A Fast and Simple Brazilian Black Bean Stew Made using Canned Black Beans (Feijoada)

In Brazil, feijoada, or black bean stew, is customarily consumed over an extended lunch hour with family and friends. It is valued as both a Brazilian national cuisine and a comfort meal, and should be eaten slowly and enjoyed, making it ideal for casual family feasts. Since black bean stew can be created with so many different components, it is great for using up canned black beans as well as a healthful and appetizing way to use up leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge for a few days!

Pork off the bone, bacon, ribs, and sausages may be added to a pan of smokey black bean stew, along with beef leftovers and other ingredients. If you want to keep the black bean stew vegetarian or vegan, as I do, you may add red and green bell peppers, butternut squash, pumpkin, carrot, or any other leftover veggies from the fridge.

In this article, I share my love of black bean stew by showing you how to prepare canned black beans with materials that most of us have in our kitchen cabinets. Another reason I like making this fast feijoada is because the bulk of the 30 minutes or so required is cooking time rather than preparation time, which means I generally have time to sit down and get a quick cup of coffee while cooking!

All About Black Bean

Black beans, also known as turtle beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), have been around for around 7000 years and were a mainstay in South and Central American cuisines. While black beans are native to the Americas and are popular in South American nations today, they are also popular in Cajun, Creole, and current Punjabi cuisines.

Black beans, like other legumes such as lentils and peanuts, are rich in protein and fiber. Canned black beans are just as healthy as dry black beans, and a serving of black beans (approximately half a can of low sodium drained black beans) is low fat, cholesterol-free, and has 7.62 grams of protein, as well as 30% of our daily fiber requirements. This meal also provides 6% of our sodium requirements and 10% of our iron requirements. Fresh oranges, which are commonly served with feijoada, may also aid in the body’s absorption of iron from black beans.

Black beans may enhance bone health, and since they are strong in fiber, they may assist diabetics who have better blood sugar levels while eating high fiber diets. Moreover, the fiber in black beans, paired with their absence of cholesterol, may assist both heart health and gastrointestinal health.

Black beans also include folate, which aids in the repair of DNA damage in our bodies. Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer have all been related to DNA damage.

Galacans are oligosaccharides found in legumes. These are complex sugars that our bodies cannot digest because they lack the enzyme alpha-galactosidase. This is why eating black beans (and other legumes) might cause some slight stomach upset.

If you don’t consume black beans very frequently, you may gradually include them into your diet to help alleviate some of the symptoms of discomfort. I must admit that when I haven’t eaten black beans in a long, I have some pain, but this goes away once I start eating them regularly again!

The current American Dietary Guidelines propose that we consume three cups of legumes or beans each week.

In addition to feijoada, other quick ways to use canned black beans include adding them to burritos, tacos, or enchiladas. They also go well with sweet potatoes and may be used as a filler in casseroles and soups.

I occasionally eat them cold, drained from the can, with some sliced cucumber, feta, and corn in a red wine vinegar vinaigrette, or I combine them with cold leftover rice and top with green onion, peppers, cumin, and cilantro in a simple olive oil and lime dressing. Canned black beans may also be used to create a quick black bean and shrimp salad with lemon vinaigrette.

The Origins of Black Bean Stew (Feijoada)

The term feijoada derives from the Portuguese word feijo, which means “bean.” It is considered the national cuisine of Brazil, and particularly of Rio de Janeiro.

While black beans are most typically used in Brazil, certain parts of Brazil utilize brown or red beans, and in Portugal, red or white beans may be used in addition to black beans.

There is no way of knowing when or how feijoada became a dish. Some historians have linked feijoada to slavery in Brazil, claiming that in the mid-sixteenth century, colonial Portuguese slaves imported from Africa began to make the stew from meat scraps and undesirable parts of the pig such as trotters, ears, and tails, as well as beans left over from their masters’ meals. Some believe that the stew came in South America with European immigrants who saw beans as a low-cost, low-maintenance food crop and started to season it with meats to enhance taste and nutritional value.

We know that boiling beef with vegetables goes back to the time when the Romans occupied Iberia, and this sort of stew has influenced many other meals, like the French cassoulet and the Spanish cocido madrileno.

While swine is still the primary meat of choice in feijoada today, you may use hog shoulder, ribs, ham off the bone, smoked bacon, or even edible offal like heart. You may also use leftover sausage or stray wieners from the refrigerator. Carne seca, a dried and salted beef found in many South American markets, is a frequent element in feijoada; however, jerky or corned beef may be substituted. Chorizo is another famous and traditional ingredient in Portuguese feijoada.

Some parts of Brazil add vegetables like carrots, potatoes, kale, and pumpkin on the top of the stew at the end of cooking time so that the stew steams the veggies and helps them retain their texture and taste.

Feijoada is typically served with white rice, spring greens, cassava flour, pig crackling, and orange slices to assist digestion.

