Portugal on Your Plate: The Best Portuguese Cookbooks for Every Home Cook
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Find the best Portuguese cookbooks to recreate authentic flavors that reconnect you with your roots — or transport you back to a foodie vacation in Portugal.
There's a particular kind of homesickness that hits you in the kitchen. It might arrive in the sharp bloom of piri piri hitting a hot pan, or in the slow, patient perfume of chouriço curling through a Sunday morning. For me, growing up in a Portuguese-American household, food was never just dinner — it was keeping me connected to my roots through flavors, aromas, and meals that have carried over from one generation to the next.
On visits to Portugal, I've taken in the briny smell of sardines wafting through the air on a summer day, plucked the feathers of a chicken my grandmother beheaded earlier that day, watched my grandfather tend to vegetable gardens and gather kindling for the brick oven, and enjoyed the sugary delight of a bola de berlin while lying by the sea.
What those experiences taught me is that traditional Portuguese cuisine is soulful and humble in equal measure — a cooking tradition that honors both the sea and the land, that uses spices with restraint so the ingredients themselves can speak. It's a cuisine shaped by where people lived and what they tended: the vegetables patiently cultivated on a family's plot, the sea life that swirls along Portugal's long coastline (and along Norway's, if you consider Portugal's legendary obsession with bacalhau), the livestock that roam the wide-open pastures of the Alentejo and the Azores.
And yet, for all its deep regional roots, Portuguese food carries the flavors of the wider world — centuries of exploration woven right into the spice rack.
How to Find the Best Portuguese Cookbook for Your Cooking Goals
But if you're here, you probably already know that. Maybe you're eager to finally master the dishes your family made from memory and never wrote down, the ones that could blast your taste buds all the way back to vovó's casa. Or maybe you're a devoted food lover who discovered Portuguese flavors on a trip to Lisbon and have been chasing them ever since, ready to bring them home to your own kitchen.
Either way, you've arrived at exactly the right moment. More than ever, there's a fervent appetite for Portuguese food — at restaurants, at dinner tables, and in the growing number of cookbooks finally giving this cuisine the spotlight it deserves. Portugal's continued rise as a travel destination has introduced its food to a whole new wave of admirers, and people just like you are eager to put their skills to the test. The boom in Portuguese cookbooks is real, and it's long overdue.
The only question now is: which one is right for you? Whether you're looking for traditional recipes passed down through generations, modern twists on beloved classics, beginner-friendly weeknight meals, or the kind of ambitious, chef-driven challenge that pushes your technique — there's a cookbook on this list for you.
Portuguese Home Cooking
by Ana Patuleia Ortins
A deep dive into traditional mainland Portuguese cooking from a home cook rooted in the Alentejo tradition.
About the Author: Ana Patuleia Ortins
Ana Patuleia Ortins is a professional cook who inherited her passion for savoring and sharing the flavors of Portugal from her father. Like many Portuguese parents, his instructions for making traditional Portuguese cooking were simple: “Watch how I do this.”
She was born and raised in Peabody, Massachusetts, nestled within its Portuguese community — and continues to live there today. Her family's roots run deep: Ana’s grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from the Alto Alentejo region of Portugal, passing through Ellis Island in 1920 and settling in Peabody. He was joined by Ana’s grandmother, father, and aunt in 1937 — all from the small town of Galveias, once known as Aldeia das Laranjeiras, or Town of Orange Groves. That heritage is felt throughout her cookbook, which draws from the culinary tradition of the Alentejo while sprinkling in recipes from the rest of mainland Portugal, the Azores, and Madeira.
Ana is also the author of Authentic Portuguese Cooking, and her work has taken her far beyond New England — including an invitation to present her work and Portuguese cuisine to the Arab community in Dubai.
About the Book: Portuguese Home Cooking
Portuguese Home Cooking is for those who enjoy cooking and want to master traditional Portuguese recipes and cooking techniques, especially those of the mainland. It's a beautifully compiled cookbook that thoroughly captures authentic, homestyle recipes of Portugal as well as the Portuguese-American table, where traditional recipes were adapted to ingredients and cookware available in the States. It's a book rooted in real culinary heritage: Ana's family emigrated from the Alentejo region, and that origin shows up throughout, leaning toward meatier, countryside recipes alongside dishes from the Portuguese coast and its islands.
