Lupini beans? Any terrific suggestions?

I cook both of them all the time over the last 30 years never killed anyone. My grandmother did the same most of her 85 years never heard of her killing one either.

I'll take your word for that, dadaray.
However, after my unpleasant experience (years ago now!) I've never had the slightest inclination to ever try them again.
(I'm still here to tell the tale, so they didn't kill me, either. )

Lupini beans should be soaked for 5 days changing water 4 times per day.
This will take out bitterness caused by alkaloids, which can make you SERIOUSLY ILL. After 5 days of soaking the beans can be consumed without cooking - just salt them and preserve in a salt water (~1.5%) refrigerated for weeks if changing water every 3-4 days. It can be eaten with or without skin.
Read more in Wikipedia


URL: http://able2know.org/reply/topic-18870

Lupini beans arent an instant cooked beans, hahahaha and it is not poisonned at all.

The tradition for lupini beans are to be eaten as a snack, in terms u eat or nibble on, while watching something or chating, hehehehe

the way u cook them is: u soak them first for a 24 hrs, then u boil them very good. they will taste still bitter, that bitterness will go after a week :-)

after u boiling them: u need to soak them again everyday for a week n u change the water everyday( just normal tape water)

After a week of changing the water constantly, u season them with some salt to ur liking. When served add some cumin and chili if u want.

It's long process of a job but they r so YUMMMM once they r done.

We eat it normally on Easter monday :-D so I prepare them a week ahead :-D

Australia is the dominant world producer of lupins, accounting for around 85 per cent of world lupin production over the past ten years. Other producers include Belarus, Chile, the European Union and the Russian Federation, where production is relatively small compared with Australia’s.

» The main use of lupins (a legume) is for stockfeed, with the cattle, pigs, poultry and aquaculture industries being the major consumers. There is some use of lupins for human consumption but this is relatively small compared with livestock feeding.

» The European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea are the major destinations for Australia’s lupin exports, accounting for an average 90 per cent of total exports.

Although lupins are a relatively minor crop compared with some of the major grains, such as wheat and barley, they are an important contributor to Australia’s grain production and exports.

Is that right, dp?
Well I never .......


Well I certainly wish I'd never attempted to eat them!
Agggh!
(Go back to post #1 of this thread!)

But are we talking about the same lupini beans that so many (me excluded!) know & love?

I believe so MsOlga the seed description is the same for both. I googled for Lupins and got some sites that used both terms interchangably.
Some bakers use lupin flour for specialty products.
There are a few different varieties of lupins each has it own special use but all seem to require soaking boiling and many changes of water over a week.
You can buy lupins at some nurseries for your garden. It has pretty flower. Pinkish/red I think from memory. (could be wrong about the flower colour).

That's really interesting, dp.
I'd always thought they were an import from Europe.
Well there you go ... I just learned something new on A2K today!

I can recommend the Australian Sweet Lupin to anyone interested in cooking this legume- it is unique in that it only contains trace amounts of the bitter alkaloids that cause so much trouble in the other varieties. And it's delicious!

It is the domesticated variant of Lupinus Angustifolius, developed by agricultural scientists in Australia in the 1960s (through selective breeding, not GM). It is now the main lupin crop in Australia, although usually only planted as a rotational crop to improve the health of the soil, and then harvested for stock feed.
I know all this as we recently harvested a lupin crop on our farm here in Oz, and I was curious to try eating the beans myself.

The cooking process is very similar to soy beans, and I've made the traditional lupini pickle (tasty, and fun to eat when you get the hang of squeezing the beans out of their shell into your mouth); hummus (delicious, but hard work when you have to shell each bean by hand); I tried steaming them till tender, and then deep-frying for a sort of peanut/potato chip-hybrid snack with lime and chili salt seasoning (very good, I plan to do this again); and I have just finished making an awesome lupin tempeh with a culture I ordered online from Gem Cultures (lots of fun, so much so that I plan to build a dedicated incubator to make this more often).

Although it's satisfying to be cooking the produce of our own farm, the shelling of the lupins is very tedious when done by hand; and I have been unable to work out a quicker method. Luckily, the lupin industry is taking off over here and the push is to promote lupins for human consumption, both here and OS. To make everyone's life easier, the world's biggest lupin mill has just been built in Western Australia, and now pre-hulled and split sweet lupins are available by the tonne!

