welcome to the Latin American Vegan Recipes Board

[john davis]

this board is for discussing the vegan recipes in the IVU Recipes Around the World Latin American/Caribbean section.

let us know if you have tried one of the recipes, how it came out, and any suggestions for improving it!

[tallsandi]

kcooks black beans and rice recipe sounds good but there is no reference to what the size of a serving is.

[Lucia]

Hi, I'm a vegan Brazilian living in Canada, and I have adapted all the delicious Brazilian food to vegan. To start with, cook the black beans in a pressure cooker for 35 minutes, no need to soak overnight. Second, our staple food is black beans, rice (cooked apart, not together with the beans), fried cassava flour (called "farofa"), and sauteed collard greens. You can find cassava flour at Portuguese or Brazilian stores (if there's any) in your city, or try the African type called "gari". In Portuguese, it's called "farinha de mandioca". I don't have the measurements, for I've been cooking these all my life, but here it goes:

Black beans: Wash them really well; in the pressure cooker, fry onion and garlic, add the beans (two cups?), add water (8 cups?), 1 or 2 bay leaves, salt, dried parsley; Close the cooker according to the instructions, cook for 35 minutes. Be careful! As soon as it starts whistling, turn the burner to "slow" (2 or 3). Don't open the cooker soon after you turn it off, it will explode. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, this is very important. Because my grandchildren don't like vegetables, but love black beans, I usually put a whole carrot, a whole beet, two whole leaves of collard greens to cook together with the beans. Once cooked, I blend the vegetables together with some cooked beans and the sauce it formed, and I mix it with the rest of the beans. If you use the right proportion, they won't notice a thing!

Rice: I prefer to use brown rice (cooked with miso and nutritional yeast instead of salt), but white rice is the standard. This is easy: two measures of water for one measure of rice plus salt in a pan. Wash the rice thoroughly first. Once the water is boiling, turn it down (2 or 3), put the lid on. Check after ten minutes, to see if the rice is dry. I also cook it in the microwave. Some people fry the rice in oil before adding water, but I don't.

Collard greens: wash each leaf, them put them on top of each other, roll them tightly, an cut the rolls very thin, 1/2 cm or so. Fry garlic and onions in a little olive oil, throw the greens, add salt, and keep stirring, until the greens reduce to ... I don't know... it reduces like crazy, you'll see. Don't overcook, leave it a little crunchy.

Farofa: Fry sliced onions, throw one cup of "farinha de mandioca" or "gari" in, stir for one minute, add salt. Be careful not to burn the farinha. When you buy the cassava flour, make sure it's NOT the one that looks like wheat flour, very thin. It's the one that looks like sand.

Be creative: add whatever you like to the farofa: vegan bacon bits, shredded carrots, etc. Same with beans, you can add cubed tofu, vegan sausages, etc. The beans should look like a thick soup.