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Last March, I took a trip of a life time.  For ten days, I traveled around parts of Brazil, played concerts every day, sat on a beach, and immersed myself into Brazilian culture (please though, don’t ask me about my Portuguese, it is absolutely pathetic.)

Salvador:

Rio:

However, for as great of a time as I had in Brazil, I feel like I really missed out on a huge part of the culture, the food culture.  Brazilian food is heavily based on meats, especially seafood, and I would venture to guess that instead of eating meat based meals, I ate my weight in fruit.  I even had a hard time learning about food traditions while I was there because I had no interest in eating a lot of the food (which everyone else really enjoyed!)

So, for the second project food blog contest, I made the national dish of Brazil: Feijoada.  While this rice and bean dish usually takes hours to prepare, mainly because of all the meat, this vegan version I adapted is delicious and gives me a way in to Brazilian food culture in a short amount of time!

Feijoada (Brazilian Rice and Beans)
 
Prep time

Cook time

Total time

 

Author:
Recipe type: Main Dishes
Serves: 2

Ingredients
  • ½ cup brown rice
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup tomato sauce
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 clove garlic
  • 1 medium sweet potato
  • 1 cup black beans
  • 1 medium green pepper
  • 1 small hot pepper (like fresno)
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • ¼ cup cilantro
  • 1 cup veggie broth
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • none salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. In a medium pot, bring tomato sauce and water to a boil. Add rice and bring to another boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. Let cook for 25-30 minutes until rice has absorbed all the liquid.
  2. While rice is cooking, in a large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, peppers, and garlic to the olive oil and saute. Once onions and peppers begin to soften, toss in veggie broth, sweet potatoes, thyme, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Let simmer over medium heat until sweet potatoes are cooked through and add in beans, tomatoes. cilantro, and lime juice. Continue to heat mixture for another five minutes. Serve with rice and with a sprinkle of cilantro .

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  • http://www.caseyangelova.com Casey Angelova

    I love Brazilian cuisine. Way to explore the vegetarian options! Great post! Good luck on round 2!

  • http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com Lisa

    Having lived in Brazil, I grew to absolutely love feijoada. Yours looks sensational.

  • http://themartinblog.com/food Stephanie

    I’m sooo looking forward to my trip to Brazil in the Spring of next year (I’m tagging along with my husband for a business trip) and your post makes it even harder to wait! What a great vegan adaptation of this classic. Congrats on advancing to round two, and you know you’ve got my vote this round too!

  • erin

    Stephanie- You will love it there and I am super jealous (I want to go back so bad!) Thanks for your votes!

  • Milena

    well, that’s a nice thing to see! not only your fabulous feijoada, but the interest of so many foreigners about my dear country (yes, i’m brazilian :D ). If you have the time, don’t stick to the southwest; pretty much as every other country, every region im Brazil has different food cultures (and fruits!), so go for it!!

  • http://www.eataduckimust.com eataduckimust

    your photos are so incredibly clean and crisp, i love it! we just voted for you!

    • erin

      Thanks!

  • http://www.thechocolatefigsf.com Sarah

    Really, really beautiful post. And super unique. I voted! :)

  • http://www.greensnchocolate.blogspot.com Taylor

    Your pictures from Brazil are beautiful! Your dish looks like it turned out great!

  • http://prettypeasrecipes.blogspot.com Heather

    Wow–I didn’t even know there could possibly be a vegan version of Feijoada! Very creative. :)

    • erin

      Thanks! I’m sure by ditching the meat you loose the tradition flavor but this was still really good.

  • http://www.noredmeat.com Dan

    Yum, this looks delish!
    I am going to Brazil next month and am quite worried about being able to avoid meat (I don’t eat red meat and actually prefer being a vegetarian, but fish and chicken make life easier sometimes!) Any tips for veggie food in Rio or Salvador?
    Thanks and good luck!

    • erin

      You will love all the fresh fruit and veggies. The area that was always hard for me was finding a protein. There are bean dished but most have pork and beef in them. Your best friend with be a translation book (something I completely forgot at home!)

  • http://www.foodsamba.com Emme

    Hi there!
    Loved your vegan Feijoada! I’m happy to see an entry on Brazilian cuisine :) Being Brazilian, I am definately a Brazilian cuisine advocate lol! Good Luck, you’ve got my vote!
    -Emme
    http://www.foodsamba.com

  • http://donalupeskitchen.com Gina Ruiz

    Beautiful post. You have my vote. Good luck!

    • erin

      Thank you!

  • http://thesmartkitchenblog.com @TheSmartKitchen

    Wow. :)

  • http://briciole.typepad.com Simona

    I have bookmarked your recipe, as it sounds really good. I have never been to Brazil, but now I am thinking that I should think about changing that. Great job on the challenge. I gave you my vote.

    • erin

      I never saw myself going to Brazil but I am so glad I got the opportunity!

  • http://level2mommy.blogspot.com Katie Rose

    This was so delicious that I blogged about it myself. Thank you!

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  • Brianna

    I added a bit of BBQ sauce as it adds the smoky flavor found in the original Feijoada. :) Absolutely brilliant x