Beans per Person

Beans per person: how much to cook

Figure on 40 to 60 g of dry beans per person. Once they've soaked and gone through the pressure cooker, that comes out to about 150 to 180 g cooked, since the beans soak up water and end up around three times their starting volume. For a family of 4 eating a normal lunch with rice, 200 to 250 g of dry beans covers it. In Brazil the usual choices are carioca (light brown and mild), preto (black, with more of an earthy taste) and fradinho (black-eyed, the one you reach for with acarajé or in salads). When it's feijoada, bump that up to 200 g of dry beans per person — here the beans are the centerpiece and they come loaded with pork cuts and sausage.

Common uses

• The everyday Brazilian lunch, with rice and beans as the daily base.
• Saturday feijoada, where you go up to 200 g per person to account for the pork cuts.
• Tropeiro, tutu and other regional dishes from Minas Gerais.
• Vegetarian batch cooking, where the beans carry most of the protein.

FAQ

Dry or soaked weight? The 40–60 g is dry beans. Soak and cook them and you land at roughly 150–180 g per person, about triple.

How much for feijoada? Around 200 g of dry beans per person. It's a filling dish, and the beans do the heavy lifting on protein alongside the pork.

Carioca, preto or fradinho? Carioca is what most people cook day to day. Preto goes well with feijoada and bolder flavors, and fradinho tends to be kept for acarajé and cold salads.