Lupini beans are not very well known in the US, but they really should be. I predict they’ll soon be one of the hot new “health foods” here; it’s only a matter of time. Not only are they a deliciously addictive snack or appetizer, but are incredibly nutritious and high in protein.
Originally published December 8, 2012.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to cook and eat lupini beans, assuming that most of you reading this have never seen or maybe even heard of lupini beans*.
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What Are Lupini Beans?
Lupini are a very unique type of bean which are popular in Italy, especially at Christmastime.
Lupini beans are also common in Spain where they are known as altramuces, and Portugal as tremoços. They do not have the taste or texture of any other bean I’ve ever had, and they also eaten differently (see below). Lupini beans are extremely bitter before being prepared, and must be soaked overnight, cooked the next day, then rinsed several times a day for the next 5 or 6 days.
I’ve always wondered who the person was who discovered that if you just keep rinsing these beans that they would actually taste delicious, let alone edible! I can tell you, it’s no one that would get any sort of patent as lupini were eaten by ancient Egyptians! Please don’t let the process dissuade you as the end result is well worth it!
Interesting Fact: Have you ever seen lupin flowers? They are related to lupini beans.
You can just eat lupini beans as a healthy snack, antipasto or also after a meal, as they do in Italy.
With an Italian style preparation, olives are mixed with the lupini at the end of the process, which lend their salty flavor to the beans. It’s a fabulous combination. You can find lupini beans at most Italian markets/delis and middle eastern shops. If you want a large bag of them, on (I would absolutely buy the 3 lb bag on Amazon and make them three different times).
I repeat: don’t let the process of making these intimidate you because there’s really nothing to it. The only caveat is remembering to start about six days before you want to eat them.
If you can boil beans and rinse them, you can prepare lupini.
Of course, these are great to eat as a snack because they’re so healthy and nutritious. Don’t just limit them to the Christmas season, you can eat them year-round. I will warn you though, once you start eating lupini, it’s very difficult to stop; they are very addictive.
*WARNING: Peanut allergy sufferers, please make sure you are not also allergic to lupini beans.
How to Cook Lupini Beans
Ingredients
- one bag of dry lupini beans, look for beans without blemishes (I used one 14 oz bag)
- salt
- olives, green (like these, with pits are traditionally used in Italy) or black, with the liquid
Rinse and sort (take out any bad looking beans) the lupini, then soak them overnight, a minimum of 12 hours. Make sure to put a few inches of water above the beans so they don’t dry out when you’re trying to rehydrate them.
Cook the beans
Rinse the beans, then put them into a large pot with fresh water, covering the beans with at least a couple inches of water above them.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45-50 minutes, occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon.
Remove from heat, drain, and place into a large bowl and fill to cover with water.
Rinse the beans for about 5 days
At this point, just keep rinsing the lupini for about 30 seconds at a time, 3 to 4 times a day, for about 5 days (fewer, if you change the water more often.)
The bowl can be kept on the counter; it does not need to be refrigerated.
I kept track of how many times I changed the water over 5 days, and the total count was 18. Yes, this is necessary or you will have bitter beans. Note: do not eat bitter beans, they must lose all their bitter flavor before ingesting them.
At the end of the fifth day, taste a bean, or part of one, to check for bitterness. The bean will not taste good/sweet yet, but you are only checking for bitterness, nothing else. If the lupini beans are still bitter, continue to change the water until they are no longer bitter.
Add salt and olives
Next in the process is to add some salt (about one teaspoon of Kosher salt) to the lupini in the water (do not drain the beans after this). You can also add a can of green or black olives, liquid and all (not under oil). Stir well and taste after about three hours. If it needs more salt, add some. If you make the lupini too salty, just add a little more water.
DO NOT CHANGE THE WATER AFTER THIS and refrigerate, once the salt has been added.
Now the lupini are ready to eat! Use a mini sieve or slotted spoon to put some lupini and olives into a serving bowl, keeping the main bowl in the fridge. The lupini must be kept in water in the fridge, but are best served at room temperature.
