Allow me to apologize in advance for my heresy. I sprout garbanzo beans to...dum dum dummmm...COOK THEM! I know that sounds absurd to bring out those living enzymes and nutrients only to sautee them into oblivion, but the advantage of sprouting garbanzos is that they hardly need to be cooked, instead of having to be boiled for an hour before eating. They also retain a delightful crispiness when cooked only breifly. Now will you please humor me you rawists, and share any information you have on sprouting garbanzos?
Quite awhile back I read on this forum that garbanzos are toxic when sprouted, and trust me, I have experienced that! When successful, I soak the beans 24 hours then sprout them for 3 days, give or take a day, until their tails are 1 or 2 cm long. At this point, if all has gone well, I can eat them raw without perceivable problems. The main snag I have found is that if the beans are not thoroughly and frequently washed (I'm talkin' 4-6 times a day frequently) they produce a caustic substance that both eats away at the beans and makes a person sick in his guts. Funny thing is, sometimes the same package of beans will sprout differently. One time it will produce this stinky, mucilaginous, self-destruction substance whether I wash them diligently or not. Another time they will sprout up just fine having been washed only 4 times a day for 4 days. I have tried using reverse-osmosis purified water and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Some variables I wonder about are the age of the beans and the specific strain. I know there are a lot of different kinds of garbanzos--different sizes, different colors. Possibly different breeds sprout differently.
Another issue is that you can't let 'em grow more than a week. By then they survive just fine without killing themselves in their own juices, but seem to have "internalized" the caustic juice. They'll scorch your mouth like raw taro.
Has anyone else had success sprouting garbanzos? How have you overcome the issues I describe?

Colin

I see now there's a thread from earlier this year on this topic with a brilliant tutorial from mauiart.

Sprouting garbanzo beans--any advice?

And here's that thread about raw garbanzos being toxic.

Caution: Do not eat raw pulses