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Lupini Beans- Health Benefits And Many More
Lupini beans are basically popping out everywhere and you might be very curious to find out what actually lupini beans are. It is a type of legume that you should know about. Belonging to the Mediterranean region, it is now taking roots everywhere and getting famous in all the states.
Plant-based products are gaining immense popularity as people have decided to vegan and vegetarian which makes the need for plant-based protein sources and fiber sources quite higher. You are very well-acknowledged about lentils, chickpeas, and few other legumes present in between these.
You can basically consider lupini beans as new cousins o these already existing nutritious legumes.
Their size is similar to the fava beans. These yellow-colored legumes are filled with amazing nutritional values and make a powerhouse of important nutrients. You will be glad to hear that they are nearly double in protein content than chickpeas. It’s about time we switch to great sources of protein, many supermarkets are already working on bringing large stocks of lupini beans along with other legumes.
We shall discuss everything in detail about lupini beans and their benefits, let’s find out if they are really so high in nutrition or there are other cousins of legumes too that we must switch to.
What Are Lupini Beans
Lupin beans also known as lupini beans are a type of legume that arises from the flowering plant called Lupinus. It is the same food family that gives us chickpeas, peas, and lentils. Most commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine like pain, Italy, Portugal, etc, the taste is amazing along with wholesome nutrients.
It is also used prominently in Latin American cuisines. By this, we can figure out how vast the recipes and taste could be. Lupini beans are generally bitter in taste because they have a chemical inside them known as alkaloids. Prior to their usage, they are often soaked inside a brine and then pickled. After the procedures occur, they are eaten or consumed as snacks. Sometimes they are also used in salads, pasts, or dips.
Lupini beans contain thick and edible skin as well. The skin is usually very hard and cannot be chewed easily. Although it is hard on the exterior, it can be eaten. On the interior, it is thinner than even an edamame pod and completely edible. According to Alyssa Lavy (nutritionist), if you do not want your teeth to exercise much with the outer hard shell, you can just pull the soft edible part from the interior in form of a seed and then consume it.
When you will visit stores, you will find many lupini beans pickled in huge jars or in form of a dry variety. If you are not very much fond of the salty brine, there are a lot of good options to try something different. For example, you can even make your own snacks that are vinegar-free.
While it is easy to eat them, the cooking and soaking process involved has several steps, to begin with. You will need patience and time to leach out the alkaloids that are extremely bitter out of the lupini beans. More than time, patience is actually the key to achieve great quality lupini beans because if you are not soaking all the alkaloids, your lupini beans can turn out to be toxic in nature according to the USDA United States Department Of Agriculture)
Recently a new trend has started among the manufacturers of lupini beans. They have started making flour of lupini beans same as we get almond flour in the market. This flour is quite similar to whole wheat flour but it is gluten-free naturally. An example of one such flour is wholesome provisions miracle lupini flour. You will easily get it online or in supermarkets for 15 to 16 dollars.
The nutrient profile of lupini bean flour is incredible and amazing. This contains 1 g net carbs, 11-gram fiber, and 11 g protein per serving, isn’t it incredible? Looking at the nutrient profile you can easily figure out, it has a higher amount of protein and few carbs than many other sources of gluten-free flours which are prepared from nuts, cassava, rice, and coconuts.
Home cooks all over the globe are testing and preparing amazing dishes with lupini flour that will boost protein in baked goods like muffins, loaves of bread, pancakes, and many more. So we shall soon receive a lot of great options in our favorite muffins and pancakes that will not only be tasty but will be nutritionally wholesome, what else do we require?
Some Nutrition Facts About Lupini Beans
For proceeding with any recipe, nutritional information is highly important. If you wish to make anything out of lupini beans or use its flour, taking into consideration its nutritional information is a must for fitness lovers.
If you take 50 lupini beans or 100 grams, you can estimate that there are 120 calories in them. Out of all these calories, it comprises 12 grams of protein, over 3 grams of fiber, and 13 grams of carbohydrates. If we compare lupini beans with other beans or legumes, they have a third more protein per square inch.
Practically speaking, there is no starch inside of them. The absence of starch simply means that you need not be afraid about spiking your blood sugar or blood glucose level in the body. Instead of spiking sugar levels, it will help to stave off hunger. It truly is great in every aspect for use and replacing our regular legumes with it.
The benefits of having lupini beans do not end here, there are a lot of things still left to discuss. These are a great source of prebiotic fibers and have high levels of such fibers inside of them. Prebiotic fibers work amazingly well in developing gut-healthy probiotics.
Other than prebiotics, they are also a great source of nutrients like energy-boosting vitamin B, bone-strengthing calcium, and phosphorus. Some other elements like manganese are also present that helps in clotting of blood, magnesium that is important for muscle contraction, and iron is present too which is important for development and growth.
You will be surprised that the benefits do not end here. It is enriched with antioxidants that help in fighting inflammation. Just 50g serving can give you all such benefits that you needed to spend so many dollars on. This is exceptionally amazing. These are so tiny but their properties and benefits are totally opposite, what else would you aim for in your diet?
