Lupini beans are a protein-rich Italian snack made from just three things: dried lupins, water, and salt. This guide walks you through cooking and brining them at home so every trace of bitterness is gone, leaving buttery, crunchy beans you can snack on for weeks.
My Italian grandmother would serve tasty lupini beans, amongst other delectable things, to keep the family entertained at the dinner table long after dessert. We often put them out with mixed nuts or olives for guests to enjoy on special occasions or add them to an Italian grazing board.
When adequately soaked, these beans are oddly addictive, with a hearty, almost al dente bite. Making them at home takes about 5 to 7 days of mostly hands-off patience, costs a fraction of the packaged snacks now sold as keto-friendly plant protein, and gives you a big batch to season it your way. Let's make it!
What Are Lupini Beans
If you've never heard of them, they're legumes, more commonly known as lupins, and very popular in the Mediterranean region. You may also have seen "lupin" listed on food labels; lupin flour and lupin protein come from these same beans, and lupin is a declared allergen on packaging because it belongs to the same plant family as peanuts. Many recipes use lupini beans (like my lupin bread), but they are most widely enjoyed as a seasoned or pickled snack. They also happen to be a genuinely high-protein, plant-based food and one of the lowest-carb beans you can eat, with plenty of fiber and very little fat.
What Do Lupini Beans Taste Like
- Some would say they are neutral in taste once all the bitterness is removed. But with the right amount of salt in the brine, lupini beans are deliciously buttery and slightly salty with a little crunch.
- Some like to add vinegar or spices like garlic. But my family's traditional lupini beans recipe adds only salt, similar to lightly salted nuts.
- I love their texture. Even when cooked and prepared, lupini beans should be tender yet firm, almost al dente, taking on whatever flavors you give them.
Ingredients & Notes
Here's what you need to make this lupini beans recipe:
- Dry lupini beans: Because it is difficult to find them in grocery stores unless they are ready to eat, your best bet is to buy them online.
- Salt: Salt and water create the brine that draws the bitterness out of the beans and gives them the right texture and taste.
How To Cook Lupini Beans
The short version of preparing lupini beans: Rinse and soak the beans overnight. The next day, drain and rinse. Place them in a large pot, cover with water, and simmer for 2 ½ hours on the stove. Then, for another 4 to 7 days, drain and replace with fresh cold salted water twice a day (it only takes a few minutes) until the beans are no longer bitter.
Let's have a look at it step by step.
Step One — Rinsing & Sorting: Rinse the dry beans and pick out any funny-looking ones. Throw away broken or cracked ones.
Step Two — Overnight Soaking: Pre-soak the dried beans overnight in cool water, covered, in a cool, dry place. Ensure the beans stay fully submerged in the bowl or pot of water. Soak them overnight or until you're ready to attend to them the next day.
Step Three — Cooking: Drain and rinse the beans. Return them to a cleaned stockpot large enough to hold the beans, and cover them with water so it sits at least 3 to 4 inches above the beans; they will swell during cooking. Add salt (anywhere from one to 5 tablespoons, depending on the quantity); it helps rid them of the bitter taste. Once the water reaches a good rolling boil on high heat, lower it to maintain a gentle simmer for about 2 ½ hours.
Note: There is really nothing to it. I keep them on the stove while doing other things around the house, checking from time to time whether the beans are still covered with enough water (add more if too much has cooked away) or whether the simmer has become too vigorous.
Step Four — Soaking: After cooking, the beans will have changed to a more yellowish color and look plumper but still shriveled. Drain the beans to ready them for the soaking process. You can use the same rinsed and cleaned stockpot or a deep bowl, whatever you have on hand that can hold the beans and enough water to cover them. Generously cover them in slightly salted water for 4 to about 7 days (or longer, depending on the type of lupini bean; more on that below), replacing the water twice daily.
Note: Changing the salty water only takes a few minutes, and you can use a colander, cheesecloth, or whatever you have on hand to drain the beans. Every time you change the water, you will notice some murky residue around the pot's interior. I recommend rinsing it off and cleaning the pot before adding the beans back in and submerging them in fresh salted water.
