Taste test: How to keep bean sprouts fresh

Big bag of bean sprouts as it came from the store.

In the frozen tundra where I live, it’s a half hour drive to the nearest Asian market selling fresh bean sprouts. Consequently, I always buy more than I need. And the unused portion slowly turns into a sad puddle in my fridge.

But does it have to be that way?

My current Asian market only sells prepackaged fresh bean sprouts, vs the other market that lets you grab them out of a bin with your hands. The bags of sprouts looked very fresh and healthy on my recent trip, but the lightest bag weighed almost 2 pounds. Rather than face certain spoilage, I decided it was time for a Burnt My Fingers Taste Test.

Bean sprouts blanched for 1 minute, after 1 week.

Most ol the sprouts were scooped out of the grocery store bag (intentionally leaving a few, as a control in our test) and thoroughly rinsed.

Group 1 was submerged in water without further ado, to see if exposure to air was the problem.

Group 2 was microwaved on High for 1 minute in a 1600 Kw microwave.

Group 3 was blanched: water was brought to a boil, sprouts were dropped in, waited for water to return to boil and simmered exactly 1 minute then plunged into ice water.

Group 4 was blanched same as group 3, then placed in the freezer. The other groups were placed in covered dishes in the refrigerator.

Bean sprouts microwaved for 1 minute, after 1 week.

One week later, we returned to review the results. Mung bean sprouts have a mild vegetal taste, but the main thing they add to a dish is texture. They crunch when you bite into them and pop with the liquid inside. That’s the standard our preserved sprouts would have to achieve.

Each of the preservation methods above was recommended on the usually reliable internet as the best way to keep bean sprouts fresh. Yet microwaving, blanching and blanching+freezing yielded an unusable product, at least for dishes where a crispy bean sprout is required such as pad thai. They might be okay folded into a pancake or egg foo yung, except for the defrosted test batch which was a sodden mess.

Bean sprouts which were blanched, then frozen for 1 week, then thawed. Yuck.

Thus, the runner-up award goes to the bean sprouts that stayed in their original package. Ye,s there was some moisture in the bottom of the bag, but I could have picked out a few usable sprouts. This is 9 days after purchase—2 until I got around to setting up my test, then another week for the experiment,

And #1? The bean sprouts which had been submerged in water the entire time. The water got a little cloudy over a week but once drained and allowed to dry out the sprouts were virtually the same as when we started. Still plenty of crunch and no off taste. So there you have it: storing in fresh cold water is the best way to keep bean sprouts fresh.

The winner: bean sprights stored in fresh water, after 1 week.