Twelve Of The Best Microgreens To Grow At Home
Packed with nutrients and flavor to brighten any meal
I remember when alfalfa sprouts became popular back in the 1970’s. I was a kid back then and thought they tasted absolutely awful. They often seems limp, or worse, turned into soppy wet mounds threatening to turn bad. Let’s say I wasn’t fan.
Flash forward to today and the technology producing a wide variety of sprouts for the grocery store has come a long way. There are all kinds of fresh, perky sprouts on the market. Trouble is they often come with a hefty price tag for what you get. And they are still very vulnerable to the packing, shipping, and storage parts of the equations that get them on those shelves.
While you can grow wonderful sprouts at home using jars and sprouting systems, it turns out that microgreens offer a safer and more nutritious way to access green foods year round. Microgreens give us more variety and more control over quality than sprouts ever will when it comes to home production.
Let’s dive in.
What are microgreens?
Microgreens are simply vegetable seeds that are grown in soil for a short amount of time before they are harvested (aka - cut with scissors) for use in meals.
These tiny, fast growing plants represent the peak of nutrition making them a valuable part of any meal plan. Packed with vitamins and minerals, they can even help eliminate nutrient deficiencies if consumed regularly.
Only highly edible vegetables, flowers and herbs can be used for microgreens. That means the same rules applies for microgreens as they do for vegetables in the garden - make sure the part you are eating is safe to eat! (There are no tomato, pepper, or potato microgreens because the sprout portion of these plants are toxic!)
Microgreen Growing Basics
No green thumb for a veggie garden?
No problem. Microgreens only grow for a short amount of time, so they are suitable for beginning growers and experts alike.
All you need are some shallow trays that can hold soil and drain water, potting soil, seeds, and some light.
Growing microgreens at home:
Start with a quality potting soil mix with good drainage. Seed starting mixes usually work well.
Use a thin layer of soil in a tray that will drain out water. You only need 1 to 4 inches of soil, depending on the size of the seeds you are growing.
Sprinkle the microgreen seeds on the soil and then cover with a thin layer of additional soil. Larger seeds need more soil in the tray and more soil covering them.
Water thoroughly and drain off the excess. (Some large seeds like peas and sunflowers do better if pre-soaked before planting)
Place in a warm spot with good light, then wait and watch for the magic. Keep the soil moist but not soggy as the seeds sprout and grow.
Harvest (cut with scissors) when the plants reach the desired height (usually 2 to 4 inches)
Rinse with water to remove any soil, and enjoy in your favorite recipe.
Twelve best microgreens to grow at home
There are a surprising array of seeds that can be used for creating tasty microgreens. The best ones to start with grow fast and add unique flavors and nutrients to your favorite meals.
Think about how you want to use your microgreens when deciding which ones to grow. They can be added as fresh toppers to almost any meal, or form a more substantial contribution to a salad, soup or stir fry.
Broccoli: Fast growing, flavorful and a familiar choice, broccoli microgreens offer a great starting point if you are new to growing. Use within one week for best results.
Buckwheat: Perhaps a surprising choice initially, buckwheat microgreens offer a major plant protein boost to any meal. These are large lettuce-like sprouts that can easily add bulk. But their magic lies in their somewhat sour taste that offers variety and intrigue. Use within one to two weeks for best results.
Radish: Hot and spicy, it doesn’t take a lot of radish microgreens to add zest to your meal. Use within one week for best results.
Beets: Color, nutrition and antioxidants come packed in beet sprouts. They have an earthy flavor that can help to ground some of the more spicy microgreen options. Use within 2 weeks for best results.
Cabbage: Grow red or green, these sprouts are nutrient dense, rich in vitamins and minerals, and add depth to a meal. Use within 2 weeks for best results.
Kale: With many colors and leaf textures, this microgreen is my go-to choice for adding rich nutrients and mild kale flavors to a meal. Use within one to two weeks for best results.
Pak Choi (or Mustard greens): Pak Choi is one of the mildest mustard type greens available, but you can just as easily choose a hotter cousin like Mizuna or Komatsuna for more zing in little space and time. These greens grow fast and compliment a wide variety of meals. Use within one week for best results.
