Hi Msolga!
I cant imagine what they must have been like, i will have a nibble on these ones i am soaking to try tomorrow.. (day 1)
nearly mushroom season here in the UK.. mmm.... lupini beans, boletus(cep) mushrooms and a pint of beer! fantastic!
I'm astonished, really I am!
Wait till farmerman reads this!
I don't remember the ones I had as all so bitter, but strange tasting and rather hard. It is difficult to remember the details, I only ate one or two, before I threw them out.
However, mine were in a jar, and I often don't like some items I buy in jars. Olives, one of my very favorite foods, are available in jars, as you know, and they vary greatly depending on how they were treated.
If I ever run across a package of dried lupini, I could try the soaking thing, as I am used to soaking beans - I find it sort of a comforting homey thing to do.
My friends in Italy use Lupini beans as snack- lightly salted. Just as other people use popcorn.
Sometimes some find their way into a tomato salad.
You have to split them first to get rid of the rather hard skin -
About Fava beans there are really dangerous / deadly to certain families with an enzyme (G-6-PD) deficiency. As far as I know this genetic deficiency occurs only in some families of Mediterranean origin.
Lupini Bean
The Portuguese soak lupini beans. I'm not sure of the recipe, but when they are ready to eat, usually they are eaten as a snack or appetizer type with beer. They serve them at Festa's in California. To eat a lupini, you must bite a hole into the peel then pop the bean into your mouth.
Lupini Beans
I have never made Lupini beans but I buy the canned ones. I am Italian and we eat them as a snack. We just pop them out of their skins and eat. They are very high in fibre so would be good for you.
Hi, Topogigio, welcome to a2k.
Do you mind telling us the general area you live in Italy? (Some here, me, for example, are very interested in Italy.)
My original statement stands. The alkaloid in lupinis can be dangerous if not prepared properly. I dont eat the things that can even have aremote possibility of killing you, like I dont eat fugu or I dont eat uncooked manioc, nor will I ever munch on a Sudan grass stem.
Call me overly cautious.
If the lupini beans are still bitter, thats a sign that the alkaloid has not been fully removed.
o bom tremoço - lupini beans
here in Portugal we just boil them with water and salt. They are Beer best friends ( just something with salt like peanuts ), we don't eat them like a meal.
Hello nman & welcome!
Your Lupini beans must have been radically different to the ones I tried (sold in glass containers, then I soaked them for ages in water). They were so
incredibly bitter! Ugh, it makes me shudder just remembering! Then farmerman told me they could kill me! For some reason I'm not in a hurry to repeat the experience!
Hi MsOlga
I bought some in a beans and nuts shop out near your way at Coburg thinking I'd use them in minestrone (duh!). The guy behind the counter advised me to boil them and then serve them as a snack with a pinch of salt. Yeah, right!
I too was disgusted by the bitter alkaloid taste but I have had them before at my Italian in-law's place and they certainly weren't that bad. I had a vague idea that processing involved boiling and an extended soaking period and being an adventurous sort of person when it comes to foods, I gave it a go. Sure enough, after about four or five days of replacing the lightly brined water daily they lost that bitter taste and were actually quite moreish.
So, some of the previous posters are quite right. You need to boil them for an hour or so. The dried whitish beans swell up and get that pale yellow color. Then soak in a light brine for a few days, rinsing daily. If you just leave them in the brine without rinsing, it becomes brackish and pretty disgusting. DAMHIKT.
All I can say is that msolga's recipe is an excellent all-purpose treatment of most legumes (realizing that lupini's are "peas"):
"...combining the cooked beens with something like onions, some garlic & chili, lightly fried in olive oil, & maybe some greens & chopped tomatoes thrown in ..." YUM.
Hi clawdee & welcome to A2K.
Congratulations on your perseverance & eventual Lupini success story! :wink: (Me, I'm not going there again!)
You sound rather familiar. Have we met before?
lupini beans
I bought these dry beans in an Italian store/deli in my neighborhood because they looked interesting, and I love lima beans. But, they are nothing like the beans that I have known and liked. After soaking for 12 hours in water like thepackage stated, and then cooking in the slow cooker in a soup for 10 hours -- they were incredibly bitter. In fact, after i picked them out of the soup and thought I could eat the rest, I found that all of the soup had the strong, acrid, bitter taste of those beans.
Could someone tell me if there is toxicity to the Lupini beans? What is causing that strong, bitter, ugly taste? Is there a process to get rid of the awful acrid taste? and why does it take so long to even make them sort enough to chew!!
I am taking them back to the store for a refund. The directions on the package are absolutely useless!!!
Oh, I know
just where you're coming from, lovetolearn! My experience exactly! (Ugh, gag, shudder!)
That experience caused me to start this thread! The worst bean experience of my life, I tell you!
If you read from the start of the thread a few things about Lupini beans may become clearer to you, as they did for me! :wink:
Oh & welcome to A2K!
Lupini Lover
I am in the 7 day process of soaking lupinis for my father in law to enjoy during the holidays. He has been eating lupinis for 78 years! He is of 2nd generation Italian immigrant family where this was a ritual. My husband thinks the ritual is ridiculous and that there is no taste to the beans but it is treasured by his father.
I received instructions from my sister-in-law to soak the beans over night, then boil for one hour, then sit under running water for 7 days. I found out that in the "old country" the beans were placed in a pillow case, tied up and set in the creek where the water would flush out the bitter taste over a week period. I did not feel right running water for 7 days so have been soaking and draining every day.
The beans are salted and eaten throughout the holiday.
I did a google search to find out more about the beans and discovered that the beans are actually the seed of the lupine flower and are full of protein.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion, jgasperini! I learn more about this subject all the time! (Too bad another lupini bean will never touch my lips! :wink: )
And welcome to A2K!
I'm open to liking the properly treated old country (or new world recipe) lupini. I do remember throwing out that bottle of them I bought in an italian deli about five years ago. Yeeeecccch.
Jgasperini, do you know where you father in law is from in Italy? (I'm sort of a mad italophile).
Italophile I'll buy, osso.
But mad?
Never! :wink:
