Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Feijoada
Brazil’s black-bean and smoked-meat feast, simmered for hours and served with rice, greens, orange, and farofa.
Brazilian (Carioca) · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 150 min
~1127 cal · 56g protein · 122g carbs · 46g fat · 22g fiber · 11g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Feijoada is Brazil's Saturday institution, a deep, dark cauldron of black beans and and smoked meats that families and restaurants alike slowly and gather around. It is arguably the closest thing the country has to a national dish.
Its roots run through the Portuguese tradition of bean-and-meat stews and the kitchens of enslaved Africans who made rich food from humble cuts. Black beans are cooked for hours with pork ribs, sausage, and bacon until the broth turns thick and glossy and the meats fall apart.
It is served as a whole ritual meal: over rice, with sauteed collard greens, toasted farofa, and slices of orange to cut the richness, and often a caipirinha to start. Communal and unhurried, feijoada is meant to fill an afternoon as much as a plate.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-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 6
1 lb dried black beans, soaked
1 lb smoked pork ribs
0.5 lb smoked sausage
0.5 lb bacon
2 onions
6 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
4 cups collard greens, finely sliced (couve)
1 cup flour (for farofa)
Hard to find? coarse cassava flour, sold as manioc flour - the coarse grind matters. Fine cassava flour clumps rather than toasting into loose crumbs, and tapioca starch, from the same root, will not work at all
3 oranges, sliced
4 cups cooked white rice, to serve
4 tbsp
Instructions
1
Put the soaked beans in a large pot with the bay leaves and plenty of water, and bring to a simmer.
2
After 30 minutes, add the smoked meats (or tofu, mushrooms, and paprika).
3
Cook low for about 2 hours, topping up the water as needed, until the beans are creamy and the broth is dark and thick.
4
In a separate pan, fry a sofrito of onion and garlic.
5
Ladle in a scoop of the cooked beans, mash them into the sofrito, and stir it all back into the pot to thicken the whole thing.
✎ Chef’s note
Mashing some beans back into the pot is what gives feijoada its thick, glossy broth without any flour.
6
Quick-fry the collard greens in oil until just wilted.
7
Toast the cassava flour in oil with a little onion until golden, to make the farofa.
8
Serve the feijoada over rice with the collards, farofa, and orange slices.
Rio de Janeiro Saturday tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Rio de Janeiro. The accompaniments are not decoration. Couve, collard greens sliced into ribbons and flashed with garlic, cuts the fat; orange segments help with the richness; farofa, cassava meal toasted in butter, takes up the liquid; and the caipirinha of cachaca, lime and sugar pounded together handles the rest.
🗺️
Brazil. Cassava is the oldest thing on the Brazilian table, domesticated in South America long before the Portuguese arrived and still processed by Indigenous methods: grated, pressed, and toasted into the coarse farinha that becomes farofa, or settled out as the starch sold as tapioca. Even the poisonous liquid pressed from the root is boiled down into tucupi and used as a seasoning.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
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.
BrigadeiroFudgy chocolate truffles of condensed milk cooked with cocoa and butter, rolled in sprinkles. No Brazilian party exists without them.
Browse all Brazil recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
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
Feijão TropeiroLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Feijoada?
Brazil’s black-bean and smoked-meat feast, simmered for hours and served with rice, greens, orange, and farofa.
Where does Feijoada come from?
Feijoada is a Brazilian (Carioca) dish from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Can Feijoada be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Feijoada 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 Feijoada 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 Feijoada take to make?
About 180 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 150 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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