What You Will Need to Follow This Tutorial

While adding dried black beans gives a feijoada an extra depth of flavor, they may be more difficult to find and, like cooking with any dry beans or pulses, requires advance preparation for the overnight (or four hour hot) soak and a couple of hours of cooking time.

It should take no more than 30 to 35 minutes to make this quick canned black bean stew from scratch. The recipe below is vegetarian and will feed 2 to 4 people depending on portion size and side dishes.

Ingredients for Easy Brazilian Black Bean Stew

• 2 reduced sodium black bean cans (16 oz)
• tomatoes that have been crushed Alternatively, use a 16 oz can of vegetable broth or, if making with meat, a can of chicken broth1 can (16 oz) chopped
• 1 white onion, medium size
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves 3 bay leaves Depending on the leaf size
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika This is particularly significant when using canned black beans since it enhances the flavor’s smokiness. See the expert tip below if you’re using smoked meats.
• a pinch of chili powder Avoid using fresh chilis unless you have some already roasted on hand since the short cooking time will not enable the fresh chili to come through. Instead of chile, try a little spicy sauce.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste. Always use care when adding more salt towards the end of cooking, particularly when making a pork-rich stew.
• 1 orange to serve
• Serve with fresh cilantro or parsley (optional).

Optional Ingredients

• To taste, add a teaspoon of fresh or dried cilantro to the other herbs.
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Pre-cooked or leftover meat selection

Pro Tip: If you want to add some Spanish style chorizo to your feijoada, you may skip the smoked paprika and use Spanish chorizo instead. Similarly, if you use Mexican style chorizo, you may skip the chili flakes since it will provide some chile heat to the stew.

If you want to prepare feijoada using dry beans in the future, add a couple of tablespoons of red or white wine vinegar to the black beans during the cooking stage to reduce gassiness.

Step by Step Instructions

Pro Tip: If you want to serve this with freshly cooked rice, add it now to your rice cooker or pan so that it is done about the same time as the feijoada. I served mine with long grain rice and some whole grain wild rice since I like the nutty taste it adds to white rice.

Step 1: Warm up the oil and prepare the onion

Turn the heat to medium and add the tablespoon of olive oil to the sauce pan. When the oil heats up, coarsely chop the onion and add it to the pot.

Step 2: Mince garlic and sauté with the onion

Mince the garlic and add it to the pot, stirring with a spatula. Let the garlic and onion to sauté together for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the onion is gently caramelized and tender. After the onion is ready, reduce the heat to the lowest setting on the burner. Step 3 may be completed while the onion and garlic are sautéing.

Step 3: Prepare the black beans

Rinse the two cans of black beans in the colander under the faucet. You may add the black beans without washing them, which will leave the additional starch in for a thicker stew, but it will also leave the added salt in, which may be too salty if you are using saltier meats in your stew.

Step 4:Add black beans and chopped tomatoes

After the onions are gently caramelized and tender, like in Step 2, add the rinsed black beans and diced tomatoes to the pan and stir.

If you wish to brown the pre-cooked meats, add them while sautéing the onions, or at this stage when you add the chopped tomatoes (or broth).

Step 5:Add herbs

Add the dried oregano, chili flakes, and smoked paprika to the pan after measuring them out. Lastly, stir in the bay leaves. You may place the leaves in a muslin bag if desired, but unless the leaves break apart, they are simple to remove before serving or at the table.

Step 6:Cook

Increase the heat to medium while stirring gently. As the stew begins to boil, reduce the heat to low, cover it, and let it to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until all of the flavors have mingled. To keep the black beans from adhering to the bottom of the skillet, stir it periodically. At this time, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pro Tip: If there seems to be too much liquid, add a tablespoon of tomato paste or, towards the conclusion of the cooking time, remove the cover and crank up the heat for a few minutes to decrease some of the liquid.

Step 7: Garnish and serve

Serve the feijoada with rice or collard greens. Add orange quarters to the meal, since the orange, combined with rice, will assist in the digestion of the black beans.

If there is any leftover feijoada, place it in a good storage container with a cover and chill. If you eat it the next day, it will taste even better than the first time!

Feijoada may also be frozen without affecting the quality of the beans. Just be sure to remove the bay leaves before freezing. You may either refrigerate it before reheating it or rapidly defrost it in the microwave. While thawing and heating in the microwave, the feijoada should achieve an internal temperature of 165 F, as tested with a food thermometer, and it should also be cooked to this temperature on the stove top after it has thawed in the refrigerator.

Conclusion

I hope you liked my step-by-step instructions for making a fast and simple black bean stew using canned black beans. I believe it is a favorite of mine because it not only allows me to be creative with the ingredients I use, but it is also a delicious way to use up leftovers with no effort!

If you liked this guide, please share it with your friends, and if you have any comments on the recipe or canned black beans in general, please leave them in the box below.