Lupini Beans for Peanut Allergy (with Hummus Recipe!)

When my son was 6 months old, he had a discovered peanut allergy based on skin prick test (SPT), serum-specific IgE (ssIgE) to peanut, and positive component test indicative of a very strong likelihood of clinical reaction during a challenge. Not to mention a reaction to Bomba & peanut butter.

While researching my son’s peanut allergy, I came across information about lupin, which is another legume that has many proteins in common with peanuts. If you are allergic to one, there is a high likelihood of being allergic to both, BUT NOT EVERYONE IS. In fact, the component of the peanut that my son is allergic to was at an even greater increased risk to a reaction with lupin, but I found myself wondering, what if we don't have any cross reaction and my son could tolerate lupin? Could that theoretically help him tolerate peanuts? It was worth trying. I searched high and low for lupini beans that were available locally and not processed in a facility with our allergens. I finally located a local Italian market that had Cento brand lupini for sale. We decided to use the Cento lupini beans for our challenge to lupin (after a negative skin prick test), and to everyone's surprise (including the allergist), we passed! We now give my son a hummus made from lupini beans a few times a week because, why not? Another plus is that lupini happens to be very nutritious, and with all our dietary limitations, it feels great to be able to add another healthy food to our son’s diet. I make lupini hummus weekly, and think the recipe we created is very delicious (after many attempts of making it we have found the perfect ratios)! I posted it below for anyone wanting to try it.

Please don’t try it at home, please don’t try it without your doctors permission. But if you want to try it consider that it could possibly help, ask! What are you waiting for?

Read more about lupin here:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27873194

2. https://www.allergicliving.com/2017/05/16/lupine-warning-issued-to-peanut-allergic-consumers/

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Recipe:

Ingredients

• 822 g Garbanzo beans with liquid

• 227 g Lupini (without skin)

• 60 g Lemon Juice

• 35 g Sesame Seeds

• 15 g Olive Oil

• 2 g Ground Cumin

• 1 dash Salt

• 2 cloves Garlic

Blend until smooth. Top with roasted chickpeas, parsley, or sesame seeds!

*Always check facility information for yourself, these are the products that work for us!