do so.
Alfalfa microgreens tend to have a pretty mild taste to them. If you let them grow a little bit longer, the taste can change a little bit.
Some people will experiment with the grow times for their alfalfa microgreens to find the flavor profile that suits them the best.
How Do You Store Harvested Alfalfa Microgreens?
In an ideal world, you would be consuming the alfalfa microgreens as soon as you possibly can.
However, we know that some may produce far more of the plant than they can eat in a single sitting.
This means that they are going to need to store them.
It is vital that you ensure that the alfalfa microgreens are as dry as possible when you store them:
- Our suggestion is to place them into a salad spinner. This will help to remove all the water. You can then place them in a dry plastic bag. This bag can then be placed in the fridge.
- If you do not have a salad spinner, then you can put your alfalfa microgreens between two sheets of paper. Leave them in the fridge like this until they have dried out. You can then place them in a plastic bag, just as if you were drying with a salad spinner.
It is important that you eat the stored alfalfa microgreens within 5-7 days.
Don’t Risk It: If they turn a little bit brown, then they should be thrown away.
Is There a Special Way to Eat Alfalfa Microgreens?
Not really. There isn’t a whole lot of flavor to the microgreens.
They are going to be packed to the brim with nutrients, but they are not really going to impact the flavor of what you are consuming.
The majority of people are going to be adding the alfalfa microgreens into a salad or a sandwich.
However, we are positive that you are going to be able to find a sizeable number of recipes out there.
Conclusion
Alfalfa microgreens are incredibly healthy.
The best part is that you shouldn’t have too many issues growing the alfalfa microgreens.
You will need to tend to them every 12-hours for 6-days or so, but this shouldn’t be a problem for most people.
If you are willing to put in the effort, then you are going to end up with an incredibly nutritious salad leaf that is going to easily work in a good number of different dishes that you can make.