An Unauthentic Brazilian Feijoada

Feijoada is the National Dish of Brazil. Every restaurant serves it everyone eats it. Well at least that's what I'm told I've never been to Brazil, so I'm just gonna take my Brazilian friends' word for it. It basically consists of meats and beans. Its like a stew or a chili.

I found a recipe for a Brazilian Black Bean Stew on allrecipes and modified it a bit based on what I had in my pantry. Here's what I came up with-and let me tell you this stuff is good.

Unauthentic Brazilian Feijoada

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 pound cooked ham, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (1 pound) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 small green pepper diced

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 small can salsa
1 1/2 cups water
1 (16 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

black pepper

cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and brown the ground turkey. Add cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Add ham and onion and garlic to the pot, and cook until tender. Then add the sweet potatoes, green pepper, tomatoes with juice, salsa, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 -20 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add the beans and cook for another 15 minutes or so. Add in mango and cilantro, and season with salt, pepper.

Serve with rice or warm pitas or even naan would be good with it.

The original recipe calls for the use of chorizo-I didn't have any which is why I used ground turkey instead. I've made this with chorizo before and it tastes pretty much the same-just a little fattier.