Being Catholic, for lent, I gave up meat and fish. All of it. I’m a vegetarian for 40 days! And for those who live in Brazil, or know anything about Brazilian cuisine… it’s not an easy task. Fortunately, a couple of my friends from work are vegetarians, so they’ve been able to help me out a little bit with my temporary diet.

One thing that I’ve learned exists during this challenge of mine, is vegetarian feijoada (pronounced fay-ju-ah-dah)! We mentioned feijoada a while ago, and for those who don’t know, feijoada is a dish that is anything BUT vegetarian! It’s a black bean stew with anything and everything pork and/or beef – from sausage to feet to tail (yes, TAIL!). It’s usually served with white rice, collard greens (very thinly sliced, unlike soul-food style), farofa, and slices of orange. It’s one of my favorite meals, and being  a vegetarian has made it difficult.  So I decided to look up a recipe for feijoada vegetariana, and I’ll probably try to make some this week (and let you all know how it turns out)!

For those of you who aren’t too willing to try pork feet, this might be a good way for you to experience feijoada without all the not so desirable ingredients!

Feijoada Vegetariana

Ingredientes:

• 1 kg de feijão preto
• 200 g de carne de soja em pedaços
• 1 latinha de carne de glúten
• 1 pacotinho de salsicha de soja
• Temperos (alho, cebola, louro, sal )
• Sazon feijão
• 1 colher de salsinha

Modo de preparo

1. Se qusier, deixe o feijão de molho antes de por na pressão diminui o tempo
2. Cozinhe o feijão com folhas de louro
3. Ferva a água com a carne de soja em pedaços e temperos e depois escorra
4. Em uma panelinha frite o alho e a cebola
5. Coloque sal e o sazon frite até dourar e reserve
6. Depois de cozinhar o feijão na pressão, coloque a carne de soja já fervida e os temperos já fritos
7. Se precisar coloque mais água e deixe ferver para engrossar
8. Quando estiver quase pronto pique a salsicha e a carne de glutem e junte ao feijão
9. Depois de pronto se precisar acrescente mais sal

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Vegetarian Feijoada

Ingredients:

• 1 kg black beans
• 200 g de soy meat in cubes
• 1 can of gluten meat
• 1 pkg of soy sausage
• Spices (garlic, onion, bay leaf, salt)
• Sazon (bean flavor)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley

Directions

1. If you’d like, leave the beans in water before cooking, reducing the cooking time.
2. Cook beans with bay leaves [in a pressure cooker].
3. Boil water with soy meat in cubes and spices. Drain.
4. In a small pan, fry the onion and garlic.
5. Add salt and sazon and fry until golden.  Set aside.
6. After cooking the beans, place cooked soy meat and fried spices in the pan [with the beans].
7. If needed, add more water and cook some more to thicken the stew.
8. When the mixture/stew is almost ready, cut sausage and gluten meat and add.
9. Add more salt if desired!

E bom apetite!