One of my most cherished memories when I visit home (hi, Ohio) is spending time with my family in the kitchen cooking together. You know, as much as I love food, cooking is now literally part of my career and sometimes I forget the essence and the passion-factor cooking elicits. It’s a beautiful reminder of why I love cooking so much, it’s not just nourishing on a cellular level but on a mental, emotional, social, and spiritual level of sorts. So, over Christmas, my stepmom shared this beautiful Italian recipe with me and ‘Tina (my brothers love, who is Italian) and we had a blast making it…especially peeling these little lupini beans! I’m really excited to share with you this super simple, healthy salad and side, and How to Make Lupini Bean Salad using 1 Bowl.
Lupini, what?
If you’re like me when my stepmom was talking about lupini beans I had to ask her a couple times, what? What are you saying?! Because I’ve never heard of them, I got the 411 from her to share with you. My stepmom lived in Spain for most of her adult life raising my step brother and sister there- nonetheless she had a lot of experience with fresh and fast cuisine that was also healthy. Lupini beans are one of the most laborious beans to cultivate and after they’re picked you still have some manual “processing” to do like peeling slippery skins off of them before their fully enjoyed. They’re nutritionally fairly similar to other legumes having about 26g protein per 1 cup, 16g carbohydrates, 5g fiber and fat.
Unlike beans most of us may be more familiar with, lupini beans have a unique texture– they have a crunch, density, yet breakdown like a pine nut that’s been soaked for a couple hours. Odd way of describing it, but are you following me here? They’re flavor is neutral with a slight nuttiness to it unlike any bean or legume I’ve ever had and overall so delicious! Even though these beans are typically used in Italian cuisine around the holidays, don’t let it limit you from eating this salad year round, it’s too good to save for a couple months of the year! You can definitely use dried lupini beans and start from “scratch”, if so check out this mildly hilarious article by the Kitchn. Otherwise, I’ll pick them up from the health food store or speciality store in the Italian section, or good ole’ Amazon here.
- 3 cups peeled lupini beans
- 6 cups fresh arugula
- 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup minced red onion
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup roasted pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Garnish options: chopped parsley, hemp seeds, red pepper flakes
- To shell the lupini beans: You can squeeze 1 bean in between in your thumb and index finger into a bowl, the skin should come right off with a little force. Otherwise, using a sharp knife you can slice off the part of the bean that came from the stalk and then peel it back from there.
- In a large bowl, add all ingredients together. Use a large spoon or fork utensil to combine the ingredients, the lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt will start to wilt the arugula which is what you want.
- Store for up to 4 days in an airtight glass container and serve chilled or room temperature.
TIP: call in the troops, grab a friend, your love, or blast some fun music to help some of the time go by when peeling these skins off!
Lupini much?
Have you had a lupini bean salad or played much with lupini beans in cooking? I’d love to hear what other recipes you like making with em’! If you make this at home, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments or by leaving a review which helps me make these recipes better for you. When you make this recipe, share a pic on Instagram with #nutritionstripped so I can see (added bonus for some bean slip ups)!
xx McKel
p.s. so many of you have been asking me about the epic seafood stew we made on Christmas too with my step mom from IG stories and I PROMISE I’ll bring that recipe to you guys here on the blog, I just gotta grab the details from her (and perfect it on my end)!
p.s. ICYMI the Stripped Reset is a 21-day guide to reboot and optimize your health. Learn more about your body’s detoxification process and how you can optimize it through whole foods and lifestyle in the #StrippedReset. Learn more here:
