Feijoada

Feijoada

Brazilian-style feijoada with common side dishes
Type	Stew
Place of origin	Portugal
Main ingredients	beans, beef, pork
Variations	typ
Cookbook: Feijoada  Media: Feijoada

Feijoada (Portuguese pronunciation: [fejʒuˈadɐ]) is a stew of beans with beef and pork,^[1] which is a typical Portuguese dish. Feijoada is also typically cooked in Portugal and former colonies such as Brazil, Macau, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Goa (India). However, the recipe can differ slightly from one country to another.^[2]

Brazilian feijoada made with black beans

The name comes from feijão, Portuguese for "beans".

The basic ingredients of feijoada are beans with fresh pork^[3] or beef. In Brazil, it is usually made with black beans; in the northeast (Bahia), it is generally prepared with kidney beans (Feijoada à Brasileira), and includes other vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, and cabbage. The stew is best prepared over low heat in a thick clay pot.

It is usually served with rice and assorted sausages, such as chouriço, morcela (blood sausage), farinheira, and others, which may or may not be cooked in the stew.

The practice of cooking a meat (pork) stew with vegetables that gave origin to the feijoada from the Minho Province in Northern Portugal is a millenary Mediterranean tradition that can be traced back to the period when the Romans colonized Iberia.^[4] Roman soldiers would bring this habit to every Latin settlement, i.e., all of the provinces of Romania, the Vulgar Latin speaking area of Europe (not to be confused with the modern country solely), and this heritage is the source of many national and regional dishes of today's Europe, such as the French cassoulet, the Milanese cassoeula from Lombardy, Italy, the Romanian fasole cu cârnați, the fabada asturiana from Northwestern Spain, near Portugal, and the also Spanish cocido madrileño and olla podrida, not to mention non-Romanic regions with similar traditions that might be derived from this millennial Roman soldiers' dish like the Polish tsholem and golonka.^[4][5]

Variants

Modern variants of the dish are based on ancient feijoada recipes from the Brazilian regions of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salvador. In Brazil, feijoada (feijoada brasileira) is often considered the national dish.

Brazilian feijoada

Feijoada has been described as a national dish of Brazil, especially of Rio de Janeiro, as other parts of Brazil have other regional dishes. Brazilian feijoada (feijoada brasileira) is prepared with black beans,^[3] a variety of salted pork or beef products, such as pork^[3] trimmings (ears, tail, feet),^[3] bacon, smoked pork ribs, and at least two types of smoked sausage and jerked beef (loin and tongue). In some regions of the northeast, like Bahia and Sergipe, vegetables like cabbage, kale, potatoes, carrots, okra, pumpkin, chayote and sometimes banana are frequently added, at the end of the cooking, on top of the meat, so they are cooked by the vapors of the beans and meat stew. This stew is best prepared over a low fire in a thick clay pot. The final dish has the beans and meat pieces barely covered by a dark purplish-brown broth. The taste is strong, moderately salty but not spicy, dominated by the flavors of black bean and meat stew. It is customary to serve it with white rice and oranges, the latter to help with digestion.

Feijão com arroz is the rice and black beans without the addition of the meat.

Depending on the region of Brazil, the type of bean used in feijoada varies. While in some regions like Rio de Janeiro or Minas Gerais, feijoada is typically prepared with black beans, others in Goias and Bahia brown or red is preferred.

As a celebratory dish, Feijoada is traditionally served on Saturday afternoons or Sunday lunch and intended to be a leisurely midday meal. It is meant to be enjoyed throughout the day and not eaten under rushed circumstances. The meal is usually eaten among extended family and paired with an event like watching a soccer game or other social event. Because of the dish's heavy ingredients and rich flavors, feijoada is viewed as Brazilian soul food. In the city of São Paulo, Feijoada is a common dish on restaurants on Wednesdays, mainly on the commercial area. The dish is served with ingredients separated for clients choose what they want, with more meat, pork, bacon or just the beans. The variation of vegetarian feijoada is also found. Another variation is a lighter version of Feijoada, made with meat cuts and sausages that contain less fat than the original recipes. ^[6] The dish is frequently compared to American Southern Soul Food which share many similarities in terms of ingredients and taste.^[7]

According to legend, the origins of Brazil’s national dish, feijoada, stem from the country’s history with slavery. Slaves would supposedly craft this hearty dish out of black beans and pork leftovers given to them from their households. These leftovers included pig feet, ears, tail, and other portions seen as unfit for the master and his family. However, this theory has recently been contested and considered more of a modern advertising technique for the dish rather than a basis for its origins. Instead, scholars argue that the history of feijoada traces back to Brazil’s cultivation of beans. Because of the crop’s relatively low cost of production and the simplicity of its maintenance, beans became a staple food among European settlers in Brazil. Although black beans were eaten by both the upper-classes and the poor, the upper-classes particularly enjoyed them with an assortment of meat and vegetables, similar to feijoada, while the poor and enslaved usually ate a mixture of black beans and manioc flour.^[8]

See also

• Cassoeula
• Cassoulet
• Rice and beans
• Fabada Asturiana
• Fasole cu cârnați
• List of Brazilian dishes
• List of Portuguese dishes
• List of stews

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Feijoada.