Bean sprouts are the crisp, blanched shoots germinated in the dark from mung beans, harvested after just a few days when the pale ivory stem is a few centimetres long and still capped by two soft yellow seed leaves. Watery, faintly sweet and grassy with a bright snapping crunch, they are a foundational fresh vegetable across East and Southeast Asia — piled raw over pho and pad thai, folded into spring rolls, and thrown into the wok in the last seconds of a stir-fry — sold fresh year-round because they are grown from stored dry beans rather than harvested from a field.