Step Five — Ready To Eat: The soaked beans will look beautifully plump and golden when ready. After about 4 to 5 days, taste-test a bean (if they looks ready) without swallowing it to see if any bitterness remains. If the bean is still slightly bitter, continue the rinsing, soaking, and salting process for a few more days before taste testing again. There should be absolutely no bitterness.
How To Eat Lupini Beans
This part always reminds me somewhat of eating my grandmother's prepared sunflower seeds. I know it's going to sound tedious. But I promise you, once you get the gist of it, it'll become second nature, and they'll pop in your mouth fast.
- Take one and bite into the edge of the bean to make a small tear in its skin (the outer layer).
- Then, pop the inner bean out into your mouth with your thumb and index finger and discard the skin. That's it!
At home, I always serve an extra empty bowl to trash the casings.
Top Tips
- Equipment: I usually make a big batch, so I prefer a big stockpot with a lid, stored in a dry, cool place. But depending on the quantity, I've also used a large bowl covered with a clean kitchen towel. Either way works.
- Cleaning your pot: Every time you change the water, you will notice some murky residue inside the pot. Always place the beans back in a cleaned vessel when refilling with cold water and salt.
- Have patience: Preparing a batch of lupini is not difficult, but it involves a few steps and a bit of patience. I do the initial steps during the weekend or on days I know I'll be working from home. Then the additional soaking and rinsing need to happen only twice a day for about 4 to 7 days, easily done in the mornings and before bed. It might all seem a bit cumbersome, but I promise, the actual work involved is simple.
Serving Ideas
- These prepared beans are delicious on their own, served as a snack.
- Enjoy as a popcorn substitute during movie night.
- They are a lovely addition to a cheese board or an Italian grazing board alongside thick-crust pizza squares, fennel and cucumber bites, or savory veggie cakes, to give you a few ideas.
- Try adding your favorite herbs and spices, like a tad of salt, lemon juice, and chopped parsley to add some zing, or olive oil, garlic, and rosemary.
- You can use ready-to-eat lupini beans as an ingredient in other recipes, like keto hummus, lupini bread, or cookies.
- I even heard of ice cream but have never tried it myself.
- Or toss some peeled beans into a salad like my Cucumber Avocado Quinoa Salad.
Recipe FAQs
Place the lupini beans in large glass mason jars or covered containers, leaving enough room to submerge them in cold water. I always add about one tablespoon of salt per quart or liter of water. You can add a few rosemary leaves for extra flavor, but it's optional. Then refrigerate for up to two weeks. Drain the brined beans before serving. For a longer shelf life, vacuum seal them.
The skin is absolutely edible. But when I enjoy them like a salted nut, I prefer to peel them and pop the lupini bean out of its outer shell. I use the whole bean with its skin in other lupini bean recipes where it becomes one of the ingredients, like lupin hummus or low-carb lupin bread.
A jar of lupini beans is pre-processed and safe to eat. They are thoroughly cooked and immersed in brine before being sealed in the jar. No further cooking is needed.
Drain and rinse them first to remove excess brine, then treat them like any ready-to-eat lupini bean. Serve them as a snack with olives and nuts, dress them with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and fresh herbs for a quick marinated appetizer, or toss peeled beans into salads. They also work in any recipe that calls for prepared lupini beans, like lupini hummus or lupin bread.
Dried lupini beans are hard, flat, circular, and rather pale in color. They'll have to be properly cooked and soaked to remove their alkaloids and reach their buttery, plump, golden-yellow deliciousness. Unfortunately, I haven't found dried lupini beans in my local supermarkets, but they are easily bought online. Depending on where you live, you might find them in Italian or Mediterranean specialty stores as well. I only buy a bag of dried lupini beans when I'm ready to make them in the next few weeks, but you can store them like any other dried bean, preferably in a cool, dry place.
These snackable beans have become more widely available over the years, even in most big-chain grocery stores. Usually, you will find them in a jar, pickled in salty brine, or vacuum-packed and ready to eat. But since you now know how to prepare this easy snack yourself, with a bit of patience, you can make them at home as a low-carb, vegan, gluten-free, high-protein, and fiber-dense snackable treat. Wow, that's a mouthful.
