Rice, is it a typical Brazilian food?

This is the article translated from NOUKINAVI blog.You can find the original post (in Japanese) here: お米が典型的なブラジル料理？ | ブログ｜ノウキナビ (noukinavi.com)

Hello, I’m Santos, a system engineer of NOUKINAVI.
As a Japanese-Brazilian, I would like to introduce you to typical Brazilian dishes and daily specials.

The dish is rice and beans!
In Portuguese, it means “feijão com arroz” or “arroz e feijão.” It is a home-cooked meal that many people eat on polished rice almost every day. It is also often listed on menus as a major side dish in restaurants in Brazil.

Feijão in Portuguese is a general term for beans. It usually means kidney beans. It is also a dish in which kidney beans are boiled.

1. A little history

Beans and rice and beans and rice are the names given to typical Brazilian cooking. The recipe doesn’t have a specific roots, but the most accepted hypothesis is that it’s the result of a combination of the rice the Portuguese brought to Brazil (oriental origin) and the beans Americans are already consuming in Brazil. Some authors point to Brazil as the first country in the Americas to grow the crop. The rice was “water corn” (abati-uaupé) that had already been harvested in the marshes near the coast, even before the Tuppians met the Portuguese. In another version, the dish was a combination of rice and a feijoada of African or Portuguese origin. The dish has been popular nationwide for centuries and is known to be an almost integral part of the Brazilian diet.

2. Why is rice and beans an important combination?

Rice and beans are important because they provide essential amino acids for our health. Amino acids are protein-forming molecules that are called essential because they are not made in the body and therefore must be obtained in food.

Rice is rich in the amino acids methionine and cysteine, but like other grains, the amino acid lysine is low. Beans, in turn, have all the essential amino acids and are rich in lysine, but low in methionine and cysteine (sulfur amino acids). Therefore, it is clear that rice and beans are complementary, because together, our bodies can reliably take in all the essential amino acids.

3. A dish that goes well with rice and beans.

A side dish that goes well with rice and beans.

• Rice and beans with breaded chicken, French fries and green salad
• Ground beef, pumpkin puree, salad
• Steak, French fries
• Mashed potatoes and meatballs
• Black beans, roast meat and potatoes
• Pork and salad
• Fried egg, French fries and salad
• Omelet and salad

You can also cook other combinations.

The typical dishes are eaten because farmers all over the country made rice and beans with great effort. Thank you very much.

NOUKINAVI will support farmers more and more.