Arugula: Hot, spicy and easy to grow, arugula microgreens can be used the same way their leafy mature counterparts are used, except you can grow them in your kitchen! Use within one week for best results.
Peas: Large, fast growing and high volume, pea shoots are excellent additions to spring rolls, rice paper wrappers, as well as salads and stir fry. They remain sweet and tender until they start to produce a lot of tendrils, at which point the stems start to get tough. Use within two weeks for best results.
Sunflowers: As with peas, sunflower microgreens are an easy way to add incredible flavor and high volume to your kitchen growing adventures. I simple LOVE these greens and they remain fresh and edible longer than other options in this list (except the herbs). That means you can easily harvest your tray of microgreens for 2-3 weeks after they first become ready without loss of flavor.
Basil: While it may be more common to grow basil in a pot, basil microgreens offer a faster turn around that lets you maximize your indoor growing space. Use them just like fresh basil from the garden to spice up eggs, add some pop to a pasta, or give an Italian spin to a sandwich. You can continue to grow basil for as long you want, with no loss of flavor. Long lasting - use them until they are all gone!
Dill: Nothing thrills your nose and mouth quite like fresh dill, and dill microgreens are so easy to grow. Much like basil, you can continue to grow and harvest dill microgreens for as long as you desire.
I’ve put together a handy chart that summarizes the 12 best microgreens:
Should you grow microgreen combinations?
Growing microgreens isn’t the same as eating them.
While it’s wonderful to clip and mix up the microgreens you grow to create amazing meals, it’s usually a lot more tricky to grow them together in a single tray.
Firstly, the microgreens you enjoy eating together may not sprout and be ready at the same time. That means growing them in the same tray is likely to be disappointing and wasteful.
Secondly, you may not need the same volume of one sprout as you do of another. In a combo-growing tray, you don’t have much control over amounts or the distribution of the seeds.
For example, mixing arugula seeds with buckwheat or even beets is unlikely to produce a satisfactory growing experience, although those flavor combinations would be great in a meal.
There are two exceptions to this rule of thumb for single microgreen types to a tray.
First you can buy commercial pre-mixed microgreen combinations. Most of these have been tested and produce an even harvests of greens from one planting.
Alternatively, you can take one planting tray and divide it into sections. Doing it this way, you might plant 1/3 of the tray with arugula, 1/3 with buckwheat, and 1/3 with beets. However, the challenge with this approach is your tray is going to take up space and be partially empty until you use up the slowest growing plant.
That’s why it’s best, especially if you are new to microgreens, to keep your seeds in separate batches and trays. Keep track of your results over a few weeks or months and then you will be an expert in what grows best (and fastest) in your particular set up. Then you can make combinations that work for you in terms of growing, space availability and eating preferences.
Microgreen Benefits
The best part of growing microgreens at home is the way they will make feel!
Microgreens are newly sprouted vegetables and that means they are packed with everything the new baby plants needs for fast growth. Then we pick these little powerhouses at the peak of their burst of life, giving our bodies access to the nutrients, antioxidants, and phytochemicals with each bite.
Microgreens are packed with vitamins, particularly Vitamins C, E, B9 (folate) and K.
Microgreens are also rich sources of minerals including Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca), Zinc (Zn) and Selenium (Se).
The exact nutrient content of your microgreens will depend on many things including the quality of the seeds, the quality of the soil, the quality of the light, and how long you grow them.
But no matter how (or when) you cut them, microgreens offer an economical way of getting top nutrition right in your kitchen. Best of all you get to control all the factors of their growth and “delivery” onto your plate.
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Want to read more on microgreens? Try these TNH posts:
In the coming weeks, here at The Naturalized Human, we are going to explore:
How each of your senses (Touch, Taste, Smell) contribute to your microbiome
Options for getting that dose of nature inside your own home, when it’s too cold be outside for long
Whether our pets are contributing to our health, or if they are simply mirrors of our inadequate environments and lifestyles
AND - Keep an eye out for some how-to videos that I am working on (for paid subscribers) - I am looking forward to adding some more resources like these to this newsletter in the coming months.
Thank you!
Thanks for this post, I have been considering planting some microgreens. There are great starter packs commercially available. I bet the sprouting greens are packed with nutrients.