Brazil's national dish — a soulful black bean stew with smoked and salted pork, served with rice, sautéed collards, farofa, orange slices and a caipirinha on the side.
Feijoada completa is Brazil's national dish and one of the great composed feasts of the Americas — a rich, smoky stew of black beans simmered for hours with as many cuts of cured and fresh pork as the cook can fit in the pot: pé de porco (trotters), orelha (ears), rabo (tails), costela defumada (smoked ribs), paio sausage, linguiça calabresa, carne seca (salt-cured beef) and a fresh piece of pork shoulder for body. Around it cluster the inseparable accompaniments — fluffy white rice, couve à mineira (finely shredded collard greens sautéed in garlic), farofa (toasted manioc flour with bacon and onion), sliced orange to cut the richness, and a hot sauce of malagueta peppers. The whole spread is washed down with caipirinhas made of cachaça, lime and sugar. Feijoada is eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Brazilian restaurants — a tradition called 'feijoada do almoço' — and is served in massive portions meant to anchor a long, lazy afternoon. The dish traces to 17th-century Portuguese feijoadas (white-bean stews of the Iberian peninsula) fused with West African slow-cooking traditions on Brazilian sugar plantations, where enslaved Africans transformed it into the black-bean preparation we know today. A true feijoada completa takes two days — soak beans and desalt the meats overnight, simmer slowly the next day — but the result feeds twelve happy people and tastes like Brazil.
Serves 10
Soak the black beans in plenty of cold water overnight (or 12 hours). Separately, soak the carne seca in cold water 12 hours, changing the water 3 times to remove excess salt. Drain everything before cooking.
Place the carne seca, smoked ribs and trotters in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, simmer 15 minutes, drain and rinse — this removes more salt and any surface scum. Cut the carne seca and ribs into 4 cm pieces.
In a very large heavy pot (8–10 quart, ideally a Brazilian-style earthenware panela de barro), combine the drained beans, parboiled meats, trotters, 3 bay leaves, and water to cover by 8 cm (about 4 liters). Bring to a hard boil, skim foam aggressively, then reduce to a steady simmer.
Simmer partially covered 90 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes from the bottom, until the beans are tender but still hold their shape and the meats are nearly done. Skim any rising fat or scum periodically.
In a skillet, brown the cubed pork shoulder, sliced paio and linguiça calabresa in a tablespoon of oil over high heat — about 6 minutes total. Add to the bean pot along with the bacon. Simmer 45 more minutes.
In a heavy skillet over medium heat, sauté the onion in 2 tbsp oil 8 minutes until golden. Add the garlic, remaining bay leaf, cumin and a ladle of cooked beans. Mash the beans into the onions with a wooden spoon — this creates a thickening paste. Add the cachaça and reduce 30 seconds.
Scrape the refogado back into the bean pot. Simmer 20 more minutes uncovered to thicken the broth. Taste — adjust salt cautiously (the cured meats add their own). The feijoada is ready when the beans are creamy, the meats are fall-apart tender, and the broth coats a spoon.
Stack collard leaves, roll tightly, and slice into the thinnest possible ribbons (chiffonade). Sauté the minced garlic in 2 tbsp oil over high heat 30 seconds, add the collards, salt lightly and toss 90 seconds — they should stay bright green and just-wilted, never overcooked.
In a dry skillet, toast the manioc flour over medium heat with 2 tbsp butter and a finely diced onion, stirring constantly 5 minutes until golden and aromatic. Season with salt. Farofa should be sandy and toasty, not greasy.
Serve the feijoada in deep bowls or directly from a tureen at the table. Surround with separate platters of white rice, couve à mineira, farofa, orange slices, and a small bowl of malagueta hot sauce. Each diner builds their plate to taste. Caipirinhas mandatory; Brazilian black bean stew, perfect afternoon.
Desalting the carne seca and parboiling the smoked meats is the difference between a balanced feijoada and an inedibly salty one. Don't skip the rinses.
Cook the day before serving; feijoada improves dramatically overnight as the flavors marry. Reheat gently with a splash of water.
If you can find a Brazilian panela de barro (clay pot), it gives the most authentic flavor; otherwise the heaviest Dutch oven you own works.
Mashing a cup of beans into the refogado is the Brazilian thickening trick — never use cornstarch or flour. The mashed beans give the proper creamy body.
Vegetarian feijoada: use vegan smoked sausage, lots of smoked paprika and chipotle, a Parmesan rind for depth. Surprisingly close to the real thing.
Quick weekday feijoada: skip the trotters, ears and carne seca; use just black beans, smoked bacon, kielbasa and chorizo. Done in 90 minutes.
Feijoada de frutos do mar: a coastal Bahian version with shrimp and dendê oil instead of pork.
Add diced butternut squash in the final 30 minutes for a sweet contrast — a non-traditional but excellent Northeastern variation.
Refrigerate up to 5 days; flavor peaks on day 2–3. Freezes excellently 3 months in flat zip bags. Reheat gently with a splash of water and stir from the bottom. Accompaniments (collards, farofa, rice) are best made fresh the day of serving.
Feijoada was long romanticized as 'slave food,' invented by enslaved Africans on Brazilian sugar plantations from scraps the masters didn't want; historians have largely debunked this. The dish more accurately descends from Portuguese cassoulet-like white-bean feijoadas, adapted to black beans in Brazil and elaborated in middle-class Rio kitchens through the 19th century. It became the national dish during the Vargas era of the 1930s.
For 'completa' yes — each cut contributes distinct flavor and texture. A 4-meat version is still excellent and called simply 'feijoada.' Skipping the trotters and ears loses some of the gelatinous richness but doesn't ruin the dish.
Brazilian or Portuguese grocery stores carry it; Latin American markets sometimes label it carne seca, carne de sol, or charqui. Corned beef brisket (soaked overnight to desalt) is the closest substitute.
The bright acidity of orange cuts through the richness of the pork and helps with digestion of the heavy meal — a Brazilian tradition with practical roots.
Yes — pressure cook the beans and parboiled meats 35 minutes on high, release naturally, then add the fresh pork, sausages and refogado for a final 20-minute uncovered simmer. Saves about 90 minutes.
Per serving (560g / 19.8 oz) · 10 servings total
Ask our AI cooking assistant anything about this recipe — substitutions, techniques, scaling.
Chat with AI Chef →Join the conversation
Sign in to leave a comment and save your favourite recipes