Before you get to the recipes, a dedicated opening section walks you through common Portuguese ingredients, cooking methods, and equipment — the kind of grounding that makes the recipes feel approachable rather than intimidating. Throughout, high quality photography sets the stage with beautiful shots of Portugal alongside vibrant, full-page photos of the dishes you'll actually be cooking.
What's Inside
Recipes
Soups (20)
Seafood (27)
Poultry & Meats (31)
Sausages (5)
Vegetables & Grains (24)
Sauces, Seasonings, & Cheese (12)
Bread (5)
Sweets (29)
Wines & Cocktails (2)
The 155 recipes in Portuguese Home Cooking span soups, seafood, meats, vegetables, breads, sweets, and more — including a standout section on homemade sausages, a rare inclusion in cookbooks of this kind. Several feature a personal note from the author.
The poultry and meats section is especially diverse featuring recipes for chicken, pork, lamb, rabbit, beef, tripe, liver, and more. In sauces and seasonings, you'll find recipes for homemade pantry staples like vinho d'alhos and molho de malagueta (hot pepper paste). The sweets section is extensive but best for those who want to try simple cookie and cake recipes, along with a couple of Portuguese classics like arroz doce and pudim flan — it doesn't include pastry and confection recipes with exception of queijadas and pastéis de nata.
Highlights
Soup of the Holy Ghost/Sopa do Espírito Santo
If your favorite part of festa season is sopas, this recipe teaches you how to make this famous stew whose religious ties are based on an Azorean legend about Queen Isabella and her generosity towards the poor.
Baked Sardines
Sardines in Portugal are typically grilled so it's interesting to see a baked version here. It also makes sardines a doable meal during the winter months when it's too cold to fire up the barbecue.
Arthur Ortins' Linguiça
The author's family recipe for stuffing your own sausage.
Winter Squash Fritters
A sweet recipe from the Alentejo region that infuses regional ingredients into Portugal's popular donuts.
Format & Level
Level = Intermediate to Advanced
Most recipe instructions are simplified into 4 or 5 steps. This makes them approachable but they do require familiarity in the kitchen and attention to detail. There are some advanced ingredients (i.e. pig's feet, periwinkle, rabbit), techniques (sausage making), and lesser used cooking tools (mortar and pestel), but they are few considering the breadth of this cookbook.
Most recipes serve 4 to 6 people, with a few serving up to 8
Recipe Titles
English with corresponding Portuguese names beneath
Instructions
Instructions are provided in detailed numerical steps, with ingredients and steps outlined for the day ahead when applicable
Estimated cooking times aren't provided but are included within the instructions
Layout
Each page is dedicated to one recipe, so they’re spatially organized and easy to read
Reader Review
We are Portuguese and have looked at so many cookbooks. This one stole our hearts, though. We have compared my Grandmother's and several Aunt's recipes and this book is right on track. Aside from the the minor regional differences it is the best we've found and have bought several copies for other family members. They are all in awe as to the authenticity of the recipes. Yays and hurrahs to this author and her cookbook! — blarock252 on Amazon
Where to Buy
You can buy Portuguese Home Cooking online at Fall River-based Portugalia Marketplace or on Amazon.
Little Portugal
by Lauren Covas
Traditional Portuguese flavors with a modern twist from Chef Lauren's New Jersey kitchen.
About the Author: Lauren Covas
Lauren Covas is a celebrated Portuguese-American chef, mother of two boys, and owner of Chef Covas Catering & Events. Her foundation in cooking started the way it did for many of us — at home in the kitchen, watching her grandmother and mother making traditional Portuguese foods. Growing up near Newark's Ironbound district, a tight-knit Portuguese enclave known as "Little Portugal," Lauren's love of cuisine and Portuguese flavors took root. On visits to her grandparents' hometowns in Portugal — Murtosa and Salreu in Portugal's Aveiro district — she experienced firsthand how food was grown, cared for, and harvested.
That upbringing shaped everything. She went on to become a professional chef, owning and operating a restaurant (The Chef's Place) in nearby New Brunswick before earning national recognition as a two-time Food Network champion on Chopped and Supermarket Stakeout.
