Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)

The famous slow-cooked, flavor-packed, umami-rich black bean stew from Brazil, this Feijoada recipe is easy to make and is an absolute feast for the taste buds!

Incredibly delicious, it’s no wonder this ultimate comfort dish is the national dish of Brazil!

What is Feijoada?

Feijoada (pronounced fay-jwa-da) is the National Dish of Brazil and what a dish it is!  In some ways you could say it’s the Brazilian version of French cassoulet in that it’s a bean dish featuring several kinds of meats.   Whereas cassoulet is made with white beans and typically includes pork sausages, goose, duck, and sometimes mutton, Feijoada is made with black beans and features a variety of pork and beef products in salted, smoked, and cured form.  The interplay of these meat flavors in feijoada makes it an exciting feast for the taste buds.

Feijoada is most commonly served with sliced oranges and rice, though fried bananas and chilies are also common accompaniments.  Feijoada is made virtually everywhere in Brazil, from the humblest home to the most sophisticated restaurant in Rio.  Reflective of its popularity, some restaurants even feature a “Feijoada Day.”

There are countless versions of feijoada with each home cook and restaurant chef using their own favorite combination of ingredients.  But a hallmark of feijoada is that it combines a variety meat products:  Fresh, cured, salted, and smoked – all thrown in together in one big pot of savory goodness. My version uses pork roast (slowly cooked in all the juices and later shredded), bacon, spicy sausage, smoked sausage, and smoked ham hocks. All of this is slow-cooked for a couple of hours with black beans and seasonings.  You’ll hardly be able to resist the mouthwatering smell emanating from your kitchen, and just wait until you taste it!

Where Did Feijoada Originate?

Feijoada is believed to date back to the 16th century when it was made using the cheapest cuts of pork such as ears, snout, feet and belly. There is more than one theory as to origin of this dish, one of them linking it to the 1.3 million enslaved people brought from Africa to work the sugarcane plantations of Brazil. Beans were a staple the Africans were already familiar with from their homeland and when they were given the leftover scraps of pork they used their creativity to make a meal of it that would eventually become part of the country’s core identify.

Others note the Portuguese influence in the stew.  Brazil was under the rule of the Portuguese Empire until it won its independence in 1822, and so Brazilian cooking in general has a lot of Portuguese influence.

Perhaps its origin stems from a combination of the two theories.

This Brazilian black bean stew is comfort food at its best. The slow-cooked, umami-rich flavor of this meat and black bean stew is incredible. The sweet and refreshing citrus that accompanies it provides a pleasing contrast and offers a quick cleansing of the palate before second servings of the stew are requested, which they inevitably will be.

Feijoada Recipe

• Soak the beans in a large bowl of water overnight.
• In a large Dutch oven or heavy duty pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat and brown the pork shoulder until generously browned on each side. Remove the pork and set aside. In the same pan, add the bacon and cook until slightly crispy (for the best flavor leave the grease but you can drain some of it if you prefer). Add the onions and cook the onions until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the crumbled Italian sausage and smoked sausage and cook until the crumbled sausage is no longer pink.
• Return the pork roast to the pot along with the smoked ham hock. Drain, rinse, and add the black beans to the pot. Add the bay leaves, black pepper, and beef bouillon base/cubes. Cover the contents of the pot with water until the meat is just barely covered (about 2 quarts). Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 2 hours, making sure the beans are soft. About 1 1/2 hours into the cooking time, if using whole pork roast, remove and either shred or cut it into chunks, and return to the pot.  Do the same with the meat on the smoked ham hock.
• If the feijoada is too liquidy, uncover the pot and continue to cook for another 20 minutes or so to allow some of the liquid to evaporate. Add more salt to taste as needed. Add some hot sauce according heat preference. Discard the bay leaves.
• Serve with rice and fresh orange slices.

Enjoy!

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For more delicious stews from around the world be sure to try our:

• Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew)
• Sega Wat (Ethiopian Beef Stew)
• Irish Guinness Stew
• Plasas (West African Peanut Chicken Stew)
• Pörkolt (Hungarian Beef and Onion Stew)
• Domoda (Gambian Peanut Stew)
• Hachee (Dutch Beef and Onion Stew)
• French Beef Bourgignon
• Mexican Pozole Rojo

Originally published on The Daring Gourmet January 9, 2013