Crispy Bacon Fried Lupini Beans Keto Snack
A DELICIOUS KETO SNACK LIKE NO OTHER YOU’VE EATEN
We got this crazy idea for making Crispy Bacon Fried Lupini Beans simply because we were reading labels at the grocery store.
Lupin Flour
We also found out that Lupin Flour which is ground lupini beans is keto-friendly which opened doors for our meal planning.
You will find some low carb, keto recipes that now use lupin flour as opposed to almond flour and coconut flour.
The only downfall is trying to find the lupin flour in Canada since it is sold out in most places.
We ordered our Lupin Flour from Australia which we found on Amazon Prime but there was a bit of a wait for it.
It took about a month to get here but we love the lupin flour and at $19.99 a bag it’s reasonably priced in comparison to other gluten-free flour products.
Lupini Beans Italian Tradition
We’ve had lupini beans before mainly at Christmas time when we visit Italian friends of ours as it’s a family tradition.
There are bowls of lupini beans on just about every food table as it’s an Italian traditional snack that you can’t stop eating.
Yes, lupin beans are addictive but mainly because you can squeeze them out of their thin shell and they are a mix of soft and crunchy textures.
Once we found out the nutritional values for lupini beans we were impressed since we were initially unaware.
Are you ready for these Crispy Bacon Fried Lupini?
They are so good and this is my first time using them in a recipe so if I can do it, so can you.
My next attempt at using lupini will be to make a lupini cake and lupini cookies once I order the lupin flour which you will learn about below.
What are Lupini beans?
Lupini are ancient and mostly found in the Mediterranean in the European culture, the Middle East and South America and have been available in Canada for many years but not well-known.
In the 80’s you may have had to visit a European store to find bulk or bagged dry lupini beans as still today as they can be tough to source unless you order them online.
What is wonderful about lupini beans is that they are gluten-free, high in protein, high in fiber, and come from the pea group of legumes.
Lupin or lupini beans are the yellow legume seeds of Lupinus genus. They are traditionally eaten as a pickled snack food, primarily in the Mediterranean basin (L. albus) and Latin America (L. mutabilis).
The bitter variety of the beans are high in alkaloids and are extremely bitter unless rinsed for a long time.- Wikipedia
You must not eat unprepared lupini as they contain harmful bitter alkaloids that can poison you.
So before you open that bag of dry lupini beans click on the links below to learn how to prepare them properly.
Lupini is loaded with fiber so they will help those who struggle with health issues of the bowels or to take a regular bowel movement.
Now you can wave bye-bye to bran if you’re not a fan and chomp on lupini beans.
Since lupini is also high in protein you will find them used in weight-loss management menus since they fill you up and clean you out.
This is why we chose lupini for this recipe because bacon and bacon fat are huge in the low carb world and mixing all that bacon goodness with lupini beans is the perfect match.
Where can you buy lupini?
You can buy lupin flour online at just about any low carb grocery store in Canada for a reasonable price.
The only downfall is that if you want free shipping you have to place a minimum order.
However, if you have Amazon Prime they offer 200g and 400g bags of lupin flour for under $7.
We use Ecoideas Organic Lupin Flour which we purchase from Amazon Canada.
Lupini beans which are prepared in a can or jar of salty brine will need to be rinsed, soaked or even boiled to remove the salt.
Related: Are you eating too much salt?
We found a jar of Lupini Beans in salty brine water at Food Basics for just over $3.00 which is reasonably priced.
You can buy dry lupini beans which take a bit of processing before they are edible as you need to soak them.
The dry lupini beans are inexpensive to purchase which makes them grocery budget-friendly for our family.
How To Process Dry Lupini Beans
You can learn how to process dry lupini over at Olives N Okra which I found one of the easiest processes to follow since I was considering buying a bag of the dry lupini beans
Update: I processed dry lupini beans and made this recipe again and it was just as good.
Personally, it’s cheaper to buy dry lupini beans but the process to hydrate takes about 17-21 days.
How to eat lupini
You can eat lupini beans that are already processed and in a jar but I’d suggest you soak them because they can be salty.
