Feijoada from Cape Verde: How to Cook the Islands' Bean and Meat Stew

On 4 July 2026 the lifestyle desk of Jagonews24 published a recipe for feijoada, a popular dish of Cape Verde, the island nation off the coast of West Africa. The paper wrote that the dish, made with various beans, meat, sausage and aromatic spices, is much loved at family gatherings and festivals there, and that slow cooking lets the flavours of all the ingredients blend together. Below are the recipe's ingredients and steps, with an introduction to the dish and the country.

Wikipedia describes feijoada as the name for varieties of bean stew with beef or pork prepared in the Portuguese-speaking world; the word comes from the Portuguese feijão, 'bean'. In Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, East Timor and Macau it is made from a mixture of meat and white, black or red beans, usually served with rice.

The northern Portuguese version uses white or red beans and usually adds vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots or kale, with chorizo or other sausages. In Brazil, black-bean feijoada had become the national dish by the 19th century. SBS Food, the food service of the Australian broadcaster SBS, also called it Brazil's national dish in a 2018 recipe and said the Portuguese introduced it in the mid-1500s.

Cape Verde is a country of ten volcanic islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa. Portuguese explorers settled the uninhabited archipelago in the 15th century, and the country became independent in 1975. Its official language is Portuguese and its capital is Praia, on the island of Santiago. According to Wikipedia, its cuisine draws on both Portuguese and West African traditions.

Cape Verdean cooking is based mostly on fish, corn and rice. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cassava, cabbage, kale and dried beans are available for most of the year. The national dish is cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of corn, beans and fish or meat, and the islands' dishes also include a Cape Verdean-style feijoada, known as a hearty bean stew. In 2017 the food magazine Edible Cape Cod featured a cook who is half Portuguese and half Cape Verdean, whose family makes feijoada every week in a Portuguese style that differs from the Brazilian one.

The Jagonews24 recipe gives no quantities; use them as needed.

• Beans, soaked in water overnight
• Olive oil
• Bacon and pieces of meat
• Chopped onion
• Chopped garlic
• Bay leaves
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chouriço sausage
• Salt and pepper to taste

• Rinse the soaked beans well, put them in a large pot with plenty of water and simmer over a medium flame until soft.
• In a separate pan, heat olive oil and fry the bacon and meat until lightly golden brown.
• Add the onion, garlic and bay leaves and stir until soft.
• Add the tomatoes and cook until they melt into the spices.
• Add the meat mixture and the chouriço to the pot of beans, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
• Cover and cook on a low to medium heat for about an hour and a half, stirring now and then so it does not stick.
• When the gravy is as thick as you like, take it off the heat and serve hot with white rice.

The steps match other published recipes. Both SBS Food and Edible Cape Cod soak the beans overnight, cook them slowly for several hours with onion, garlic, bay leaves and smoked sausage, and serve the stew with white rice; Edible Cape Cod also suggests sautéed collard greens and orange slices on the side.

Photo: Andre Rebeiro / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, SBS Food, Edible Cape Cod, Wikipedia