Portuguese Feijoada Recipe (2024)

This is a staple plate in Portugal. This is the type of food that “avós” — grandmas — of all Portugal cook for a regular weeknight meal. A Portuguese feijoada is the most comforting meal that you can ever make with cheap and easy to find ingredients.

Feijoada is a “simple” plate that was created by the poor Portuguese families that only had grains, vegetables and pork meat as the main source of food. This is an all you have in the fridge + some beans (black, red or white beans) + some sort of meat (sausages in this case).

“Feijoada” comes from the word “feijão”, which mean beans. This plate is basically a thick beans soup.

Usually, it is served with a big plate of plain white rice or with some bread. The goal is that the rice absorbs the juices of the feijoada and the flavor.

This plate has a homey feel bite after bite. You can taste the heritage and the Portuguese culture through this plate.

A traditional Portuguese feijoada has three major ingredients that are the secret for a real traditional result:

• The pork: You can choose ears, ribs, shoulder or a simple sausage.
• The beans: The traditional like to use red pinto beans. But you can mix with other beans as long as the red beans are the bigger portion of the mix.
• The bay leaf: This is where the flavor is. You can add other ingredients, even make swaps with the pork and make a vegetarian feijoada. But if you don’t use a bay leaf while simmering you will never get that rich broth.

Usually, this plate includes some type of “green”. It can be cabbage (the most traditional), turnip greens or spinach (the option that I use for this recipe).

If you like this traditional Portuguese recipe maybe you will like these too:

Portuguese Francesinha sandwich

Pasteis de nata (custard tart)

Bolo do caco (sweet potato bread)

Portuguese tuna tart

I see you in the next recipe 🙂