We rinse them off and soak them for about 10 minutes.
You can pop the outer skin layer off and eat the lupini bean as is or just eat the entire lupini bean which is what we do for these crispy bacon fried lupini beans.
Adding these beans to hot or cold salads by dressing them up with olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and garlic.
Typically in Italy, you would find lupini beans at the bars like we have peanuts in Canada.
The idea is the salt content encourages you to order more to drink. Tricky… but who doesn’t like a salty snack when they drink?
Nutritional Content Lupini
This is a European Nutrition Facts for Lupini Beans which means that the Fibre is already deducted.
This means the net carbs are 6 net carbs per 166 grams of Lupini Beans.
Understanding Net Carbs
When you follow the Atkins Diet, aka the Atkins Nutrition Approach, you actually count grams of Net Carbs, which represent the total carbohydrate content of the food minus the fiber content and sugar alcohols (if in the product).
The Net Carbs number reflects the grams of carbohydrate that significantly impact your blood sugar level and are the only carbs you need to count when you do Atkins.
Foods that are low in Net Carbs such as nutrient-dense vegetables and fruits don’t have a significant impact on blood sugar and are less likely to interfere with weight loss.
How to figure out net carbs
To calculate net carbs, first, subtract all the insoluble fiber (if listed) from the total carbs and total fiber.
If more than 5 grams of total fiber remains, you can also subtract half of the remaining fiber from total carbs.
Keep in mind that not all nutritional labels are created the same as in the one above.
Then look at the sugar alcohols.– Mother Nature Network
How to make crispy bacon fried lupini beans
For this recipe, we simply used a jar of lupini beans in a salty brine.
We rinsed the lupini beans and soaked them for about 10-15 minutes then rinsed them off.
After that we further reduce the salt by boiling them in the water on the stove for about 30 minutes.
You can get away with longer if need be.
Once the lupini beans cool we add them to bacon fat that was leftover from the bacon we had just cooked.
Keep a few strips of crispy bacon back to add to your finished lupini beans to ramp up the flavour.
You can see why you will want to soak as much of the salty brine off.
While frying the lupini beans move them around every few minutes to get them crispy and turn the yellow shell a golden bacon colour.
Simply delicious.
In the end, you can add a splash of fresh lime juice or apple cider vinegar to take up the little bits at the bottom of the pan and to add an acidic taste to your keto snack.
Below is Bacon Fried Lupini Beans with Spring Onion and Toasted Almonds to switch it up.
- 1lb bacon no sugar added
- 2 tablespoons Lime juice or apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups of prepared lupini beans
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- In a colander rinse the brine and salt from your prepared lupini beans then soak them in cold water for about 10 to 15 minutes.
- In a medium-sized pot add your lupini beans and cover with cold water.
- Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.
- Rinse your lupini beans and let cool.
- In the meantime start frying up your bacon until it’s crispy and set it aside on a paper towel to drain.
- In the hot bacon fat add your lupini beans and adjust the stove dial to medium heat.
- Stir the lupini beans every few minutes to make sure they don’t burn and to get them coated in bacon fat. They will turn a dark colour which is perfectly fine.
- You can fry them as crispy as you like.
- Add 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice or apple cider vinegar and mix until combined in the pan.
- Serve hot or cold
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Discussion Question: Have you ever tried lupini beans?
Nutritional Info:
Per the entire Recipe: 12g Carbohydrate, 16 g of Fiber = Net Carbs 12g. This recipe of 2 cups, 166g per cup is equal to about 2 times the nutritional value on the label posted above. This recipe will feed 2 to 4 people for snacks.
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I’m unsure what the net carbs are for your recipe. You listed the whole recipe has 12 g of carbs and 16 g of fiber but the net carbs are 12g? Great recipe though! I just discovered Lupini beans too
Hi Mario,
The net carbs for the recipe is 12. The fiber is already deducted if you read up just a bit you’ll notice in Europe their labels are a bit different from in Canada. You can also do the net carbs yourself which is carbs minus fibre = net carbs. Thanks and let me know what you think of the recipe. 🙂