Lupini beans? Any terrific suggestions?

Absolutely NOT!




(well, only about once every few years! )





But obsessed, enchanted, thrilled & excited by Italian food, definitely!

I have much better beans than those.... Magic beans

Would you like to trade that cow for some magic beans?

Well why not?

Ecuadoreans like em too!
I was traveling through Ecuador and found these delightful salted beans and tried to make them too! They are sold in roadside stands near Quito and the beans themselves are called Chocho.

When I made them from dried I soaked them for a week in salted water that I changed 2x a day. then I boiled them for what seemed like 24 hours. Then I stored them in bottles with more salted water. They kept in the refridgerator for months.

If you are patient enough you can do it too.

Welcome & thanks for your interesting post, beepbird.

I have never heard of Chocho (beans) before.

You certainly would have to be patient to go through the process you went through with your beans! I'm impressed!

We made just the same experience as msolgar some years ago, buyed "lupini" beans and prepared a soup. We never will forget how bitter and impossible to eat , puah!

Then we told an italian friend. After laughing out, he said lupini have to be previously "sanati". They put them in a bag end let in current water for 1-2 weeks. Only then they cook them.

Some time later we travelled to south america and found there an other kind of lupini beans called chocho or tarwi (lupinus mutabilis).

The followin text is from wikipedia:

Lupinus mutabilis is a species of lupin grown in the Andes for its edible bean. Vernacular names include tarwi, tarhui, chocho, altramuz, Andean lupin, South American lupin, or pearl lupin.

The bone-white seed contains more than 40% protein and 20% fat and has been used as a food by Andean people since ancient times, especially in soups, stews, salads and by itself mixed with fried maize. Like other legumes, its protein is rich in the essential amino acid lysine. It has a soft seed coat that makes for easy cooking.

It may have not been more widely used because it is bitter due to some alkaloid content. However, the alkaloids are water-soluble and can be removed by soaking the seeds for some days in water.

Average protein content is 46% (varying between 41 and 51%) and average fat content is 20% (varying between 14 and 24%) The protein digestibility and nutritional value are reportedly similar to those in soybeans.

Yeah, you always find out what you should have done after, don't you, ilsebill? Too late, too late!

Me, I've decided that there are many other bean varieties that I'd prefer to experiment with in the future! AGhhhhhhhh, just thinking about it! <gag>

Welcome to A2k. (I see this is your first post! ) I'm so sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate & trying circumstances! :wink:

my parents are italian and have eaten lupini s all there life so have there family s and i no of many people who have them for easter and christmas if they are cooked right and have been boiled and put in water to soke and the water changed regular they go softer and there is no bitterness and when eaten you sprinkle a small amount of salt on them and they do taste very nice you must change the water they are in everyday until the bitterness has gone

Hi petertibbey

Welcome to A2K!

So ... the Lupini bean controversy continues!

Just kidding.

You know, I've never had the slightest urge to ever try them again, following my (obviously not soaked & rinsed enough times) experience!

Just curious: when you talk about changing the water "regularly" ... like how many times would your parents do this & how often would they soak them for?

The bitterness are alkaloids. You have to soak them in a brine solution (very salty water) for 5 days to a week until they aren't bitter. Then you can eat them cold or you can heat them up. Change the salt water daily for a week and soon lupini will become your favorite new treat.

Thanks, liz.
If ever I work up the courage to have another go, I'll remember that!

Hi guys, now that you have read all they crap about Lupini! If you want to really know how to prepare them read on. First of all they are not poisonouse!!! Italians have been eating them for thousands of years since Roman times!!!
Firstly put them in a pot with cold water then on the stove on Hi, once they are boiling well, turn off the gas and leave them over night, now all you need do is every 24 hrs rinse them and put them back in cold water and stirr in half a hand full of salt in te water, do this for about 7 days and all that bitterness will go away! once ready you can store them in the fridge in some Brine. Yep thats it! They are great to have as a snack! I have been eating them since I as a child and learn't how to make them watching my Mum!!

