As many of you know, my kitchen has become officially vegan. I can't tell you what this has done to my taste buds...and to me. I feel like I'm six-years-old again tasting everything new. Food, in all its shapes and forms (meals, snacks, treats, ingredients), has more flavor, more texture, more aroma, and, strangely, seems to burst with intense passion with every bite I take. Even though I had been vegetarian for years and years, cooking vegan at least half the time, this renewed conscious effort about what goes into my food, and ultimately into my body, has had a pleasantly surprising impact on my life. I feel more alive than I ever have before and I know a diet free from animals and animal byproducts has a lot to do with it. (BTW: did you know that 10 billion...yes, billion with a B...animals are killed each year for human consumption? And that doesn't include the animals killed by hunters, in research labs, by urban development, by careless people, or even fish. Ten billion. Every year. That's crazy, no matter how much you like your steak or chicken or hamburger or pork chop.) 

One of the challenges of become a vegan, however, is that some of my favorite foods from Latin America are off limits to me because they are often cooked, baked, or stewed with animal parts. While it would be simple for me just to omit the lard, chorizo, carne asada, or pig ears a recipe calls for, there's a certain flavor that also goes missing when I do so...like when a friend of mine tried to make fresh lemonade with Splenda instead of real sugar. It's just not the same (and in that instance, it was just plain nasty). So as a vegan cook, you learn to creatively re-invent these types of dishes by paying particular attention to seasonings and spices in place of the meat. It's a delicate balance but when it's achieved, it's the Big O (as in "ooooh my goodness!").

And that's just what happened with this delicious recipe for Vegan Feijoada. Feijoada, the "national dish" of Brazil, was introduced to the country by black slaves. Think of it like the "soul food" of Latin America. Lots of black beans (and usually four or five different types of meat) stewed for hours making for a thick sauce that is slightly salty and a tad bit spicy. Feijoada is usually served with a side of rice and collard greens. With so much meat in the original recipe, I didn't think it was possible to make this dish vegan. How do you replicate that smoky, fatty flavor that comes from meat? The secret in this recipe: chipotle chili in adobo sauce and smoked tempeh. Feijoada recipes with meat in them don't call for the chipotle chili (and obviously not the smoked tempeh either) but it certainly brings the vegan version closest to the meat version, though I can't be totally sure of that since I've never had the meat version. In any case, this dish was so tasty, I just had to share.

The recipe for the Vegan Feijoada came from Vegetarian Times. And, by eliminating the meat and using canned beans, this vegan version only stews for 40 minutes instead of for the hours and hours the traditional recipe calls for. That means you get to sit down and devour this scrumptious dish before your meat-eating friends do!

	Vegan feijoada served with rice and a corn tortilla. Believe it or not, I wasn't in the mood for a caipirnha and had a delicious Cotes du Rhone red wine instead. It complemented the dish perfectly.
	A closer look at the vegan feijoada, which included garlic, parsley, chipotle chili, smoked tempeh, fresh thyme, celery, onion, and veggie broth.