Feijoada is a popular Brazilian stew of cured meats and black beans. This Brazilian national dish relies heavily on meat for flavor and texture. In my vegan version of Feijoada, I add smoked tofu instead of the meats and use paprika and cumin for extra flavor. I admit this is not an authentic Brazilian dish, but it is certainly tasty and filling. Serve with rice or chipotle corn bread on a chilly night.
If you cant find smoked tofu, just use regular, firm tofu and add a few drops of liquid smoke to your stew. If you don’t want to use tofu for whatever reason, substitute it with another kind of bean (kidney beans or white beans), or TVP or tempeh, or store bought veggie crumbles (like Morningstar). Check out this Brazilian black bean stew with sweet potatoes on Allrecipes. Martha Stewart has a Cuban black bean stew. Vegkitchen features a vegetarian feijoada or brazilian black bean stew.
This goes to Chef in you’s AWED Brazil event hosted by Sara’s Corner.
Brazilian Style Black Bean and Smoked Tofu Stew (Vegan Feijoada)
Serves 2
For the smoked tofu
4 oz smoked tofu (I used Soyboy brand), cut into small cubes (about ½ cup when cubed)
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the stew
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped finely
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano or Italian seasoning
One 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans)
3 cups water
Salt
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the tofu cubes and cook on medium-high heat till the tofu is browned and crispy – about 6 minutes. Remove the tofu from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, heat ½ tablespoon olive oil. Add onion, carrot and bell pepper. Sauté on medium heat till the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add cumin, paprika, and oregano. Stir for about 20 seconds.
Add the black beans, water and salt. Bring the stew to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes or till most the liquid has evaporated. Mash some of the black beans using the back of a wooden spoon. Add the reserved tofu and cook another 5 minutes.
Top with your choice of chopped tomatoes, red onion, parsley, cilantro, orange zest, sour cream or grated cheese. Serve with my yogurt cornbread with chipotle and sweet corn niblets.
They look so tempting! Would love to try this.
[Reply]
Bittman would be so proud of you!
Interesting idea of adding orange zest: I usually add lemon zest to my savory dishes, but should try this.
[Reply]
Making me hungry, really hungry. And I am really liking the corn bread. I got me some Corn Meal yesterday with plans to make corn bread with the roasted hatch chilis i froze. Delicious meal!
[Reply]
Looks delicious.
[Reply]
Your pics are just making me hungry now. I would love to try this some day for sure as I have black beans in my pantry. Thanks for other links, Sala. They are too good to follow but I would try your recipe first!
btw, I would love to learn your corn bread recipe too, that I’m seeing here. I had tried 1-2 recipes before but it couldn’t satisfy yet. Thanks.
[Reply]
Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
October 7th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
corn bread recipe is coming up next!
[Reply]
I love the idea of a Vegan Feijoada.The smoked tofu sounds great here!
[Reply]
Wowo looks so so heartly, filling and so so delicous. Have to say I am not a tofu fan at all, but like this i would love it.
[Reply]
Makes me drool, thats a fabulous looking and nutritious packed stew..yumm!
[Reply]
looks so yum
[Reply]
That stwe looks mighty good! A lovely meal.
Cheers,
Rosa
[Reply]
Wow.. this looks fantastic. Yummy
Love the clicks as ever 
[Reply]
They are a way too tempting Sala…waiting for the corn bread recipe
[Reply]
Everything looks so good. Stew is delicious with ur pictures.. and corn bread is my fav too. I love adding Bell peppers to corn bread, Take a look at the corn bread which i posted few months back…
http://www.dishesfrommykitchen.com/2009/07/bell-pepper-corn-bread-and-summer.html
Have Wonderful day !!!
[Reply]
Sala, i had to go learn how to pronounce that
[Reply]
Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
October 8th, 2010 at 9:53 am
its pronounced “fey-zhwa-da”, literally meaning ‘beans’
[Reply]
Waou! What a splendid dish! Authentic brazilian dish or not, it seems delicious!
[Reply]
I love black beans and always have that and tofu on hand… Looks so satisfying & comforting – can’t wait to try.
[Reply]
I love Feijoada and this is such an interesting take on it!!
[Reply]
I am so glad to hear you liked this! I saw a compelling recipe in Viva Vegan that I have been itching to make. Yours looks even easier!
[Reply]
Black bean stew is one of my favorites. The seasonings here look pretty similar to the ones I usually use (I freehand it most of the time), but I always it it with rice. Chipotle cornbread looks like a great alternative, and I can’t wait for the recipe
.
[Reply]
Lots of lovely ingredients, the stew look so hearty and full of flavour, YUM!!
[Reply]
Lovely take on feijoada! As much as I love it with meat, I should totally try this version.
Usually in Brazil we serve feijoada with simple white rice, collard greens, a few orange wedges and another very special dish called farofa. It is made by simply frying up some minced garlic – maybe onions, if you like it – in abundant olive oil or butter. When everything is fragrant you just add some manioc root flour and fry the flour (as much as that sounds weird), which is quite coarse. The result is some crunchy, garlicky stuff that soaks up wonderfully in the beans. Yum!
You might be able to find manioc root flour on south american or asian markets. The indian version is called Gari and is perfect for this purpose
[Reply]
This looks so filling and delicious! I’ve never used the smoked tofu before, but you’ve inspired me to get some (and to use it) with this recipe.
[Reply]
Smoked Tofu!!.. mmm… sounds good. Not sure if i can find here. Looks like an absolute satisfying dish. Feel like grabbing one square of that gorgeous corn bread.
[Reply]
*sigh* 23 comments, not one of which is of the form “I made this and…”
Guess it’s up to me. First to freeze some tofu and smoke it. I’ll report back when I’ve actually tried the recipe.
[Reply]
I made this and it was delicious! I used twice as much of the smoked tofu (so good!) and I definitely think the recipe could use twice as many black beans as well – the ratio of vegetables to beans was off. It also took longer than 30 minutes for the water to be evaporated so that it wasn’t so soupy. Definitely recommend!
[Reply]
Vegan Feijoada does not exist.
[Reply]
Just bought some smoked tofu, can’t wait to try this out, looks delish. Have you used smoked tofu in other dishes?
[Reply]
Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
February 6th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
I cut it up and put it on salads. And slice it, grill it with a little oil, and make a sandwich with lettuce, tomato and tahini/hummus/mayo
[Reply]
I made this last night – huge hit! We can’t get yellow cornmeal in South Africa so I had to use coarse ground yellow mealie meal for the accompanying corn bread, which isn’t quite the same so it turned out a bit crunchier than it looks in your pics, but it was still excellent. I’ll definitely be making this again.
[Reply]