Hi guys, now that you have read all they crap about Lupini! If you want to really know how to prepare them read on. First of all they are not poisonouse!!! Italians have been eating them for thousands of years since Roman times!!!
Firstly put them in a pot with cold water then on the stove on Hi, once they are boiling well, turn off the gas and leave them over night, now all you need do is every 24 hrs rinse them and put them back in cold water and stirr in half a hand full of salt in te water, do this for about 7 days and all that bitterness will go away! once ready you can store them in the fridge in some Brine. Yep thats it! They are great to have as a snack! I have been eating them since I as a child and learn't how to make them watching my Mum!!

Thanks, Famma

It amazes me that every now & then there's a new post to this (very old) thread!

Some folk obviously feel very strongly about their Lupini beans!

As for me (the instigator of the thread), I had a very unpleasant experience with a preserved jar of Lupinis. (See post #1) . For all I know it may have been the particular producer of the product, or a bad batch, I really don't know .... But nothing, no amount of rinsing, would get rid of the humungously salty taste . Trust me, it was a very bad experience!

I just had a terrible lupini experience. See the photo of lupinis in this link to see what I cooked: http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html

I love cooking beans that I have soaked overnight. I assumed lupinis would be the same. After discarding the overnight soaking water and cooking 2 hours they were still firm, the flavor bitter. Water discarded and cooked a further 2 hours, they were softer, and still quite bitter. Nevertheless, we love eating bitter greens and so enjoyed the odd bitter taste, and stewed the beans with a jar of tomato sauce, garlic, and basil, serving it over pasta for dinner tonight. A few hours later, working on the computer, I noticed that I was unable to focus my eyes. I also felt dizzy and hot, nauseous, and was trembling. I went to the washroom, blurrily, and noticed that the light irritated my eyes. Looking in the mirror, my pupils were dilated and unresponsive to the light when I adjusted my distance from the mirror so I could see myself. My cheeks were red, and my mouth was dry. I felt worried and confused, and my words were slurred.

I called my husband, who was feeling off and tired, and who called poison control. I thought I'd eaten lima beans, and they asked if I was mediterranean (I'm english/north european/canadian) and then said my symptoms were wrong but to go to the hospital if they got worse. I felt odd and couldnt' see properly, but it had been hours since dinner, and I didn't think the matter was an emergency. My husband said I must be having a severe allergic reaction, that he felt very tired, and went to bed.

A few hours later now (six), and I have gotten my vision back (3 hours) and can focus my eyes again, although they are sore. I'm not confused anymore, but feel quite nervous at my close call. My mouth is still dry, and I feel residual trembling. There is a knot in my belly that doesn't hurt - the beans are slow to digest. I have identified the beans as lupini beans from the dry bulk store. I have discovered that lupini beans must be soaked for days with many water changes to remove the toxic alkaloids, and that the alkaloids can cause convulsions, dizziness, and other parasympathetic nervous effects. Not to mention that when more than an hour has passed after eating them, stomach pumping may not be any use. If you have seen the film Into the Wild, you will have some idea of how I felt when I read that lupinis can be toxic while my eyes were still blurry. It was terrifying.

The Canadian government has made quite a good food safety website about plant toxins and avoiding them in food prep. Simple food safety for lupini beans is under the heading pulses here: http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/aspx/public/publication_detail_global.aspx?languageid=1&contenttypeid=5&id=83

To explain toxicity (around p17) and dosing while eating lupini as a mediterranean snack, check out this toxicity report by the Australian government here - high doses can kill rats and livestock, humans are more sensitive than rodents, and they are not sure what the dose is if you don't prepare the beans as mediterranean cultures do with much soaking... www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/TR3.pdf

I'm sure I just ate many times the mediterranean snack dose of lupini alkaloids - my dinner was a large bowl of these beans on pasta in sauce, soaked in three scanty pots of water! I'm about 170 lbs and 5'7", and ate about 1 cup of lupini beans over about 1.5 cups of pasta, with about 1/2 cup of garlicky tomato sauce. We cooked the sauce in a seasoned iron pan for hours. Maybe a scientist out there can tell me whether tomato acids, lupini alkaloid, and trace iron from the pan make a new type of toxin. When I give blood, iron is no problem.

