Here’s a tasty ingredient to add to your home cooking arsenal: lupini beans! This legume is not like other beans: its hearty texture and savory flavor makes it taste almost more like cheese! It’s an excellent source of plant-based protein, perfect as a filling side dish or for adding to salads and soups. One taste of these beans and we were instantly hooked! Here’s a bit more about lupini beans and how to use them in recipes.
What are lupini beans?
Lupini beans, also known as lupin beans, are a yellow, flat round bean with a firm texture and nutty, savory flavor. This type of bean dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was eaten as early as 2200 BC. Today it’s enjoyed in countries all over the Middle East and Mediterranean, from a traditional snack in Egypt to an Italian antipasto.
Top nutrition benefits
Lupini beans are an excellent source of plant-based protein. A ½ cup serving of cooked lupini beans has 10 grams of protein (compared to 7 to 8 grams in black beans). It also has 2 grams of fiber or about 8% your daily need, and is loaded with vitamins like B1 and C (read more here). Because of the high protein content in lupini beans, they’ve become popular in America. They’re eaten as an ingredient in recipes, or as a flour made with the ground beans (like in the new plant-based protein substitute, Lupreme).
Canned lupini beans vs dried
Want to add lupini beans to your diet? The easiest way is buying them canned or in jars. Here’s why:
Dried lupini beans are very bitter and require several days of soaking to remove the bitter flavor. The dried beans can result in lupin poisoning if not prepared correctly. Instead, look for jars or cans of lupini beans that say “ready to eat”. These beans are soaked, cooked, and ready to eat. Just pop the skins off before eating. Popular brands of jarred lupini beans you might see in the US are Cento or Delallo.
How to eat lupini beans
How to incorporate lupini beans into your diet? The texture of lupini beans is very different from a black bean or white bean: it’s much firmer. In fact, when we first ate them we found they almost tasted like a kind of cheese! For that reason, you can’t really replace them for other beans in bean recipes. Here’s how to prepare them:
Eat them right out of the jar. Buy them ready to eat, and you can snack on them as a quick protein boost. Add them to an antipasti platter. According to the brand Delallo, they’re a traditional Italian antipasto.Sauté them as a side dish. Throw canned lupini beans into a skillet with olive oil and a few whole garlic cloves and warm for 2 to 3 minutes. (See the recipe below!)Toss with a vinaigrette. Add a little zing with red wine vinegar and olive oil. (See the recipe below!)Throw them onto salads. Add a protein boost to your salad with lupini beans! We love it on a good Caesar salad or Kale Caesar.Toss them into soups. Substitute them for one of the bean varieties in this Classic Bean Soup.
More bean recipes
Love cooking with legumes? Here are some more easy bean recipes to try:
Go for Easy White Beans or Easy Cannellini BeansOpt for Easy Butter Beans or Borlotti BeansGo for Easy Black Beans Try Easy Canned Chickpeas
This lupini beans recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free. No reviews
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon onion powder ¼ teaspoon dried oregano ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon olive oil
