If you’re anything like us, you really appreciate well-balanced, plant-based meals, and you love cooking and working with food. And also, carbs are amazing. Our trick is always to keep ourselves eating balanced meals, and not just, like, half a loaf of bread for dinner (but carbs are amaaaaaazing).
That’s why we were so excited to learn about this new line of sprouted sides from our 
friends at ShaSha. If you’re not already familiar with their line of sprouted grain products, the idea is that they take the time to sprout the grains before they make their sprouted breads and other products. You can read all about it on their website, but I find a good way to understand it is that a seed is basically like a time-capsule of nutrients for a future plant. And the way those for-future-use nutrients are kept safe is by encasing them in the bran, or husk – which is great for future plants, but renders the nutrients less accessible to currently-hungry animals. Sprouted grains solve that problem because they have started to germinate, so the bran is breaking down and the nutrients are much more accessible and easier to digest than they would otherwise be.
For years our friends at ShaSha have made great sprouted bread, and sprouted grain 
products, and they’ve just introduced a line of Sprouted Blends which are super-convenient mix of grains and sprouted legumes, so you can make a healthy, well-balanced side in the time it takes to make rice. They’ve got six different varieties, and they’re all vegan; some with white rice, some with brown rice, and also quinoa, and pearl barley, and buckwheat. Each one is made in the style of a different culinary tradition; I’m personally most excited about the Morrocan-Style Pearled Couscous (with red lentils, sundried tomatoes, and kale flakes) and the Mediterranean-Style Basmati Rice (with lentils, mung beans, leek flakes, red pepper, green olive, and garlic).
It’s a new item for us, so we’re eager to try them all and figure out what exciting meals we can build around them. Do you have any ideas? Let us know!