O Prato Feito

Prato Feito means composed plate, but I also like to call it Prato Perfeito, or perfect plate. Growing up I ate rice & beans at least once a day, but this dish being our national heritage was something I didn’t really think about, to me it was just food.

Affectionately called PF or Pê Efe (peh-efay), this plate is an everyday part of life, and what I love the most about it, is it transcends social and economic status. It’s not fancy, but is a deeply nourishing plate that tastes like home.

The PF is a very common lunch offering, available in many restaurants for an affordable price. In the US we emphasize breakfast as the most important meal of the day, and dinner is the ultimate social gathering. Lunch is a forgotten step child, reduced to salads, sandwiches and often eaten at a work desk. The PF may not be glamorous, but it feels like luxury compared to the standard American lunch.

As part of wanting to eat more Brazilian food, but in a way that was adapted to my current age, needs, and family, I started working with Nutri @carlafaedo. She built my lunch menu around a PF, and I have never been happier. The diagram roughly shows what is on there (not proportionate), but there are infinite combinations for keeping this interesting. Mostly I eat black beans, but occasionally it looks like a Mediterranean plate with hummus or a Nicoise salad with lentils. The beauty of looking at it as a composition, is inviting your creativity to fill in the pieces.

I used to think cooking *just for me* wasn’t worth the time, but my resurfaced love for my plate of rice and beans has greatly changed this. I eat lunch alone most days of the week, and putting effort and time into this meal has been my biggest act of self-care this year. Not only do I enjoy it greatly, it has improved how I feel for the second half of my day, making me more productive and my energy more level.

I never really believed “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” but I would definitely bet on a PF to do the trick.