Lupini Beans
The True Nature Of Lupini Beans
At harvest, lupini beans are hardly edible, and this fact makes most wonder, why all the fuss and bother? Aren’t there enough other kinds of beans to eat without killing ourselves trying to make this odd-looking seed work in our digestives systems? With the exception of the sweet lupini variety, which takes slightly less fuss and muss to ready for the dinner table, most lupini beans require at least five days worth of brine soaking, changing the brine solution twice per day, in order to be considered edible. The seeds of the ornamental lupine trees and bushes, popular throughout the Mediterranean regions, have been grown and enjoyed for centuries as decorative yard pieces. The creative and adventurous peoples of these regions decided, through dangerous trial and error, that the bitter seed of this legume could be incorporated into the stimulating cuisine that they were famous for. What is it about lupini beans that make them so hazardous and questionable as a dietary source? Why, alkaloids, of course.
Nasty is this element, the likes of which causes corrosion to brick and stone when the seed pods are shed and left to weep. Animals won’t touch them, and yet we struggle to draw out the poison and utilize the flavor. It makes one wonder how many people died or suffered serious illness in order to bring the proper balance to light. The Mediterranean peoples must be a highly sacrificial and passionate type, indeed. And the efforts have not go to the way side, as it turns out that lupini beans, once properly soaked and filtered with brine, have a hugely favorable flavor and are a great source of protein. Though protein can be found in good supply within every type of bean, these beans offer a flavor all to themselves which cannot be duplicated.
There is good news on the horizon for the most astute lovers of lupini beans, as botanists are working diligently on the creation of a strain of these delicious little morsels which contain no alkaloid properties whatsoever. These would require no soaking at all, making lupini beans a bit more desirable to those who may otherwise pass on the idea of eating them at all. Progress has already been made toward reducing the amount of alkaloid in lupini beans, and this has reduced the soaking and preparation times by over half of the original requirements.
There are other names by which these poisonous seeds are known, and you yourself may have been tricked into eating, and enjoying, them a time or two under alias. For instance, if you have partaken in such foods as altramuz or tirmis, you have been officially introduced to the flavor sensation that are lupini beans.