Tomyo/豆苗 from My Netherlands Kitchen

Since we came to the Netherlands, I have been cultivating several kinds of sprouts like Moyashi/Mung bean sprouts, Broccoli sprouts, and Alfalfa.

It's been about four months since we started growing various kinds of sprouts such as Zwarte bonen or black beans called 黒豆/Kuromame in Japan, Groene erwten or green peas called グリーンピース, which are both common in Japan and Kapucijners, which is a typical Dutch variety of beans found only in the Netherlands.

The sprout of Groene erwten is usually sold under the name of 豆苗/Tomyo in Japanese supermarkets.

So I bought a lot of Groene erwten in the hopes that these peas would be the best. But Groene erwten are prone to rotting and having molds during the growing stage as well as Zwarte bonen. Kapucijners, on the other hand, were found to have thicker stems, better texture and taste than Groene erwten's one. In addition, the beans are less likely to deteriorate.

Kapucijners are much larger beans than Groene erwten and the germination rate is almost 100%. They have the advantage that one bean can have several sprouts and we can harvest many times from the same bean.

So I decided to make the bean seedlings only with Kapucijner instead of the original beans for Tomyo, and stopped sprouting other beans except for mung beans.

My favorite is Tomyo, which harvests Kapucijner bean sprouts. This bean sprout is earlier compared to those sold in Japanese supermarkets.

It's harvest time, so today's dinner is Yakiniku, which goes well with these sprouts.

My eldest son skillfully sliced the beef tongue chunk I bought at my favorite organic meat shop. His skill with kitchen knives is already professional. He also made his special salt Yakiniku-sauce and miso soup. My second son will cook rice in 30 minutes. We will just wait for my husband and youngest son to come back from their walk in the forest.

It grows like this after about a week in the darkroom

1st day in the sun

2nd day in the sun

The afternoon of the 2nd day in the sun

The kitchen scissors of KANESHIKA TOOL MFG. CO., LTD/金鹿工具製作所 in Japan cut well for a reasonable price.

The first Tomyo harvested from approximately 400g of Kapucijners. You can harvest the same amount over and over again.

Kapucijners that I use. It costs about 3 euros per 450g bag at an organic supermarket.

My favorite is to grow mung bean sprout in a dark room for the first few days; and then expose it to the sun to make them green and leafier than those in the dark room.

Mung bean sprout is called "Moyashi/もやし" in Japan

In addition to beef tongue, we also grilled the heart parts of a local chicken prepared by my eldest son. All the ingredients are organic. This costs several times more to prepare similar ones in Japan.

It is in times like this that I feel happy living in the Netherlands.