We enjoy placing a bowl of these tasty little yellow beans in front of guests who have not visited Portugal before.
Lupini / tremoco beans
Frequently served free of charge in bars alongside a glass of beer these are lupini / tremoco beans. These salty, buttery beans make perfect beer-munchies and are an awful lot healthier than salted peanuts!
The outer skin is thick and not something you want to try and chew, although our guests often place the whole thing in the mouth just as we did the first time!
The thing to do is nip the corner of the skin with the teeth before squeezing the soft bean from inside, or pull a tiny corner off and squeeze the bean out with the fingers as we used to before being taught the correct way by a Portuguese friend. The bite and squeeze method certainly results in less of the tasty beans bouncing over the floor of the bar.
Available in tubs, jars and huge vacuum seal packets, these lupini beans have become part of our life since we moved to Portugal. In fact I think I may have to pop to the kitchen and restock the bowl next to me 
As ‘they’ say, It is the simple things in this Life which are the best!
……..and these ghastly leguminocae are a classic exception.
Apart from them telling you that anything else you eat can only taste better, what is the attraction?
I left a comment.
Was its polite negativity cause for removal?
@dogoyaro – I didn’t remove any comments, however due to the huge amount of spam comments I receive daily all comments are moderated and it has been a while since I went through them as I have been unwell. Are you the same person as “permanentexpat”? If so you will see those comments are now published.
In reference to the beans, I think it is a case of each to their own – we love them and Tessa Kiros, author of Piri Piri Starfish, also spends a couple of pages raving about them! To me they are a lovely salty, buttery snack that have more taste the closer they are to room temperature
B
Whoops! Sorry…I have no idea how that happened & yes, we are one & the same but expat is political.
I really must try those beans again (so thick I am not) to find out if I was served crap the first & only time round. Would yo be kind & tell me how you prepare them & from what original state (fresh, tubbed) THanks!
Almost forgot…sorry to hear you’ve been unwell and hope you’re now bright-eyed & bushy-tailed again!
I am making a btch right now! sooooo yummy
Come on, Ben!
How did you present your Tremoço & from what provenance….or is it too ghastly to write about?
[...] Lupini / Termoco Beans « Food and Wine Portugal [...]
I was in Portugal this summer for the first time. I am in the U.S. so this was a major trip for us. To the point, we were in a bar in Portalegre and the bartender served us the Termoco Beans. We loved them and ate them throughout Portugal. I bought several bags of the dried bean at a wonderful market in Tavira, but unfortunately I cannot remember what the vendor told me about preparing them. In addition, I bought some for a chef who spent his early years in Lisboa and remembers them fondly and I would like to give him the recipe. Who knows, we could start a trend in America. We do love our bars. I loved Portugal, I met wonderful people. I discovered cork trees and Termoco Beans.
Hi Portell and thanks for reading the blog. Try out this recipe here for your dried beans!
http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t–2417/lupini-beans.asp