Feijoada à Transmontana

Portuguese mountain white bean stew slow-cooked with smoked chouriço, morcela, salt pork belly, and winter cabbage from the granite highlands of Trás-os-Montes

Origin: Trás-os-Montes, Portugal

From the journey of Beans.

Trás-os-Montes, meaning 'beyond the mountains', is the remote granite plateau of northeastern Portugal: a region of hard winters, terraced vineyards, and one of the most intact preserved food traditions on the Iberian Peninsula. Feijoada à Transmontana is its definitive dish, and the most direct expression of what happened when Phaseolus vulgaris arrived in Portugal from Spain in the mid-1490s and met the smoked pork culture of the mountain north. The combination of chouriço (smoked paprika pork sausage), morcela (blood sausage), and salt pork belly produces a broth of extraordinary depth, darkened by paprika smoke and enriched by rendered fat, into which the beans slowly dissolve at the edges until the whole pot thickens to a consistency somewhere between a stew and a sauce. Couve (savoy or Portuguese kale) is added at the very end, briefly wilted, providing the only colour against the burnished copper of the bean broth. This dish is fundamentally different in character from the Spanish fabada asturiana of neighbouring Asturias, though both belong to the same post-Columbian tradition of Atlantic bean and smoked pork. The Transmontana version uses a lighter white haricot bean rather than the large Asturian fabes, incorporates both chouriço and morcela together, and adds cabbage at the finish, producing a broader, more complex flavour. The two dishes share an origin point in the same Columbian Exchange bean; what separates them is the pork tradition of each region and the cooking instinct of each kitchen. This is also the tradition that travelled. Portuguese navigators carried dried beans as ship's provisions through Cape Verde to West Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope to Goa, and the feijão that arrived in those places was understood through the template of this kitchen: something to be cooked long and slow, with flavourful additions, until the broth thickened and the beans dissolved at the edges. The Brazilian feijoada, the Cape Verdean cachupa, and the Goan feijoada de camarão all trace their conceptual lineage, in part, to the tradition that emerged in these granite highlands in the years immediately after the bean arrived in Iberia.

Ingredients

Beans

  • 500 g dried white beans (feijão branco, haricot, or cannellini), soaked in cold water overnight and drained

Meat

  • 300 g chouriço (smoked Portuguese paprika pork sausage), cut into 2 cm rounds
  • 200 g morcela (Portuguese blood sausage), cut into 2 cm rounds
  • 300 g entremeada (streaky pork belly) or pork spare ribs, cut into pieces
  • 150 g presunto (Portuguese cured ham) or thick-cut smoked bacon, in one piece

Base

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 large onions, finely diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 bay leaves

Spices

  • 1 tsp smoked paprika (pimentão doce)
  • 0.5 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp fine salt, plus more to taste

Vegetables

  • 300 g savoy cabbage or couve galega (Portuguese kale), coarsely shredded

To Serve

  • fresh flat-leaf parsley, to serve
  • crusty bread, to serve

Method

  1. Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Place in a large pot, cover generously with cold water, and bring to a rolling boil. Skim any foam from the surface, then reduce to a moderate simmer. Cook for 45 minutes until the beans are beginning to soften but are not yet tender. Drain, reserving the cooking water.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based pot over medium heat. Add the chouriço and morcela rounds. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until lightly coloured and their fat has rendered into the oil. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  3. Add the pork belly (or ribs) and the presunto to the same pot. Brown on all sides over medium-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes until the pork has taken on some colour. Remove and set aside with the sausages.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onions to the fat remaining in the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 12 to 15 minutes until deeply golden and soft. Add the garlic, bay leaves, smoked paprika, black pepper, and salt. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
  5. Return the pork belly and presunto to the pot. Add the par-cooked beans. Pour in enough of the reserved cooking water to cover everything by about 3 cm, topping up with fresh water as needed. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 1 hour.
  6. Add the chouriço and morcela back to the pot. Continue simmering, covered, for a further 30 minutes until the beans are completely tender and the broth has thickened noticeably. Taste and adjust salt; the chouriço and presunto will have contributed salt throughout the cooking.
  7. Add the shredded cabbage or couve. Stir through, replace the lid, and cook for a further 8 to 10 minutes until the cabbage is wilted and tender but still with some texture and colour.
  8. Remove the bay leaves. Lift out the presunto and pork belly, cut or pull them into generous pieces, and return to the pot. Scatter with fresh parsley and serve directly from the pot into deep bowls, with crusty bread alongside.

Notes

Feijoada à Transmontana keeps and improves: made the day before, the broth thickens further as the beans release their starch overnight, and the smoked sausages perfume the entire dish more deeply. Reheat gently with a splash of water if needed. Morcela (Portuguese blood sausage) is available from Portuguese and Spanish delicatessens; Spanish morcilla de Burgos is a reasonable substitute, though its rice-filled texture differs from the firm Portuguese style. Chouriço is widely available from Portuguese, Spanish, and good European food shops; do not substitute Mexican chorizo, which is a raw fresh sausage of an entirely different type. Presunto can be replaced with a thick piece of smoked or salt-cured bacon, or with a small ham hock added with the beans; if using a ham hock, allow an additional 30 minutes of cooking time before adding the cabbage. Couve galega (Portuguese kale) is available from Portuguese grocers; savoy cabbage, Tuscan kale (cavolo nero), or any robust winter greens are excellent substitutes.

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