You have the large dry lupini beans. They are very bitter and require more soaking time, up to two weeks. And then you have the smaller kind, sometimes called the "sweet" lupini bean, though there is nothing sweet about them. They simply contain fewer bitter alkaloids and require less soaking. There is no wrong or right kind. I prefer the large ones, as they taste more buttery to me once prepared, but it's a personal preference. Preparing them is the same; one bean just requires less soaking time and is ready sooner.
Other Recipes To Serve With Lupini Beans
Made this? Tell me how it went in the comments and leave a star rating below. I love to hear from you. And don't forget to subscribe to my monthly newsletter! — Mariska
📖 Recipe
How to Cook Dried Lupini Beans: Buttery, Never Bitter
Mariska RamondinoIngredients
- 2 pounds extra large dried lupini beans about 1 kilo
- Water
- Salt
Instructions
- In a large pot or bowl, submerge the beans completely with water (at least 2 to 3 inches covered). Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or the pot with its lid, then soak overnight or until ready to attend to them the next day.2 pounds extra large dried lupini beans, Water
- When ready to cook, rinse the beans, and remove any brown-colored ones.
- Place the lupini beans in a large pot and cover them again with enough water. (you can use the same vessel but cleaned).) Add 4 to 5 tablespoons of salt.Salt
- Cover the pot and place it on high heat to bring the water to a boil.
- Then immediately lower the heat to maintain a very gentle, almost bare simmer for 2 ½ hours. The beans will be softer and brighter in color but still have a firmness to them.
- Drain the beans and rinse under cold running water.
- Place the beans back in a cleaned pot and submerge again with water, enough to cover them completely. Add salt: one tablespoon per quart/liter of water.
- Cover the pot and soak the beans for 4 to 7 days, stored in a cool dark place.
- During those days, drain and rinse the beans twice a day, each time placing them in a clean pot, covering the beans again with new water, and adding salt.
- After 4 to 5 days, taste a lupini bean without swallowing. If still bitter, continue the rinsing-salting process until the bitterness is gone.
- Store the beans in a jar covered with lightly salted water in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
- Vacuum seal the beans for a longer shelf-life.
Notes
Add your own private notes
Whenever you come back to this recipe, you’ll be able to see your notes.
Nutrition (% Daily value)
Disclaimer: This nutritional data is calculated using third party tools and is only intended as a reference.
Deb says
Hello, I’ve read all the comments but don’t find an answer…I just soaked 4 pounds of dry lupin beans for 6 days and they’re delicious. But, I want to preserve them for longer time. You say to vacuum seal them…but what does that mean? Vacuum seal the jars cold and they will stay on the shelf for years? Put them into bags then seal…and is that shelf stable? It seems to me that they should be pressure canned, I’m finding answers all over the board on this subject. I have a canner, pressure cooker, vacuum sealer and a freeze dryer. Please clarify, thanks so much, Deb
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Deb, I am happy you like your lupin beans. And, yes, I see your confusion. So, to get the maximum storage time you have a few options. 1) Freeze them. Place them in an airtight container or a freezer-safe bag. They can last up to 6 months. I would freeze them in smaller batches and leave some space at the top of your containers for expansion of the beans. But make sure to remove excess air to prevent freezer burn. 2) Yes, the other option is pressure canning/jarring and sealing under vacuum after canning. So, the jars need to be made sterile and the sterile environment held sealed by the vaccuum. Italian Cooks has a great article about pressure canning Lupini Beans (link included). Since you've already cooked them, simply read their suggestions on pressure canning lupini beans. If done correctly, they should stay good for about a year. I don't pressure can my lupin beans, since we consume them here fairly quickly. But I hope this information answers your question. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Francine says
Do you flavor your final brining solution with any herbs, garlic, vinegar or lemon juice?
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Francine, I usually keep it simple as I use some of the prepared beans to also make lupin bread or hummus (also on the blog) and that adds already additional flavors. But, you can certainly do so. Some like to add vinegar or garlic, some fresh rosemary or thyme leaves (my favorite), etc. But my family's traditional lupini beans recipe adds just salt—similar to a lightly salted nut. Feel free to experiment;)
Heidi Villahermosa says
How many months would it last if you store it in the freezer?