Lupini beans MUST be soaked for days in many changes of water to prevent anticholinergic toxicity. My symptoms are classic. I guess they are rarely reported because mediterranean people who would make them from scratch know what to do to eat them safely, and everyone else won't make them or eat them often because they are troublesome, bitter tasting, and tough. Then there are curious people like me who just like to cook and are fond of bitter greens and garlic... Dinner was tasty! Too bad I'll have to throw it out because it made me so ill that the bitterness is obviously a toxic dose of alkaloids for someone my size!! Yes, you should throw out the cooking water and never cook these in soup! Next time, I'll soak them in ten changes of water or more over seven days as those in the know above suggest, and stay healthy. Today was May 26, 2009.

msolga, I think that jar of beans probably was only soaked a few times by the company that made them, and that you were right to throw them away! Perhaps a more expensive brand would have rinsed them the proper way, and you would be safer eating that brand given my experience with lupini alkaloid poisoning tonight. Farmerman, millions of people eat cassava/tapioca prepared properly but it can kill you if raw, so I think whoever prepares lupini beans as they have been safely eaten for thousands of years will be safe.

Hello Countrytype & welcome to A2K.

Goodness, what a terrifying experience! I hope you feel 100% very soon.

Do you think you might eat them again, or was once enough?

Those Lupini beans! Everyone has a story! Yours is about the worst I've come across here on the "anti" side.

Hi Msolga,

I'm feeling quite a bit better now, but have stayed up all night because the experience was very frightening and I have only started to feel well enough to get ready for bed. Based on the Portuguese instructions for soaking them for a week, I will try them again - only after soaking them in running water for a week!! After all, they have been a big, delicious part of mediterranean diets for millenia, and I love mediterranean food and beans. I just need to remember to be careful with these ones, because the handling is quite different from kidney and soy beans that need a rapid 10 minute boil for leptin denaturing, and from the other beans that can be soaked once and then cooked in a change of water, or no change if you don't mind gas. Who knew that any bean but castor bean was dangerous? I feel silly though, poisoning myself, and annoyed that the information was hard to find!

But, everyone take note! I was confused while I was suffering from lupini alkaloid poisoning and couldn't remember the name of the bean I had eaten, thinking it was lima. My husband didn't know because I had started soaking them a few days earlier then put the pot in the fridge. Normally I would remember, but I bought them at a bulk store! Also, caution!! Poison control here in BC had no idea what I was poisoned by when I called them, and said I was suffering cholinergic effects. The operator had only heard of favaism which is a genetic disorder, not lupini alkaloid poisoning. Of course, I wasn't having fits or anything - I think Poison Control's main purpose must be to tell people how to let emergency know what poison they took and prepare for the ambulance. If I was alone, I wouldn't have been able to call anyone for help, and also if I was smaller my symptoms would have been worse. (I'm not a small person). Children could be much more affected by these beans. Be careful, everyone, and soak them over and over and over until they really aren't bitter!

I really hardly soaked my beans or changed the water relative to the mediterranean technique of 7 days in running water... I used water to cover to soak them in a jar, new water to cover to cook the first time, and just enough to cover them the second time with a change of water, then put them right into the spaghetti sauce for an hour. I guess I'm very tolerant of bitter things. Also I was sick of boiling over pots on the stove.

Pleased to hear you're on the mend now, Countrytype/

And you're gonna give them another go!!!!
That is extremely brave of you! I've completely lost any desire to go anywhere near another Lupini bean! Never again. My Lupini bean days are over!

for a pound, boil for 40 mins, then put in cold water. Change water daily and they will be great in a week. Left under running water speeds it up, as does changing the water a few times a day, also salt in the water will soeed it up. If yo don't want to boil them, two weeks of soaking will also get them ready. The longer you boil them the quicker they can be ready, but also the softer they get. I have a friend who soaks them in olive oil, also a nice treat