I’ve been craving a nice feijoada for a while and had planned to make it last weekend for some friends. My plans were thwarted by the insane amount of work all week and into the weekend. There was simply no time to search for the right meets, the right amount of black beans, etc. The fact that half the friends who were invited were vegetarian also meant that I’d have to make a vegetarian version and vegetarian feijoada is good but it isn’t feijoada. So I decided that a black bean stew would be more in order. I browsed two of Mark Bittman’s books and came up with this recipe, a combination of two of Bittman’s suggestions for black bean chili.

• 1 block firm tofu (I used one seasoned with herbs)
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp cumin*
• 1 tsp dried ancho chili powder*
• 1 tbsp Mexican chili*
• salt & pepper
• 250g mushrooms (I used a mix of brown and white button mushrooms; I sliced the bigger ones and left the small ones whole)
• 2 cans whole tomatoes with juice
• 2-3 cups dry black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 2 tbsp olive oil

1. Heat a dutch over or large heavy-bottomed pot, add the olive oil and crumble the tofu in. Once the tofu is browned, add the garlic, ginger & spices and let it cook for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms, close the lid and let it steam for the few minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked.

2. add tomatoes with their juices, squishing the tomatoes (you can also roughly chop them ahead of time), beans, and at least 700l of water

3. cook until the beans are cooked through, at least one hour. Add more water if necessary and test for seasoning.

4. Serve sprinkled with parsley and accompanied by a nice loaf of bread/cornbread/rice/or barley

* approximately – I basically added as much (or as little) as I liked. Start with these amounts and sample later

This was lunch yesterday. I couldn’t get over how beautiful the colours were, particularly in contrast with the blue bowl.