Do you know lupins?

A bit of history

Over 4000 years old, lupins are legumes, like soya beans, lentils or peas. The seeds have traditionally been used in the human diet for their high protein content. Lupin seeds have been found in Egyptian pyramids. The Mayan Civilization also ate lupins.

• Nowadays five species are grown as crops:
• the white lupin (Lupinus Albus), the most common in France
• the blue lupin (Lupinus Angustifolius), widely grown in Australia
• the yellow lupin (Lupinus Luteus), grown in Central Europe
• the variable lupin (Lupinus Mutabilis), grown in South America
• the garden lupin (Lupinus Polyphillus)

Only white, blue and yellow lupins are used as ingredients in human food. Lupins are typically eaten like olives in brine in Southern Europe and North Africa, and also in flour form to make bread products in the Mediterranean Basin and South America. In the past twenty years, the food industry in Europe, especially bakery, pastry and healthy foods producers, have re-discovered this magic seeds (first in Germany and Benelux, as those countries traditionally offer a large choice of speciality breads with various seeds).

Did you know?

Lupins, like all legumes, absorb the nitrogen contained in the air, recycle it in the soil and therefore reduce the need for fertilisers for subsequent crops. It is a hardy and disease resistant plant. It is far more tolerant than soya or peas of farming methods which do not use herbicides or fungicides. Of all the sources of protein, it is undoubtedly the crop best suited to Western Europe.