Like every other food item, even these come with few downsides that are important to discuss after having a lot of information on their positives. Let’s see what are they.
Some Downsides Of Lupini Beans
After reading about its exceptional benefits, let us see what are the possible downsides of these beans. Broadly w can say that there are two minor downsides that you need to learn. Hultin, a nutritionist states that because many people use salt and water for soaking these beans, they might become high in sodium content.
For instance, if you have taken 100 g of pickled lupini beans from the supermarket or anywhere then you can expect around 200 mg to 900 mg of sodium content inside of them. This data was presented by the United States Department Of Agriculture. This makes about 40% of the recommended value of sodium every day. More than this level might damage our body.
This makes one negative or downside of these special beans. Another downside or negative is that lupin is quite similar to peanuts which are legumes. So people who have any allergies to peanuts should be a bit careful while having this. According to the United States Food And Drug Administration, lupins might cause similar allergies as peanuts cause too in few people.
If you are free of any allergies related to peanuts, you should definitely bring lupin beans home for the amazing benefits they possess.
Health Benefits Of Lupins
Being so tiny in shape and size, these comprise tons of benefits that are already listed above. Different researchers have suggested that eating or consuming legumes on regular basis and including them in diet can offer amazing health benefits and help us fight many diseases too.
Including them in the diet will reduce the risk of getting diabetes. Keto diets are also good for people having high cholesterol or high blood pressure. You will also be able to lose weight as they are gluten-free and great sources of protein.
Fiber is very important for our body as it helps to prevent and reduce the risk of getting cardiovascular diseases. On average a person is advised to have 12 g of fiber per day. Looking at the nutritional content of lupini beans you can easily see that these contain 3 g of fiber which makes 25% of your total fiber intake. You need not worry about adjusting your calories based on nutritional value once you have lupin beans at home.
There was a study conducted which included more than 100 participants. It was seen that people who consumed lupin beans or food enriched with these beans over a time period of 12 months experienced a reduction in their blood pressure levels which will keep heart-related diseases pretty distant from their body. This is especially essential for young women because they are at greater heart attach risk these days.
Cholesterol levels of your body also play a significant role in determining the health of your heart. Research suggests that eating lupin beans will lower the bad cholesterol or LDL. Also, introducing these beans to your diet can also reduce the risk of getting colon cancer which is another threat among millennials in these years.
Talking about its health benefits, we can spend days elaborating on them, but you can also consider these beans to keep your gut happy. How will that occur? Well, studies have shown that consuming lupin beans regularly will promote the growth of bifidobacteria. These bacteria are helpful in keeping the intestine healthy.
All these things mentioned above about the benefits and downsides are great, but how do we incorporate these beans into our diet and how to cook them easily? We have all the things sorted out for you. Let’s see how to proceed.
Cooking Lupin Beans
Besides serving them brined, you can easily get them in flour and use them to prepare a variety of dishes. If you have brought them already in cooked form, just make salads by adding salts or mixing them in a grain bowl.
If you wish to get dry beans, it is crucial that you soak them and wash them properly before cooking them. There will be two varieties of these in markets, these are bitter or sweet. When you get bitter variety, you need to soak it and wash it before using. Also, boiling them multiple times is required over few days time so that alkaloids present inside them are removed fully.
The sweet variety is already lower in alkaloids and only a few times soaking and rising is needed.
You can put them in any dish to increase the protein content and make it healthier to eat. Let’s see some dishes or salads you can prepare by adding lupini beans.
1. Salads
Lupini beans are a great protein source that we have known very well by now. If you have brought the picked variety of going for purchasing it, add them to leafy green salads with some other antipasto favorites like roasted red peppers or sun-dried tomatoes as per your taste.
2. Roasted Veggies And Beans
If you want an easy meal that’s completely meatless, just bring your favorite veggies from the market and roast them. Once they are roasted just add them to cooked lupini beans. The last step is drizzling them with your favorite sauce and enjoy this easy and healthy meal that tastes absolutely delicious.
3. Pasta
Lupini beans are extremely great to be added to carb-filled pasta. They can improve the nutritional value and texture of pasta dishes. Just combine the pasta cooked with cooked lupini beans and add healthy vegetables like broccoli and then again drizzle the dish with your favorite sauce, olive oil, or lemon jounce. If you found this recipe mouthwatering, you should definitely give it a try.
4. Puree Into A Dip
Beans and legumes have been known for decades to serve as amazing heaty dips. These are similar to nuts in flavors and texture. You can easily blend them into protein-packed dips. For this, all you have to do is throw some cooked beans inside a mixer grinder or food processor along with salt, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Process them until a smooth consistency is achieved. Lather this dip on your favorite seedy crackers and you get a filling and delicious snack to try out.
These were some recipes and information on lupini beans that you need to know while getting some for yourself.
If you wish to learn more about such nutritional food to eat and grow microgreens at home, refer to this piece of information to learn to grow microgreens at home and enjoy healthy eating.
