bean sprouts



The crisp, tender sprouts of various germinated beans and seeds. Mung bean sprouts, used often in Chinese cooking, are the most popular. However, other seeds and beans — such as alfalfa and radish seeds, lentils, soybeans and wheat berries — may also be sprouted. For optimum crispness, sprouts are best eaten raw. They may also be stir-fried or sautéed but should be cooked for only 30 seconds or less; longer cooking will wilt the sprouts. Though you may grow your own fresh sprouts (refer to a general cookbook), they're available year-round in most large supermarkets. Choose crisp-looking sprouts with the buds attached; avoid musty-smelling, dark or slimy-looking sprouts. Mung bean sprouts should be refrigerated in a plastic bag for no more than three days. More delicate sprouts, like alfalfa sprouts, should be refrigerated in the ventilated plastic container in which they're usually sold and kept for no more than two days. Canned mung bean sprouts, available in most supermarkets, do not have either the texture or flavor of fresh.

http://www.foodterms.com/encyclopedia/bean-sprouts/index.html

you can sprout a whole lot of stuff, tho.
chick peas make a good, sturdy spout. wheat grass, too.

But I'm sure it mung. Alfalfa seeds work well too but more for salad.

VERY high in omega acids.

but many beans can be sprouted successfully and used either in salads or cooked, depending on the bean. Some other things are also good sprouted, like alfalfa, cabbage, radish, sunflower, and buckwheat, the latter great on sandwiches instead of lettuce.

Soybeans are round, mung beans are more elongated. I've never seen sprouted soybeans for sale at the groceries I frequent, just mung beans - bagged in quantities too large for me to use before they go bad.

They're related in the sense that soy and mung beans are both in the legume family (along with garden variety green beans, garbanzos, peanuts, favas, etc.), which is to say about as close as habaneros and eggplants.