Grove Koger
One of our fondest memories of Corsica was the sight of bins of glistening black and green olives and golden lupini displayed in front of a fruit market near the port of Calvi. Maggie and I had learned to stop by the market to pick up food and beer for dinner after swimming in Calvi Bay, as our hotel didn’t serve meals besides breakfast and our room lacked a refrigerator.
Lupini are beans from the members of the genus Lupinus. Those grown in the Mediterranean region are white lupin or field lupine, Lupinus albus, and, as we know from traces found in ancient Egyptian ruins, have been cultivated for thousands of years. Native Americans grew another species, Lupinus mutabilis. Both contain toxic alkaloids that can removed by soaking in brine, although the skins remain tough.
To eat a lupini bean, hold it with the hilum (the spot on the edge where it was attached within the pod) to your mouth and squeeze, or take a bite out of the edge before squeezing. Prepared lupini are pleasantly bitter and salty, making them an ideal snack to enjoy with beer or white wine.
If you’ve never tasted lupini, you have a treat in store, although they may not be readily available where you live. Your best bets are Italian, Iberian and Middle Eastern markets. They vanished a few years ago from the stores in Idaho I routinely visit, but I’ve recently been able to order jars online. A word of caution, however: lupini are legumes, and a few individuals are seriously allergic to them, including some who suffer from peanut allergies.
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The image at the top of today’s post is a photograph by Calapito and is reproduced courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The photograph of the white lupin plant is by Jean-Claude Echardour, and is reproduced from Tela Botanica by way of Feedipedia.
World Enough 