How to Eat Lupini Beans
There are three steps. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to put away a dozen in under 15 seconds (don’t ask me how I know this). 🤔
- Take a lupini bean in your fingers and bite part way through the top part of the bean (where the little white part is) to break open the skin, but don’t bite the bean inside.
- Now, just squeeze gently while holding the bean in front of your mouth, and POP the bean in! I told you lupini were cooked and eaten differently than any other bean. 😁
- Discard the skin.
Can You Eat the Skin of a Lupini Bean?
Yes, the skin is edible. I can tell you that my brother and son just pop the whole bean into their mouths. However, I don’t like the texture of the skins, so I don’t eat them.
Once you get started, you won’t be able to stop, but remember, they are beans, so you probably don’t want to eat too many in one sitting. Now you know how to cook and eat lupini beans. Enjoy!
Interested in other traditional Italian dishes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Just click the following photo or this link.
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Lupini Beans and Olives, An Italian Christmas Tradition (How to Cook & Eat Lupini)
A super nutritious, healthy and addictive traditional Italian snack. Lupini beans and olives are usually served at Christmastime in Italy.
Ingredients
- one bag of dry lupini beans, look for beans without blemishes (I used one 14 oz bag)
- salt
- olives, green (like Castelvetrano, with pits are traditionally used in Italy) or black olives, with the liquid
Instructions
- Rinse and sort (take out any bad looking beans) the lupini, then soak them overnight, a minimum of 12 hours. Make sure to put a few inches of water above the beans so they don't dry out when you're trying to rehydrate them.
- Rinse the beans, then put them into a large pot with fresh water, covering the beans with at least a couple inches of water above them.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45-50 minutes, occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Remove from heat, drain, and place into a large bowl and fill to cover with water.
- At this point, just keep rinsing the lupini for about 30 seconds at a time, 3 to 4 times a day, for about 5 days (fewer, if you change the water more often.)
- The bowl can be kept on the counter; it does not need to be refrigerated.
- I kept track of how many times I changed the water over 5 days, and the total count was 18. Yes, this is necessary or you will have bitter beans.
- At the end of the fifth day, taste a bean, or part of one, to check for bitterness. The bean will not taste good/sweet yet, but you are only checking for bitterness, nothing else. If the lupini beans are still bitter, continue to change the water until they are no longer bitter.
- Next in the process is to add some salt, probably about one teaspoon of Kosher salt to the lupini in the water (do not drain the beans after this.) You can also add a can of green (this is the Italian style) or black olives, liquid and all (not under oil). Stir well and taste after about three hours. If it needs more salt, add some. If you make the lupini too salty, just add a little more water.
- DO NOT CHANGE THE WATER ANYMORE and refrigerate, once the salt has been added.
- Now the lupini are ready to eat! Use a mini sieve or slotted spoon to put some lupini and olives into a serving bowl.
Notes
Nutrition info is just for the lupini.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 18 Serving Size: ⅓ cupAmount Per Serving:Calories: 100Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 100mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 7gProtein: 11g
Nutrition information is only estimated.
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Christina, these were worth the wait, 100%! Mine took about 7 days to completely loose any bitter flavor. I love them! Good thing I made enough for an army. Ha! They’re especially delicious with Castelvetrano olives (my favorite). And you’re so right, they’re had to stop eating. Thank you! :-) ~Valentina
Hi! Bought my first bag of dry lupin beans and just started this process. Fun! :-) ~Valentina
Oh yay! You must have had them in Spain, right?
Nutritional info way off. These beans are low in net carbs and high in fiber. Where do you get zero fiber and zero sodium if you are adding salt.
Hi Dennis, here’s the problem. I have to use a recipe card which autofills the nutrition information (most of the time, incorrectly). I have about 500 recipes which I need to go through, one by one, and put all the information into another nutrition calculator by hand, then transfer the information back into my recipe card. So you can imagine this takes an enormous amount of time, not to mention I have to continue to publish new recipes. I will fix this one today, but I have hundreds more to do :(
As I have never had lupini beans, I thought I would try the ready to eat beans from Cento. I thought they were horrible! Is this how they are supposed to be? They were hard as a rock, extremely tough skins and a strange chemical taste. Can anything be done with these to make them taste better? Are your beans similar to these? Thank you for your answer.
Hi tg, no, sadly they are not supposed to be that way. I tried a jar many years ago and they were horrible, too. However, I bought a jar in Portugal last year and they were really good, so I suppose it depends on which ones you buy. Since the ones you have are hard, I don’t think you can reboil them to make them more cooked, but since you will be throwing them away if they’re inedible, I suppose you could try. Then I would rinse them and add salt which should help the flavor, however, I don’t think it’s going to be a good end result, and may put you off lupini for good :( So sorry. Let me know if you try to salvage them.
I bought a can of Lupini beans and, because I really enjoy beans, I looked forward to them. I opened the can, poured them into a colander and rinsed them very well. Much to my disappointment, they were very hard and that is why I am here in this conversation.
I will add some seasoning and try to ‘simmer’ them to see if there is any improvement. Needless to say, I am disappointed.
I feel for you, but I think there’s no hope to recover them. I bought a jar of lupini beans (think it was Cento brand) many, many years ago and had to throw them away. However, I bought a jar in Portugal and they were delicious! I think you have to buy dry beans and follow my instructions for good tasting lupini beans.
Thanks so much for your reply. I will try to boil them.
Never eat it raw, because otherwise it’s toxic. The process of boiling and rinsing is mandatory in order to loose all the toxins (It won’t kill you but it isn’t good for your health raw, and it’s the reason for that chemical aftertaste).
Brami lupini beans are excellent! For a first try, I’d recommend the garlic & rosemary flavor. Found at Sprouts.
I don’t understand the “pickle” in this product, as well as the garlic and rosemary flavoring. How does one know the actual flavor of a lupini bean? I disagree on your recommendation, and would instead recommend plain lupini first and then go to a flavored product, if you choose. I can almost guarantee that these are made in Italy specifically for export to the US market.
Thanks for the recipe. I’m soaking and rinsing regularly for the past 24 hours. Still bitter as poison! I wonder if there is any hope! Ready to dump the whole 3 pound bag in the garbage by now!
The recipe says it takes 5 days to soak the bitterness out of the beans.
Thanks, Vicki! I missed her question!
Sorry, I missed this comment, but if you followed the recipe you’d see that Vicki has added, that it takes about 5 days of rinsing before the bitterness is gone. Did you not read the directions? I don’t understand how you could have thought it only takes a day?
Did you read the instructions? Why would you dump them after only one day when it clearly says to soak and rinse 4x/day for five days? LOL!
I love the level of detail in your article. It really goes beyond the ‘how to’ explanation and and really makes me feel connected to the process.
This is showing a good start of these Lupini Beans. Thanks.
So can you eat the seeds of bluebonnets in the state flower of Texas? It is a lupine. But the seeds are a lot smaller than those Lupini beans.
I have no clue, but I wouldn’t, Warren. Try the proper lupini beans 😎
I know I am way way past the time when most people were commenting. I lived in the Azores – Portuguese islands in the Atlantic – as a kid. During festivals, vendors would walk around with these little yellow beans. I loved them! I never saw them again until a small Mediterranean restaurant and market had some for sale. After some searching, I have figured out they are Lupini beans! In the Azores, I don’t remember olives being a part of this.
Thank you for posting how to prepare them (and in English:) )!
Oh these comments are ongoing, Karen. No such thing as “too late” on my recipes :) The manner of serving them with olives is Italian, so that’s probably why you don’t remember them that way. You can serve them with or without, but if you do live olives, I’d suggest trying it as the salty water from the olives really adds to the flavor of the lupini! Enjoy!
You can eat them with olives or without, that is very comun in ”cervejarias” in Portugal main land
Yes, I actually bought a jar of lupini when I was in Portugal last month! They were pretty good for being in a jar!