Keep your eyes open and with any luck you should see more of them in the near future...

Good new Bullokie,hope it goes well for you. witht he inflow of middle eastern refugees there could be an opportunity to set up a cottage industry.

A sweet variety, bullokie?
Well this is news!
When I work up the courage I might give them a try.


Where abouts in Oz, may I ask?
Is it a temperate zone crop?
Good luck with it!

I haven't crossed you path before till now, bullokie, so welcome to A2K!

@dadpad
"with the inflow of middle eastern refugees there could be an opportunity to set up a cottage industry."

Indeed, the thought had crossed my mind! Given that they also taste better than soy beans (IMHO, of course), you could have a whole range of unique products that cater to the vegetarian crowd.

@msolga

I live in south-eastern Australia, outside a town called Wagga Wagga. We're probably on the warmer side of the temperate zone, with hot summers and mild winters, ie. occasional frosts. I understand lupins grow best in a mediterranean climate, which is probably a fair description of what we get.

And I haven't been to this site before, I stumbled across your discussion in a Google search so I thought I'd fill you in on what I've discovered. The mighty lupini shall be maligned no longer!

Glad to have you with us bullokie. stick around the site and people grow on you.
Btw I'm married to a Urana girl. Met her when i was playing "'rules" with the Bushpigs at Rivcol. My In-laws are located in Wagga.

No kidding! I'm out the other side of town, towards Junee. You'd be pleased to know the Bushpigs still run amok, even if Rivcol is no longer.

[Apologies for the thread-detour folks, *now we resume regular programming*]

Welcome, Bullokie. I'm not australian, but a lot of favorite posters here are from there, like dadpad and msolga.

Hi to all,
I found this site while just surfing. I haven't read all the posts, so I'm sure that I'm going to repeat some things already shared by others. First of all, I'd like to emphasize that lupini beans are great if prepared properly. However, finding complete and accurate information seems to be the key to avoiding an unpleasant if not traumatic experience. The dry beans contain a high level of alkaloids that are extremely bitter, and if someone is stubborn enough to eat them in that condition they can be poisonous. So the trick is to remove the alkaloids. Everyone seems to have their own variation on the process, but it takes about 6 days to make them once they have been soaked and simmered. In spite of the long process, it doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
--Make sure the beans are free of dirt or debris.
--Soak over night (or longer) with plenty of cold water.
--Drain and cover with fresh tap water.
--Bring to boil and simmer for about 2 hours.
--Let cool.
--Drain and cover with fresh tap water.
--Drain and replace water at least once a day, but 2 or 3 times is better. Do this for 4 days.
--Next, start soaking them is a mild brine using approximately 1 Tb. of salt per each quart of water. Do this for 2 days changing the brine at least once a day, but twice is better.
--Drain, rinse under tap water, put in bottles, and fill to top with a fresh batch of brine. Store if the refrigerator.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

If you do all this in the pot that they are simmered in along with a colander near at hand, the soaking water can be changed in less than a minute. Changing the brine is just as easy if you have a batch of it mixed up ahead of time. I keep the soaking container near the kitchen sink, so I'm reminded of the need to change the water, and to make it convenient and easy to do 2 or 3 times a day. In hot climates or seasons, if you don't have a cool place to keep them, then soaking in the refrigerator may be best.

I first ate them when I was a child and wandered into a local beer joint with some buddies. It was an Italian community--Follansbee, W.VA.--and there was a big bowl of the beans sitting on the bar for the customers to help themselves. I see all sorts of ways on the internet to prepare and serve them. I've tried a few variations, but have concluded that doing absolutely nothing to them is best--keep it simple and enjoy. I like to eat them along with other things, but putting things on them or adding them to other recipes seems to mess them up, or it covers up the simple mild taste they have. I believe most of the people who grew up with them would agree with that assessment. I find that eating them gives me a satisfaction similar to that of eating eggs, and when I have some ready to eat in the fridge, I'll usually have a handful to eat with my breakfast. Put the little spot where the bean was attached to it's pod between your lips, and squeeze the inner-bean out of the skin into your mouth. After about a dozen or so, you'll master the technique. Until then, there may be a lupini missile or two flying across the room--always good for a laugh, especially when kids are around.

Hi CharleyBoy. Welcome to A2K. There's always room here for one more cook.

Thanks for the info about the beans!