Feijoada is a Brazilian black bean dish which tends to big on smoked meats and such. I had the pleasure of trying a vegetarian version at Cafe Brazil in Denver (google for: Cafe Brazil Denver”). It was so tasty that I set out to make my own. At our house it’s become a frequent repeat on slow-cook-sunday.
Ingredients
- 1 1lb bag of black beans (can use canned as well)
- 1 tablespoon coriander
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 can of tomatoes
- 5 potatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- 7 cups of vegetable stock or water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- a few dashes of liquid smoke
Preparation
First, you start the night before, by soaking the black beans overnight. The bag should tell you how. The great thing about using the dried beans is that it makes things realy cheap.
I buy the coriander and cumin whole and run them through a mortar and pestle.
Chop the onion and peppers. Crush the garlic.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and once hot add the coriander, cumin, thyme and red pepper flakes. Sauté them briefly until the become really fragrant. A minute, maybe two.
Add the onion, peppers and garlic into the pan and sauté for a little while longer until the onions become translucent.
Add the drained tomatoes into pan as well and cook for another minute. Then remove from heat.
Now it’s time to assemble everything in the slow cooker.
Drain the soaking black beans and put them in the slow cooker, along with the vegetable stock and the sautéed vegetables.
Add some salt and few good grinds of black pepper.
Turn the slow cooker on high and walk away for the next 6 to 8 hours.
Well you can stick around and stir every once in a while adding a little more liquid if necessary.
Toward the end add a few dashes of liquid smoke and serve with rice, orange slices and farofa if you can find it. I tend to improvise and just fry some bread crumbs with a little garlic and a lot of salt and pepper in some butter. Once it’s brown add a spoonful on each plate to be mixed in as salt and pepper and extra texture.
There are a lot of options on this. I’ve sometimes added a few carrots, a little celery, used dried red and green peppers. It always turns out great. The key is that you slow cook it a looooooong time. I’ve tried making it go quicker and it just falls short compared to the slow cooked version.