Bean sprouts.

Bean sprouts are sprouted mung beans: white, juicy stems with a small yellow green bean cap at one end and a thin root tail at the other. They taste clean and slightly sweet, and the whole point of them is the crunch. In Thailand they go into a long list of everyday dishes, from pad thai to a bowl of noodle soup, and a pile of fresh ones often sits beside the plate for people to add themselves. Fresh sprouts snap when you bend them. Ones that have gone limp, brown or slimy are past it.

Ways to use it

• Stir fry them with tofu, garlic and a little oyster sauce for less than a minute, so they stay crisp.
• Add them to pad thai at the very end of cooking.
• Drop a handful into noodle soup just before serving.
• Pinch off the root tails if you have time, which makes them look neater on the plate.

Storing it

Bean sprouts spoil faster than most vegetables. Keep them in a covered container in the fridge, away from anything that drips, and use them within 1 to 2 days. Rinse them under cold running water just before using, and throw out any that smell sour.

Where it comes from

Grown to certified organic standards. The certificate for each lot is shown when you trace your pack.

Every pack will carry a lot code. Enter it on the Trace your pack page and you will see the farms in that lot, the harvest date and the certificate.