What sprouts/microgreens are edible?

I'm still a bit lost on this issue.  What as a sprout/microgreen is edible...raw?  Can you eat pretty much anything raw as long as it isn't a full plant?...at least I don't think I have ever heard of anyone eating carrot tops around harvest time, but posts I have seen on here are suggesting growing and eating carrot/beet sprouts.

Kale, beet, and pea sprouts are the ones I see most often (especially in resteraunt).

I would be curious to know what would make a sprout inedible.

I grow quite a few things to be used as microgreens. We are not into eating real spicy foods, so there are a lot of things that I don't grow. I don't have a complete list, but this is what I have in my mini greenhouses right now.......
...all kinds of lettuces
...all kinds of chinese greens (bok choi, cabbage, mustard, chinese broccoli, etc)
...radishes and daikons
...broccoli, kales, and other brassicas
...mild flavored mustards
...beets and chard
...dandelion
...spinach
...basil
...cilantro
...onions
...beans
...peas

I use these greens in a variety of ways -- in salads, stir fries, soups, diced up and mixed with sour cream or soft cheese as dips.

I don't buy seeds specifically for microgreens. I use either my own homegrown seeds or those extra seeds I often have after planting the gardens. And if a pack of seed cost $3 and 4 times as much seed in a bulk pack cost $5, Ill buy the $5 pack  and use the excess for microgreens. By the way, rather than harvesting at microgreen size, I normally let them grow a bit bigger for mini greens. More food for my effort that way.

Eating things raw depends upon the plant. We routinely eat a young taro greens from a variety called Zuiki, but you can't eat the raw young leaves from other taro varieties due to the oxalic acid crystals. So it depends upon the plant and the variety. All beet greens are edible and are routinely used for microgreens. They are also fine eating later, but are normally cooked due to the increased oxalic acid content. Young carrot greens are tender enough to eat raw, but older greens are tough and chewy, plus stronger flavored. I have used carrot tops for flavoring in soups, but I remove them before serving. (They then go to the chickens.)

These minigreens aren't a staple in our diet, but they are nice for variety.

While not a full list, this is a good starter showing the wide variety of things sproutable, as well as general how to in amounts the yield, and how long to harvest.

Oh, I want to note..........don't use treated seed for sprouts.  I'm careful to use only my own clean seeds or organic non-treated commercially purchased seeds.

Hank Fletcher wrote:I'm still a bit lost on this issue.  What as a sprout/microgreen is edible...raw?  Can you eat pretty much anything raw as long as it isn't a full plant?...at least I don't think I have ever heard of anyone eating carrot tops around harvest time, but posts I have seen on here are suggesting growing and eating carrot/beet sprouts.

My rule of thumb is if the seed is edible and the leaves are edible, both raw, then I might give the sprouts a try.

Yes, carrot tops are edible. You can use them like parsley, but they taste like carrots. They're more fibrous than parsley so not widely used. I think I saw them in a pesto recipe or something, and I sometimes nibble a carrot leaf in the garden for no good reason. But carrot seeds (like parsley) are notoriously slow to germinate, so they wouldn't be a very easy or convenient sprout.

In addition to some of the items suggested above, I've sprouted fennel seeds and coriander seeds, and I think I sprouted onion seeds but I don't remember eating them so maybe I didn't. I've sprouted many different kinds of beans and peas, but later saw on this website that some of their seeds when eaten raw have anti-nutrients, so in the future I think I'll stick to the traditional sprouting legumes mentioned in the table above.

My suggestion from experience would be not to mix different seeds together in the sprouting container because some germinate much faster than others, and it's hard to pick the sprouts out of the seeds that need to stay in there.

Thanks for info.  I'm definitely knew the idea of sprouting/microgreening...just in the past few days I stumbled into the idea and have been researching it.  I know I have several more questions on ideas I have come up with, some really crazy ideas and others just perplexing questions.

I always thought things like carrot tops weren't edible hence why I have been questioning what could be eaten as sprouts.

I take it if the 'top' isn't edible the green isn't edible either.  I'm getting into even crazier thoughts here that don't grow fast, like it would take the better part of a summer to get the sprout, like an apple seed or any kind of fruit tree, edible or not as a sprout?

I know it would depend on the type of sprout in question, but what are the lower limitations on temperature.  Living in my house, I'm single so it's setup for me not anyone else, is not your normal house.  I live in a super insulated(R60 in the walls, no windows, R30 in floor and ceiling(lack of ceiling height or it would be R60)).  Other than a couple of days during the winter I don't have the heat turned on unless I'm home.  When I leave home in the morning the heat is turned off.  When I get home in the evening the 32 square foot room , the only heated room in the house, is typically around 40-45 degrees on the floor.  It gives me a chance to turn on the heat and heat the room up while I change clothes from just having biked home(I don't own a car).  I've been high and dry all daylong while out riding and I prefer to stay that way when I get home so with the house being cold I can change clothes and still be dry.  It does exactly what I want it to do so I stick with it...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  The only trouble is if I were to try to grow sprouts I would have to figure out a whole new way of doing things...or does the temperature only control the speed of the growing process?  I have heard thus far 65-70 degrees but can you get away with at 50 degrees?  I have already thought(this morning) about using a heating pad under the container, thanks to the www.richsoil.com/heat video I watched last night...I'm not sure if that would be enough to keep it warm enough or not.

Would it be possible to to enrich a sprout?  The idea I had a day or two ago was to crush a vit-c table and put it in the water when you go to germinate.  Would that give you a vit-c enriched sprout...higher level of vit-c than you would have otherwise?

Are the seeds usable anytime or only when they haven't been roasted(peanuts/almonds/sunflowers,etc)/precooked(brown rice)?  I bought lentil and brown rice a couple of days ago and have been waiting for the warmer temps to arrive.  I bought both at Walmart.  I did make sure to buy the brown rice that wasn't marked precooked as I figured that would kill the chance the of it germinating.  Am I correct on that thought or not?

Thanks for the help.  This is definitely a new idea for me.  Last year was the first time, thanks a to friend of mine, that I have been crazy enough to even think about playing in the dirt, err gardening.  This is just taking everything to whole new level that I have had no knowledge of anything about it in the general way of thinking about it.  I have always been used to thinking you plant it and let it grow to maturity(4-12 weeks later) and then you eat.  This is a mind opening concept.

One more rather interesting question.  What seeds can you harvest from the fruit/veggie and replant immediate versus what do you have to let freeze before they will germinate?

Fenugreek are one of the easiest sprouts, in my opinion.

There are some popular ones:

1- Alfalfa Green Sprouts.
2- Broccoli Sprouts.
3- Clover Sprouts.
4- Mung Bean Sprouts.
5- Wheat Sprouts.
6- Radish Sprouts.
7- Soybean Sprouts.
8- Mustard Sprouts.

This is the image I followed to get to this thread. I love this chart! It's from wholefully.com/sprouting 101

As kids we used to sprout "mustard and cress"  Parents supplied seed and it was already mixed . . . sprouted on cotton wool in small containers.  Cut with scissors and used in sandwiches.
This was a timely post because yesterday I found a fairly local Asian grocery and bought Belacan (dried shrimp paste for nasi goreng etc) and found bags of mung bean seeds - the classic Chinese sprout.  Dead easy, takes 4 or 5 days depending on temperature, using a jar, wetting out a couple of times a day and then washing off the green husks before use in stir fries, raw in sandwiches or salad. Will keep in the fridge for several days in water in a covered container.  Also they can be grown in the garden . . . definitely going to try that.