Bean sprouts refer to all kinds of newly sprouted beans or even broader today, 
sprouts refer to newly sprouted seeds… radish sprouts, arugula sprouts, etc. Mung bean sprouts are the most common type of bean sprouts in Manila today and have been for many decades. Don’t ask me why some are really short, squat and homegrown looking and others look like they are on steroids…I don’t know and didn’t bother to check – they might even start off from different seeds. Frankly, the largest mung bean sprouts I have ever seen was in Australia – they were at least 3 to 4 times the size of the ones here and they always looked so pristine, crisp and appetizing. But I always wondered what nutrients or chemicals they were taking in to get so incredibly humongous. For all I know they were soy bean sprouts! This is all just a long introduction to an extremely simple dish of stir-fried bean sprouts that I like to do when I see fresh bean sprouts in the market.
First, clean the beans by removing any less than fresh looking parts and soaking in cool water to refresh them. Next, put them in a salad spinner to dry well. Heat up a pan on high 
heat and when super hot, add some peanut oil (vegetable will do too) and when smoking add some chopped sili labuyo (bird’s eye chillies) and step away as the capsicain oils go airborne and burn your nostrils then throw in the bean sprouts and toss like a madman. Add some Kikkoman soy sauce, the juice of one lemon and some cracked black pepper. After just a minute or so and the sprouts are starting to wilt, remove and serve hot. In the photo above, I added crushed chicharon on top of the bean sprouts to try and get fancy. If you are a fan of chicharon, this is nice, but otherwise, au naturel will do just fine, thanks. Some sesame seeds would also be good. This makes it into my South Forbes Diet repertoire.
5 Responses
Being a rabid chicharon lover myself, that’s the first thing I noticed when I saw the picture above! Looks good! Have never tried bean sprouts with sili labuyo…yum, gotta love heat in food, especially vegetables!
Hi Marketman,
I live in Australia (in Melbourne, did you ever grace this city during your travels?). The beans sprouts here are rather robust, aren’t they? And clean too. One almost does not need to snip off the straggly bits at the ends! No idea how this comes about. Could be due to super-strength pesticides. Nevertheless, this veggie sure is one of my faves! Love my ginisang toge (hope I spelled that correctly!) Hmm, never tried it with chicharon though. Will do so ASAP. Your version looks yummy. Thanks for the tip! :-)
They’re super nutritious but my uric acid level will sure be over the normal range esp. if I add some tofu and soya sauce with my bean sprouts. Anyway, they’re so good and easy to make thus I don’t listen to what my doctors tell me. I am partial to alfalfa sprouts which I can eat raw. I like the nutty flavor and the crispy texture. Is it true that most of those sprouts are unsafe?
Joey, chicharon adds some crunch and fat, but isn’t brilliant… shasha, I spent about a year in Melbourne flying in for a week or two at a time. So I know the Victoria market quite well. I lived on Exhibition Street in a serviced apartment so I had my favorite Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese restaurants nearby. Yes, that’s where I saw the bean sprouts on steroids! Virgilio, have no information re: alfalfa sprouts…
Virgilio, I’ve found info on sprouts that will prove otherwise. It’s regarded as “living food” (as it’s eaten raw which is the healthiest way to go because all its nutrients haven’t been cooked to death) and contains a concentrated amount of phytochemicals – which help protect against disease. They also contain an abundance of antioxidants which is why many cancer patients eat a lot of it.