One of humanity's oldest sprouts, cultivated in Egypt, Greece and Rome since antiquity, and still essential to the cuisines of India (methi in Hindi), Iran, Ethiopia and Yemen. A legume (Fabaceae family, alongside peas, lentils and beans), fenugreek produces tender sprouts with long pale yellow-green cotyledons — juicy and crisp in texture.

A unique flavour, slightly bitter and sweet at once, with those characteristic maple-syrup notes also found in mature fenugreek. Excellent in Indian salads, South Indian dosa, Asian bowls, curry sandwiches, butter-scrambled eggs, or simply mixed with other sprouts to give them character.

Practical tip: harvest at 3-4 days for a mild flavour, at 5-6 days only if you like marked bitterness (beyond that it turns decidedly bitter). As microgreens, the young tender-green leaves (three lobes in a clover-like shape, hence the genus name Trigonella, "little triangle") take on a more herbaceous, less bitter flavour.

• Soaking: 8-12 hours in warm water before sowing.
• Germination time: 1-2 days.
• Sprout harvest: 3-6 days after soaking begins (harvest early for sweetness, later for bitterness).
• Microgreen harvest: 8-12 days after sowing.
• Yield: about 2 tbsp of seeds produces a 20 × 20 cm tray of microgreens.
• Best uses: Indian cooking, sprout mixes, salads, bold garnishes.