Quick & Easy Brazilian Black Bean Stew

Posted by Unknown on 5:45 PM in Brazilian recipes, Recipes,

We could all use a few cooking shortcuts, right? With the chaotic work schedule, kids, homework, house cleaning... By the end of the day, we just want to drive through the first fast food place we see and grab food to go! We just gobble it down and barely taste what we just ate...

Alright, but sometimes, don't you crave something a little bit more homey? Something not loaded with grease? Then you'll say, "Yes, but I don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen and then hours cleaning up all the mess!" I get it! Me too! I love, absolutely love a Brazilian dish called, "Feijoada." It's a savory Brazilian black bean stew, usually with pork, served with garlic rice, sautéed collard greens, and a chunky dressing with cilantro, tomatoes, and green onions. It's amazing!!!! But, when I make it for my family on Sundays, it usually takes me all day to prep and cook. It's wonderful but very time consuming...

So, a few days ago after taking the boys to football practice, it was already getting dark, and I was craving feijoada. I really didn't want to get the usual, drive-thru or pizza, for us. I knew I didn't have hours to cook, so I thought, "Maybe I can pull it off with a can or two of black beans." I know canned is not exactly like cooking from scratch, but probably better than pizza or chicken nuggets from a fast food place. Right?

I asked my husband to stop at the grocery store to grab a few ingredients (really, it took us 5 minutes), and when I got home, I was able to prepare a pretty yummy dish in about half an hour.

Now, for this post, I will show you how I was able to prepare the Brazilian black bean stew in a super easy way, where the additional ingredients masked the somewhat unpleasant can taste. I'm not going over the other dishes like sautéed collard greens, garlic rice, or dressing, but if you check out my other recipe post called "Hungry for Brazilian Food?" under Brazilian recipes, I listed the garlic rice and dressing recipe over there.

Ok, for the Brazilian black bean stew you will need the following ingredients:

• 2 cans of low sodium black beans
• 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
• 2 Tsp of minced garlic
• Half small onion (chopped)
• 2 Beef Smoked Sausages or Turkey Smoked sausages (slice them in quarter-inch circles) 
• 3/4 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 Tsp Beef Flavor Bouillon (I use Knorr-Caldo Con Sabor de Res)

HOW TO PREPARE:

• Sauté the olive oil, garlic, and onions in a 3qt pot in medium heat until it caramelizes (yellow color). 
• Stir in the sliced smoked sausage circles and cook for about 4-5 minutes over medium heat. 
• Add the 2 cans of black beans and half can of water. 
• Add the cilantro and beef flavored bouillon.
• Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes. The ingredients plus the bouillon  help get rid of the unpleasant taste from the can. 
• Remove from heat and serve just like that, or serve with rice. Another option, is to serve with garlic rice, sautéed collard greens and the dressing on top (check my other recipes... :D). 
• You can also add a little bit of Cayenne Pepper Sauce or Tabasco Sauce on the beans to "kick it up a notch!"
• Next time, I will show you a great crunchy ingredient to add to the black beans and rice. It's a modified version of an amazing and delicious dish called "Farofa". Since we don't have the manioc flour, I tweaked a little bit, but it's still amazing!