Brazilian feijoada is a very famous dish known worldwide. It’s also a recipe that has many variations and every Brazilian has a special trick for making it.

Like we did before for the Caipirinha’s post, we selected some relevant content available online to show you how to make Feijoada and in the end we’ll give you our favorite recipe.

First we want to show you Nando Cuca’s video. I’d like to apologize ahead of time for the bee’s belch!

Now I’ll share with you one of our favorite versions of this popular recipe:

Brazilian Feijoada

Ingredients

1/2 lb jerked beef, diced

1/2 lb salt-cured pork loin, diced (or any other type of pork meat of your preference)

600g black beans

2 bay leaves

1/2 lb baby back pork ribs

1/2 lb pork sausage

1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage, Portuguese sausage or Chorizo

1/3 lb bacon, diced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup “cachaça” (distilled Brazilian alcoholic beverage)

1 orange

Salt and pepper to taste

* The preparation for Feijoada should be started the day before serving.

Directions

1. Put jerked beef and the pork loin into a bowl. Fill the bowl with water and let it soak for 12 hours, changing the water every 4 hours.
2. On the following day, put 2 quarts of water in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Pick and wash the black beans and put them in a big bowl. Pour the boiling water over the black beans and let it soak for 20 minutes. Drain the water and put the beans aside.
3. Take the bowl with the jerked beef and pork loin and put all the contents in a large pot, add also the baby back ribs and let it boil for 5 minutes over high heat. Drain and put aside.
4. Bring 2.5 quarts of water to a boil.
5. In the unclosed pressure cooker, over high heat, sautée half of the bacon until crispy. Add the drained black beans, jerked beef, pork loin and baby back ribs, 2.5 quarts of boiling water, bay leaves and close the pressure cooker. When the pressure system starts to work let it cook for 20 minutes over low to medium heat. Wait until the pan gets cold to open it.
6. Slice the sausage into 1/2 inch chunks. Boil them for 5 minutes, drain and put aside.
7. In a big pot add olive oil and sautée the onions, garlic, and other half of the bacon. Add the sausages, the black beans stew and cachaça.
8. Wash the orange and put it inside the pot without removing the skin or cutting it. It will remove part of the fat.
9. Cook over a low heat for another 20 minutes or until all the meat and beans are tender. If needed add more water during this step.
10. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the orange and serve.

Serve the Feijoada with sautéed collard greens  (cut and sautéed with minced garlic,) vinagrette, orange halves, rice and farofa (in this case, I would make a farofa with bacon and olives, instead of passion fruit).

Dedo de Moça’s special trick:

If you like spicy food, make a special spicy sauce to be served with the Feijoada. Use one cup of the feijoada stew (without beans and meat) and mix with small diced cayenne peppers and 3 tablespoons of vinagrette.

“Bom apetite!”

Servings: 10 to 12

Difficulty: Difficult

Preparation Time: Starting the previous day plus an additional 3 hours

For all others recipes using meat we suggest some substitutes for the cuts of meat we have in Brazil, so you won’t get stuck in translating and trying to understand all of the differences.

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