Feijoada - Brazilian black beans chilli stew

The traditional Brazilian feijoada is a stew of well-cooked black beans with various (smoked) parts of a pig inside. It reminds me of those witchy stews from cartoons of my childhood, with frog legs, lizard tails... you get the picture. Our plant-based take on feijoada is a richer and aromatic version, where the well spiced, creamy and smoky beans get paired with a range of textures from root vegetables, chestnuts, seitan, hazelnuts. 


Ingredients

500g black beans
4 bay leaves
150 g baked pumpkin or sweet potato into cubes
100g burdock root, parsnip or salsify, cut into pieces
200g chestnuts (cooked or roasted)
100 g coarsely chopped hazelnuts
200 g smoked tofu sausage (or smoked tempeh) - optional
Fresh (Thai) basil or cilantro
1 tbs freshly ground coriander balls
1 tbs freshly ground cumin seeds
1 t.s. allspice
1 tbs paprika powder (if you do not want to use smoked tofu or tempeh here you can use smoked Paprika powder - where I live, in Ghent it is found at Dille & Camille)
Nutmeg
1,5 tbs sea salt (or to taste)
Chilli pepper flakes (or tabasco), to taste
optional:
Freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
Olive oil (add at the end)
Pieces of seitan or soy chunks, marinated with a little shoyu, ginger, smoked paprika and chilli

Preparation:

1) Rinse the beans until the water comes out clean. Take out the stones and the bad beans. Cover the beans with filtered water and soak them in filtered water for 12 hours. Discard the water. 

2) Add fresh water to cook the beans. Cook them in a pressure cooker, over medium heat, for more or less 20 minutes. 

3) Turn off the heat and leave the cooking pan closed for another hour before opening it. 

4) If you don't have a pressure cooker, cook them beans for at least 1 hour, over low heat. The cooking time may vary a bit, depending on the type of beans and on how fresh they are. 

5) Once the beans are cooked, add the bay leaves, the ground coriander and cumin powder, burdock root, parsnip, parsley root and hazelnuts. Let it cook over low heat for another 30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft enough and the water has become a thick sauce. 

6) Add more water if needed during the cooking process. 

7) Remove the bay leaves and add the baked sweet potatoes or pumpkin, the chestnuts, meat substitutes, if you choose to use them, chilli and possibly the orange zest. Let boil again for a few minutes before turning off the fire.

8) Serve with basmati rice, and sprinkle with chopped basil or cilantro. 

9) Side dishes usually served together with feijoada: lightly stir-fried finely shredded kale, fresh orange slices and a typical Brazilian "vinaigrette" (a salsa of diced tomato, onion or green apple, dipped in lemon juice or vinegar with olive oil, salt and spring onions).

To get the taste closest from the original Brazilian recipe it is important that the black beans are reasonably fresh. Old or poorly preserved beans will have an earth / mold-like flavor. There must also be something smoked as an ingredient or seasoning: either by adding smoked tempeh, tofu, seitan, veg sausages either by adding smoked paprika, smoked salt or natural "liquid smoke". Actually, you can use all kinds of winter vegetables in this stew: turnips, celery root, beets, daikon, etc. The most important thing is that there are different textures together with the beans.

Bon appetite!