Microgreens are young completely grown cotyledonary leafy greens that are harvested at the first genuine leaf stage, grow upto 1-3 inches in about 1-3 weeks days after germination
(Zhang et al., 2021). Microgreens has gained popularity in high- end restaurants and markets and have developed a new dietary trend in recent years due to their wide variety of intense taste, colour, aroma, shapes and texture. Microgreens are rich in vitamins and minerals and various bioactive compounds
(Kowitcharoen et al., 2021). Many microgreens have been found to contain micronutrients in appreciable amounts than their adult counterpart. Microgreens are found to be high in carotenoids, ascorbic acids, tocopherol, tocotrienols, phylloquinone and folate. In addition, phenolic compounds anthocyanin and chlorophyll have been discovered to be abundant in microgreens. As compared to mature leaves, microgreens have high concentration of phytonutrients therefore microgreens are considered as “Functional Food” or “Super Food” (
Sharma et al., 2020). Functional food are type of food with additional health or disease-preventing qualities in addition to their regular nutritional value, they are great source of micronutrients, minerals and bioactive components
(Treadwell et al., 2020). Microgreens have short life span, even at ambient temperature they have shelf life of 3-5 days
(Chandra et al., 2012). Therefore, the present study was conducted to develop hummus from microgreens and to evaluate its sensory and nutritional attributes.
The present study was conducted in department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad, India during Jan-June, 2023. The methodology opted for the study is as:
Growing microgreens
Pearl Millet (
Bajra) were procured from local market of Faridabad (Haryana, India) and grown in coco peat using the seedling trays of depth 2-3 cm. Before sowing seeds into cocopeat, they were soaked overnight for 8 hours and kept covered in dark for 2 days for the sprouting. Soaked seeds were sprinkled and again covered with a thin layer of coco peat. Using fine water sprinkler, trays were watered in every 12 hours and the trays were kept in LED for 8 to 10 hours. After the completion of 2 to 3 weeks, microgreens were harvested with sterilized scissor 1 cm above the roots.
Hummus preparation
The portions of microgreens used for hummus preparation are given in Table 1. Sensory evaluation of microgreen-based hummus was assessed by 9 point hedonic scale with a group of semi trained panelist. Data analysis was done using SPSS one way ANOVA (Fig 1).
Nutritive value of microgreens-based hummus was calculated. For hummus, the nutritive value was taken as given by
Wallace et al., 2016. While nutritive value of microgreens was analysed by standard method of AOAC (
Latimer Jr., 2023).
Sensory acceptability of hummus from pearl millet based microgreens
The data for sensory evaluation of pearl millet microgreen-based hummus is presented in Table 2. In case of appearance, treatment T4 (60:40) was liked very much (8.12), while treatment T1 (100:0), T2 (80:20) and T3 (60:40) were liked moderately with scores 7.76, 7.0 and 7.0, respectively. Colour of microgreens have enhanced the appearance acceptability of hummus as compared to standard hummus.
In case of attributes of aroma of hummus, Treatment T4 (80:20) got the highest score
i.e. 8.12 (liked very much) as compared to treatment T1, T2, T3. Treatment T1 was scored as liked moderately (7.29) and liked slightly (6.82, 6.76), respectively. No grassy aroma because of Microgreens was reported by panellists. In case of taste, treatment T4 got the highest score (7.71) as it was liked slightly, treatment T1 was also liked slightly with score (7.41), Treatment T2 and T3 were liked slightly with score (6.53) and (6.76) respectively.
In case of texture T4 got the highest score (8.00) was liked very much and Treatment T1, T2 and T3 were liked moderately with score (7.76), (7.18) and (7.29) respectively. According to one way ANOVA there was significant difference (p<0.05) between the treatments. For mouth feel treatment T4 was liked moderately with score (7.82), treatment T1 was liked moderately (7.59) and treatment T2 and T3 was liked slightly with score (6.88) and (6.94) respectively. No rough mouthfeel because of Microgreens was reported. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) between Treatments for appearance, aroma and mouthfeel. In overall-acceptability of treatment, T4 treatment was liked very much and got the highest score (8.53), treatment T1 was also liked very much with score (8.00) and treatment T3 and T4 both were liked moderately with score (7.59) and (7.24) respectively. Treatment T4 containing 60% microgreens was most acceptable in all the sensory parameters. In the study done by
Anand and Sharma (2020), hummus prepared from banana blossoms and Indian gooseberries increased iron bioavailability, which is beneficial to anaemic patients.
Nutritive value of pearl millet microgreens-based hummus
Nutritional value of treatment T1 (standard has energy 166 Kcal, protein 7.90 g, carbohydrate 14.29 g, fat 9.60 g whereas, Treatment T4 (40 g chick-pea and 60 g microgreens) has energy 573 Kcal, protein 9.068 g, carbohydrate 35.12 g, fat 2.644 g. In case of micronutrients, among all treatments, treatment T4 (containing chick pea and microgreens in ratio 40:60) was containing good amount of vitamin C, total carotenoids, iron and calcium. It is evident form Table 2 that vitamin C was lacking in treatment T1 which increased to 12.82 mg/100 g in T4 after addition of microgreens. Also, the total carotenoids, iron and zinc in the treatment T4 were 10727.09 µg/100 g, 41.34 mg/100 g and 441.21 mg/100 g, respectively.
Klug et al., (2018) worked on broccoli hummus and the study revealed that it has good nutritional and bioactive quality. Microgreens are rich sources of micronutrients and bioactive compounds.
Xio et al., (2012) revealed in a study on edible microgreens that they are excellent source of vitamins and minerals. The findings of both studies are in support with the present study where microgreen based hummus has been found to be rich in micronutrients.
