Typical food from the Brazilian Northeast: 20 regional dishes for you to try

Tasting typical food from the Northeast is one of the best ways to get to know the local culture better.

As the region with the largest number of states in Brazil, the Northeast ends up being a reference due to the diversity in flavors, ingredients and seasonings.

If you want to travel to visit one of the states in the region, find out from the list below which typical dishes you should try.

20 typical Northeastern foods for you to try

The Brazilian Northeast is very culturally rich, especially when it comes to gastronomy.

Each state has its own diversity in ingredients, seasonings and combinations.

Discover the most famous options of typical northeastern food to try when visiting the region:

shrimp stew

Shrimp bobó is a typical dish of Bahian cuisine and popular in several Brazilian states.

The traditional recipe results in a creamy dish, in which shrimp are prepared in green spices, coconut milk, palm oil and cassava.

Normally, the shrimp bobó is served with White ricebut it can also be consumed as mush.

Acarajé and abará

Acarajé is a dish of African origin consisting of a dumpling made with black-eyed peas, salt, garlic, ginger, onion and stuffed with shrimp that is fried in palm oil.

It is consumed a lot State of Bahia in the hot or cold options, which do not concern the temperature of the dish, but the amount of pepper added in the recipe.

Abará, on the other hand, is almost the same recipe as acarajé, with the difference that it is steamed and that palm oil is added to the dough together with the shrimp.

Vatapd

Vatapá, in turn, is a cream made with breadcrumbs or cornmeal, pepper, coconut milk, bread, palm oil, shrimp, cashew nuts and peanuts.

This dish is often served with rice, but it can be used as a filling for acarajé.

Moqueca Maranhense

The moqueca from Maranhão is a fish stew found especially in the states of Bahia, Pará, Amazonas and Espírito Santo, with significant regional variations.

It is a term usually prepared in a clay pot that consists of fish cooked with other seafood, such as shrimp, and other seasonings (including coconut milk and palm oil).

The big difference between the moqueca from Maranhão and the others is that it does not use shrimp, but eggs, and uses only fish from the coast of Maranhão, such as the yellow hake.

Cuxá rice

Cuxá rice is a recipe that uses white rice cooked in water and salt accompanied by a sauce known as cuxá in Maranhão cuisine.

The sauce is made with vinegar, dried shrimp, manioc flour and chili pepper, typical ingredients of this region of the country.

rice with capote

Capote is the name given to guinea fowl, a type of bird that has tougher meat and a very distinctive flavor.

In Piauí, capote is used in a series of typical recipes, but one of the most striking is certainly rice with capote, a type of Greek rice with the addition of guinea fowl meat.

Panelada Piauí

One of the outstanding dishes in Piauí is the pancake, a recipe that has a very characteristic and tasty flavor. The recipe typically takes ingredients such as tripe, tripe, mocotó and ox nerve and seasonings to taste.

Piauí pancakes can be served as a main dish and accompanied by white rice and salads, for example.

Sarrabulho

Also called sarrabulhada, sarrabulho is a typical dish of Portuguese cuisine and is characterized by being a stew with pork giblets and bloody goat.

The origin goes back to the Middle Ages, when, due to the impact of the Black Death, food production became practically nil.

Over the years, the Portuguese brought the recipe to Brazil, which became very popular in the Northeast and in some states in the Midwest.

Baeta cake

Baêta cake is a traditional delicacy of Paraíba cuisine and is usually eaten with tea, coffee or typical drinks, such as fruit juices, sugarcane juice or guarana.

One of the main features of this cake is that the dough is yeast-free, which gives it a moist appearance and consistent texture that is slightly pudding-like.

rapadura

Rapadura is a sweet made from sugar cane. Because it is quite sugary and with a consistency and shape similar to that of small bricks, the famous phrase was created that says that “rapadura is sweet, but it is not soft”.

Although it is known as a typical food from the Northeast, there are records that rapadura appeared on the European continent in the 16th century as a solution for transporting sugar in small quantities by travelers.

Currently, it is possible to find different variations in the consumption of rapadura, and it is also an ingredient used in several dessert recipes.

Crabfish

Crab is a dish made with crabs cooked in a sauce prepared with coconut milk, olive oil and green spices.

It is usually accompanied by white rice and mush made from the crab broth itself.

Milk rice

Milk rice is one of the main accompaniments to sun-dried meat, which is why it is very common to see it in typical Christmas food restaurants in Rio Grande do Norte.

Unlike traditional rice pudding, northeastern milk rice is salty and the recipe uses rice, milk, butter or margarine and salt to taste.

Sun dried meat

Also called carne de vento or carne do sertão, dried meat is one of the most typical dishes in the northeast.

Despite the name, the meat is not exposed to sunlight. In fact, in the old days it was lightly salted and laid out to dry in the sun.

But this technique has been improved and nowadays it is dried in a covered and ventilated place. According to tradition, it should be roasted and served with coalho cheese.

roll cake

Another typical Northeastern food, more specifically from Pernambuco, is the roll cake. This dessert is quite famous in the region and consists of a cake made with egg mass, butter, sugar and wheat flour and melted guava filling.

The cake is made in a similar format to a roulade, but with even thinner and more delicate layers.

broths

Caldinho is a traditional dish of Indo-Portuguese cuisine, but it is quite successful in Brazil, which is why it is also always remembered as a typical food option in the Northeast.

It consists of a yellow broth that works as a sauce that can be prepared with fish and other meats.

The broth is usually accompanied by white rice and may include coconut, onion, tomato, cumin, coriander, turmeric, green chilies and vinegar.

Pituzada

Another typical Northeastern food option to try in Alagoas is the pituzada. This dish is prepared with pitu, a kind of freshwater crustacean arthropod.

The prawn is quite confused with shrimp, but in addition to the different size, the prawn has a characteristic flavor.
The recipe also takes other ingredients with accentuated flavors, such as coconut milk, parsley and pepper.

Generally, pituzada is served with mush and rice.

soft crab with coconut

The soft crab in coconut is a typical dish of Alagoas, as the state’s extensive lakes allow for a large production of molluscs and shellfish, making its cuisine rich in these ingredients.

Also called moqueca de siri mole, the dish has been part of the menu of families and tables in Alagoas restaurants for many years.

The recipe uses soft crab, olive oil soup, lemon juice, chopped onion, coriander, tomato, salt, pepper, coconut milk, in addition to a special cassava flour prepared with margarine.

coconut bean

Coconut beans are very similar to bean broth, typical dish of Rio de Janeirowhich can be made with black or carioca beans prepared with coconut milk, grated coconut, onion and pepper.

It is a dish widely consumed throughout the Northeast, but very popular in Alagoas. The unusual combination is full of flavor and is perfect to be served with fish and rice.

Sergipe cheese

The queijadinha is not only one of the typical dishes of the northeast region, but it is also considered intangible heritage of São Cristóvão, in Sergipe.

The recipe is an adaptation of the Portuguese queijadinha, which had cheese as the main ingredient, an item that was difficult to access due to the high price. To make preparation cheaper, Sergipe people found a more abundant option: coconut.

The result was a new version of queijadinha, which became one of the main desserts in the Brazilian region.

Baião de Dois

Finally, baião de dois is perhaps the best-known typical food from the northeast, although it is also quite popular in states in the northern region, such as Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas and Pará.

The dish consists of rice and beans (preferably green or new beans) to which curd cheese and dried meat are added (although not in all states).

In Paraíba and Pernambuco, there is a variety of this delicacy called rubacão, a dish that is very popular in the Sertão.

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