Feijoada To Delight a Carnivore #SoupSwappers

Here we are at the September Soup Saturday Swappers event. Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm started this event and, every month, I get a new array of soup recipes to put in my to-try pile.

This month, Rebekah Making Miracles is hosting as we explore beef soups and stews. She urged us to "Use any cut of beef to create a soup or stew to share! The options are endless."

Here's the line-up of beef soup and stew recipes from the #SoupSwappers...

• Beef & Vegetable Stew by Sneha's Recipe
• Beef Tongue Stew by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chunky Beef and Vegetable Soup by Making Miracles
• Feijoada To Delight a Carnivore by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Ground Beef and Butternut Squash Soup by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Guinness Beef Stew by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Nikujaga - Japanese Beef Stew by Pandemonium Noshery
• One Pot Frozen Vegetable Ground Beef Stew by Faith Hope Love & Luck
• Pantry Beef Vegetable Soup by Palatable Pastime

Feijoada To Delight a Carnivore

This Brazilian stew is fairly simple since the ingredients just cook together for an entire day. The result: tender chunks of meat in a filling, satisfying dish. Feijoada traditionally includes dry chorizo which I didn't have. Next time I'll try it, but with bacon, pork Andouille, and beef, there was plenty to delight my carnivorous boys.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried red beans (I used Domingo Rojo from Rancho Gordo), soaked overnight
• 4 to 6 slices bacon, diced (if you're local to me, I prefer PigWizard)
• 3 pounds beef, cut into ½" cubes (I used beef cheek meat)
• 1 pound pork Andouille sausage, cut into thick coins
• 2 cups organic white onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cups organic celery, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 cups fresh tomato sauce
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 Tablespoon freshly thyme
• freshly ground salt
• freshly ground pepper

Procedure

Cover dried beans with cold water, the night before you plan to cook, and soak overnight. If you forgot to do that, cover the dried beans with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour. Drain and proceed with the steps below.

In a large souppot or Dutch oven, cook bacon until the fat is rendered. Add in the onions, celery, and garlic. Cook until the onions are softened and translucent. Stir in the beef and cook until nicely browned. Stir in the sausages and soaked beans. Pour in the stock and red wine. Whisk in smoked paprika, paprika, and ground cumin.

Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on low heat for 6 to 7 hours. The meat and beans should be tender. Uncover, raise the heat, and cook until the sauce is thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper, as needed. Fold in the fresh thyme just before serving.

This is stew is typically served with rice, but we served it with mashed root vegetables. Yum!

That's a wrap for the #SoupSwappers beef event. We'll be back next month when the group's founder hosts a Halloween appropriate event of Spooky Soups and Stews.