I really like black beans. I like to include them along with red kidney beans in my chili recipe and I also ask for them any time I order a chicken burrito bowl at a quick-service Mexican restaurant. I’ve even put a few spoonfuls of black beans on my homemade chicken tacos a couple of times. However, I have not been able to convince my husband to join me in enjoying any of the above-mentioned meals. Why? Because my husband doesn’t like black beans–or any other type of bean–and he’ll always find a meal alternative that protects him from having to consume them.
It’s not that my hubby is a picky eater. He enjoys the meals I prepare for our family and has occasionally ordered side dishes and entrees that I would even label as atypical or exotic, such as shark, wild boar and alligator when we’ve gone out for dinner; he just won’t eat beans. That is, he wouldn’t eat beans until last week, when he ate a stew with black beans that I made for dinner and said it was “really good.”
The game-changing dish that I made is called feijoada. Feijoada is a stew that is known as one of the national dishes of Brazil, the largest country in South America. Traditionally made with black beans, beef and pork–along with a few other ingredients–this hearty dish will help you feel full and content long after you’ve eaten the last yummy spoonful. And, it is the first dish containing beans that I’ve cooked since getting married almost 25 years ago that my hubby not only ate, but enjoyed! (Yes, that was me squealing with joy!)
If you think you would like to make this protein-packed dish for your family, please check out the recipe for my 15-Minute Brazilean Feijoada. By the way, my version is a little different from those that are typically cooked in homes and restaurants in Brazil for a number of reasons. For starters, thanks to using ready-to-serve beans and pre-cut veggies, it can be made in a fraction of the time that one might expect this stew to take. Another thing that makes mine different is that I replaced the pork bacon and sausage included in other versions with our family’s favorite turkey bacon and our preferred chicken sausages since I don’t cook with pork.
For your convenience, I’ve included links to the bacon, sausage, and a few of the other ingredients I used in case you’d like to buy them online and have them delivered to your home. Please keep in mind that, if you make a purchase using a link, I will earn a small commission from qualifying purchases that will help me to continue to produce helpful content like this on my blog. If you have a Pinterest account, use the pin I embedded below to save the recipe to your board so it will be easy to access when you’re ready to cook. If you’re not a pinner, feel free to print out a PDF of the recipe using the black oval button that appears near the top of this post.
What You’ll Need To Make 15-Minute Brazilean Feijoada (Six servings)
*2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
*1 Pound of Rib Eye Steak, cut into strips or cubes
*4 Strips of Turkey Bacon, cut into squares
*4 Chicken Sausage Links, cut into 1/4″ thick slices
*1.25 Cups (or 10 ounces) of Mirepoix (Onion, Carrot and Celery Blend)
*2 Cans of Spicy Black Beans
*2.5 Cups of Beef Bone Broth
*6 Ounces of Frozen Kale Greens
*6 Navel Orange Slices
*1 Teaspoon of Salt
*1 Teaspoon of Pepper
*6 Cups of Microwaveable White Rice (You can use also use the options listed in the “Possible Substitutions” section that follows the article.)
15-Minute Brazilean Feijoada
1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over high heat and sautee the beef cubes for 3 minutes. Be sure to turn over the pieces midway through to ensure the pieces are cooked through.
2. Add turkey bacon and chicken sausage to skillet and sautee the meat for 1 minute.
3. Sprinkle mirepoix evenly over the meat in the pot.
4. Add black beans and bone broth.
5. Add kale greens, salt and pepper and stir all ingredients well.
6. Cover the Dutch oven and allow the dish to cook on high for 11 minutes. When the feijoada is finished cooking, leave it on the stove’s burner (covered) while you prepare rice in the microwave.
7. Slice an orange (or two, depending upon the size of your orange) into six slices. Then, cut each slice into two moon-shaped halves. Taste the stew before serving it to see if it could use a little more salt or pepper. If it does, sprinkle in a bit more to taste at this time and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Once it is seasoned to your liking, ladle it into individual bowls and add cooked rice in the middle of the bowl. Feel free to add 1/2 to 1 whole cup of rice, depending upon how much each family member wants to eat. Finally, garnish each bowl with one or two orange wedges and enjoy!
Possible Substitutions:
1. If you don’t like white rice or have any on hand, you could serve brown rice or cauliflower rice with your feijoada.
2. Frozen collard greens can be used if you can’t find frozen kale greens.
3. I decided to use beef bone broth for my recipe, but you could also use vegetable broth.