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Heidi, I rarely freeze them, but I would say anywhere from 3 to 6 months.
Cathy Tonti says
What do you mean by vacuum sealing them? Can I place them in clean mansion jars with fresh, boiled salted water and listen for the familiar canning pop as the jars cool? I made way too many to consume in two weeks> 🙂
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Cathy, it happens, but it's a good problem to have;) However, if you don't have a vacuum sealer for longer storage, I would just freeze them in a freezer-safe, airtight container drained and completely cooled for later use. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Just make sure you properly seal the container. For the amount you know you are going to enjoy in coming two weeks, brine them and store in the fridge. Brining: You can place the lupini beans in large glass mason jars, leaving some room to submerge the beans with cold tap water. Add some salt—about one tablespoon per quart or liter of water; maybe add some Rosemary leaves to add some taste to these ready-to-eat lupini beans, but it's optional. Here are a few more ideas to enjoy them, besides the ones I already gave in the post: toss them in salads, pasta dishes, toss them in scrambled eggs for breakfast. They also can go into stew and soups at the end. Enjoy and let me know how it goes.
anna says
thank you for this thorough guide! I made these and I love them. Gifted some to friends too because I made a giant batch.
Mariska Ramondino says
Aww, thank you, Anna, for stopping by and letting me know. I am so glad this recipe worked out for you, and thank you for the recipe rating. It's greatly appreciated!
Kristi says
I am making these and I want to make sure I am doing what you ask lol.
WHEN can I eat these: After the 4-5 days or after being in the fridge for 2 weeks?
I looked at another website and they insinuated that they were only safe AFTER the 2 weeks in the fridge. Is your "in the fridge for 2 weeks" part of making these safe or is it so they don't perish?
Thanks
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Kristi, the 2 weeks in the fridge are so they don't perish. However, you can keep them longer when you vacuum seal them. Regarding your question about when they are ready to eat, most of the time, my lupini beans are ready after soaking them anywhere between 4 to 7 days. But that is because I initially cook them longer. In step one of the recipe card, I first rinse and soak the beans overnight to reconstitute them. I leave the beans in a covered bowl submerged with water on the kitchen counter or anywhere at room temperature. Step 2: The next day, drain and rinse and remove any blemished ones. Then I cook and gently simmer the beans for 2 ½ hours on the stove until they get softer and obtain a brighter color. They will still be firm and still require the soaking and rinsing process but not as long. Then for another 4 to 7 days, drain and replace with fresh cold water at least twice a day (best 3) until the beans are no longer bitter. I never soak them in the fridge. Instead I usually leave them covered to soak in my pantry. If at day 4 or 5 you feel that they are soft and yellowish in color, you can taste test. Just don't swallow the bean. If it still tastes a bit bitter continue to rinse and soak a few days longer. They should taste tender, slightly sweet and almost buttery. Mine are usually ready at the 4 to 5 day mark, but I do change the water at least twice a day. I hope this helps, Kristi. Happy lupini making;) If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a star-rating. It will help others find this recipe too. Thank you!
Heidi Kuharich says
I grew up eating lupini beans, but always prepared. Recently I spotted the dry beans at our local Italian grocer. Got me thinking...
I'm so excited to give this a try! My mom will be over the moon to eat homemade lupini beans!
My only sticking point: you peel them? I think my aunt does, but we never have.
Mariska Ramondino says
Hi Heidi, I am excited for you to make your own. They are addictive;) So, when it comes to eating them, you don't need to peel them, but I do. I peel them as I eat them, not in advance. It's like eating shelled seeds, you bite a small hole in the thin outer skin and pop the tender, yellow, fleshy bean inside directly into your mouth, discarding the skin. That's how I used to eat them as a kid and still do;) Eating the skin is a matter of personal preference. It's safe the eat it when prepared and it's actually rich in fiber. When making my lupini hummus, I don't peel them. Good luck and let me know how they turn out!