Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Feijão Tropeiro
Beans tossed with toasted cassava flour, bacon, sausage, egg, and collard greens, the filling lunch of Minas Gerais.
Brazilian · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~764 cal · 35g protein · 82g carbs · 33g fat · 19g fiber · 6g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Feijão tropeiro is the food of the tropeiros, the mule-train drivers who moved goods across the mountains of Minas Gerais and São Paulo in colonial and imperial Brazil. Everything in it travelled well: dried beans, meats, and flour that needed no refrigeration.
Cooked at a roadside fire, the beans were tossed with the farinha until every grain was coated, then bulked out with whatever pork was to hand. Collard greens, egg, and sausage joined over time, turning a traveller's ration into a full plate.
Today it is a fixture of the Minas table and of Brazilian barbecues everywhere, served alongside rice, greens, and grilled meat. It is filling, smoky, and deeply regional, a dish that still tastes of the old mountain roads.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 cups cooked brown or carioca beans, drained
1 1/2 cups flour (farinha)
Hard to find? coarse cassava flour, sold as manioc flour - ask for the coarse grind. Fine cassava flour is a different product and will not toast into the loose sandy crumbs farofa is supposed to be; it is also not tapioca starch, which comes from the same root but behaves nothing like it
5 oz bacon, diced
8 oz smoked pork sausage, sliced
3 eggs
4 cups collard greens (couve), finely sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 , sliced
Instructions
1
Fry the bacon and sausage until browned and the fat has rendered, then remove and set aside.
2
In the same fat, soften the onion and garlic, then scramble in the eggs until just set.
3
Add the drained beans and the sliced collards and toss until the greens wilt.
4
Return the meats, then rain in the cassava flour, stirring constantly until every grain is toasted and coats the beans.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the farinha off the direct heat and keep it moving. It should toast to a dry, sandy coating, not clump into a paste.
5
Finish with the scallions and serve alongside rice and grilled meat.
Minas Gerais tropeiro tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Minas Gerais. Pao de queijo came out of a shortage. Wheat was expensive and imported, so Minas cooks used cassava polvilho instead, bound with local cheese and egg, which is why it is technically unleavened, a biscuit rather than a bread, and why it goes hollow and chewy. It has older-documented cousins in Colombian pandebono and Paraguayan chipa, so credit Minas, not Brazil.
🗺️
Brazil. Brazil is a continent-sized country with an Afro-Brazilian coastal soul, from Bahia's palm-oil and coconut moquecas to the national feijoada bean stew. Cassava, black beans, tropical fruit, and churrasco barbecue anchor a joyful, diverse table.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Brazil
Moqueca Baiana (Bahian Fish Stew)Fish simmered in coconut milk, dendê palm oil, peppers, and lime in a clay pot, the taste of the Bahian coast.
Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)Chewy-crisp little cheese breads made from tapioca starch, naturally gluten-free and dangerously poppable.
FeijoadaBrazil’s black-bean and smoked-meat feast, simmered for hours and served with rice, greens, orange, and farofa.
Browse all Brazil recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Brazil meal
CaipirinhaDrink
BrigadeiroDessert
Moqueca Baiana (Bahian Fish Stew)Dinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Feijão Tropeiro?
Beans tossed with toasted cassava flour, bacon, sausage, egg, and collard greens, the filling lunch of Minas Gerais.
Where does Feijão Tropeiro come from?
Feijão Tropeiro is a Brazilian dish from Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Can Feijão Tropeiro be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Feijão Tropeiro recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Feijão Tropeiro safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Feijão Tropeiro take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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