Portugal: vegan migas

This week we are back in Southern Europe and pay a visit to Portugal. The dish this week is a vegan migas recipe, where old bread is given new life. Simply tear old bread into crumbs and cook with olive oil, garlic, kale and beans.

Portuguese cuisine

Despite not being situated on the Mediterranean sea, the country has a Mediterranean climate and Portuguese cuisine has a lot of similarities with Mediterranean cuisine ​[1]–[3]​. Olive oil, wine, seafood (cod, octopus, sardines), meats (mostly pig) and vegetables such as olives, bell pepper, tomato and leafy greens are very common. As in Mediterranean cuisines, onion, garlic and fresh herbs give the dishes plenty of flavour and freshness. One thing that sets Portuguese cuisine apart from many of the Mediterranean countries is the heavy use of spices, stemming from the central role Portugal played in the spice trade. Spices like nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, piri-piri, allspice and cumin are common in many dishes and desserts.

Bread is eaten with most meals and often incorporated into dishes such as acorda, a fish soup served on top of bread, and of course different types of sandwiches, like the francesinha, a stacked toast covered in gravy ​[4]​. Just as Dutch kroketten, deep fried balls called croquetes are a popular snack. Among the more vegan friendly dishes ​[5]​ we find caldo verde, a kale and potato soup, orange soups (a variety of soups based on squash, pumpkin or carrots), and acordas, a risotto style dish based on old bread cooked with wine.

Vegan migas

For this visit to Poirtugal, I chose to create a vegan Portuguese dish called migas. Migas, or crumbles, is a traditional dish in Portugal and Spain where left over stale bread is given new life ​[6]–[8]​. There are many different styles of migas depending on what region you find yourself in but basic formula is stale bread is cooked with olive oil and garlic while water is added to rehydrate the bread. Other ingredients are added to make the dish more interesting. Regional varieties include kale, asparagus, tomato and bell pepper. Sometimes rice is added and bread can be replaced with potatoes. In some versions, meat in the form of bacon or chouriço (similar to Spain’s chorizo) is added but vegan migas recipes are common.

The dish is often served as an appetizer or a side dish but can also be eaten on its own. Migas are also popular in other parts of the world. In Spain, the dish is similar to the Portugese version but often includes paprika. In Mexico, corn tortillas are torn into strips and fried with eggs and served with salsa as a breakfast dish ​[9], [10]​.

For this blog post, I chose to cook a classic vegan migas recipe from the Beira region in Portugal. The bread used is called Broa and is baked with a combination of corn flour and wheat flour, giving it a crunchy crust with a light, moist interior texture, somewhere between corn bread and wheat bread ​[11], [12]​. When this bread was a few days old, I tore it to pieces and cooked it in olive oil with sliced garlic, shredded kale and black-eyed peas ​[13]–[15]​.

Conclusion

Portuguese vegan migas is a great way to give new life to old bread and this is definitely a recipe I will keep up my sleeve. It is a very simple dish you can try next time you have some bread, a few kale leaves and half a can of beans left from a few other meals.

Portuguese vegan migas recipe

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Migas

In Portugal and Spain, migas ("crumbs"), is a popular way to give new life to old bread. In the Beira province of Portugal, migas is often made by frying old broa (a corn bread) with leafy greens, garlic, and beans.

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Mediterranean, Portugese, Southern European

Keyword beans, bread, kale

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 150 g Stale corn bread Can sub with any stale bread
• 100 g kale
• 300 g black-eyed peas, cooked
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• ¼-½ onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
• Add garlic and onion. Sweat until translucent.
• Add shredded kale. Fry until kale is wilted, a few minutes
• Meanwhile, tear the old bread into small pieces.
• Stir in drained black-eyed peas, bread pieces, salt and pepper.
• Add a little water at a time. Stir it in and let the bread absorb it.
• Once the bread is moist and everything is heat through, the migas is ready to serve.