How to Soak Grains and Legumes (+ VIDEO)

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

soaking grains

Delving into Traditional Eating for the first time inevitably uncovers the fact that modern methods for preparing grains and legumes can be extremely damaging to health over the long term particularly if numerous servings of these foods are consumed on a daily basis as recommended by conventional dietitians and nutritionists.

Even if you take the time and care to make your own bread at home with freshly ground grain, if you do not follow the centuries-old traditions for eliminating anti-nutrients and maximizing the nutrition in the grain prior to baking, you could, in fact, be doing yourself and your family more harm than good.

In the video below which I filmed as part of a Beginner Video Series for the Weston A. Price Foundation, I show you the basics for soaking grains and legumes so that you can enjoy these wonderful foods in your home and experience health benefits from doing so rather than health depletion.

Following these guidelines makes food more digestible and more nutritious as vitamins and minerals become more bioavailable.

As a huge bonus, preparing grains properly results in more satisfaction per bite. This translates into easier portion control which makes eating less and losing weight more attainable.

For a complete transcript of this video which is translatable into any language, click here.

Soaking Grains and Legumes Video How-To

This lesson describes the very important traditional practice of soaking legumes and grains. Note that in the past few years, the use of chickpea cooking water, called aquafaba, has become popular in vegan circles.

Note that while legumes are a traditional food, using the cooking water as an egg replacement is not. In fact, it is quite dangerous to gut health as it is loaded with anti-nutrients.

So enjoy your legumes and grains, but be sure to toss the soaking and cooking water!

More Information on Soaking

These articles contain more information on soaking once you get the hang of grains:

Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.