Today, Lauren's passion for Portuguese culture goes beyond the kitchen. She hosts From Portugal, With Love, a podcast featuring conversations with Portuguese guests about their background, careers, and connection to Portugal — always with food at the center. Little Portugal is her debut cookbook and a tribute to the community and family that made her the cook she is.
About the Book: Little Portugal
If you grew up eating Portuguese home cooking and want to learn how to add a modern flare to traditional dishes, Little Portugal is the perfect cookbook. Chef Lauren Covas uses her culinary sensibility to bring you a new take on Portuguese dishes that shaped her, including a personal note before each recipe sharing why she loves it, how it came to be, or a family memory associated with it. Through these snippets, you come to understand not only Lauren's Portuguese-American upbringing but also her deep appreciation for the humble roots of Portuguese cuisine and the people who have influenced her cooking along the way, including her mother and grandmother, to whom the book is dedicated to.
As you flip through Little Portugal, you'll find contemporary versions of traditional Portuguese meals like caldo verde (called soupa verde here), seafood rice, and carne de porco à alentejana. You'll also find recipes that will challenge you to use ingredients you're less familiar with like whole squid and fish, tripe, and veal tongue — don't worry, instructions are included! It's all in the spirit of respecting where our food comes from and using as much of an animal as you can, values learned from the time Lauren spent with her grandparents on their farm in coastal Portugal.
What's Inside
Recipes
From the Sea (14)
From the Farm (11)
Steamy Soups & Stews (11)
Shareables & Salads (18)
Sweet Treats (8)
Little Portugal offers 62 recipes for modernized Portuguese dishes featuring an even mix of meat and seafood, as well as essential Portuguese stews and soups. With recipe titles like "The Potato Casserole Cod," "Polvo Salad," and "The Kitchen Sink," their roots reflect a fusion of the author's Portuguese-American upbringing and professional training.
For Lauren, seafood is a source of connection, and that's felt throughout the chapter "From the Sea" with dishes that serve an entire family. The next chapter focuses on ingredients cultivated in rural Portugal like pig, poultry, and peppers. In the soup and stews section, she adds complexity to Portuguese comfort foods. And if you're curious about sweets, you'll find recipes for classics like serradura (sawdust pudding), chocolate mousse, and bolo de bolacha (cookie cake).
Highlights
Chourico and White Bean-Stuffed Lulas
Inspired by a Greek dish Lauren enjoys, this recipe adds Portuguese ingredients (white beans and choriço) for a delicious preparation of squid that isn't fried.
Portuguese Arroz con Pollo
This dish is a family favorite in Lauren's home. Her avó has a version, her mom has a version, and now Lauren has a version. The common thread in all three is red wine vinegar.
Southern Feijoada: The Red Bean Stew
Holding a special place in Lauren's culinary journey, she learned how to make this stew from Senhora Lourdes, "master of the little old lady club of grandmothers."
Rissois Four Ways
Lauren mastered making the Portuguese café staple, rissóis, when she worked at Café Caffé, a Portuguese eatery in Newark. Here, she offers four fillings for you to choose from: beef, shrimp, pork, and short rib.
Format & Level
Level = Intermediate to Advanced
Recipes mostly use 10 - 20 ingredients, with some that may be unfamiliar or difficult to source for the average home cook (i.e. duck, eel, piglet, lard, blood sausage)
Some steps will be challenging for someone not comfortable in the kitchen (i.e. cook the lobsters, rub the mixture inside of the piglet, prepare the whole fish)
Recipe serving sizes range from 4 to 6 people and 6 to 8 people
Recipe Titles
English featuring Portuguese words
Instructions
Easy to follow and shared in a paragraph format, like a friend explaining a recipe step by step, including what cookware to use
Estimated cooking times aren't provided but are included within the instructions
Layout
Each spread is dedicated to one recipe, with a full page photo on one side and the recipe on the other
Reader Review
I love it when a cookbook has a storyline and theme especially when it’s about another culture I tried some of the recipes and they were very good and easy to follow. Along with a bottle of wine and olive oil, it’s the perfect gift! — Fernanda M. Papalia on Amazon
Where to Buy
You can buy Little Portugal online at Fall River-based Portugalia Marketplace, on Amazon, or on the Chef Lauren Cova website.
How to Cook Portuguese Stuff
by David Rodrigues
Straightforward Portuguese cooking and tuga-inspired fusions for everyday meals.
About the Author: David Rodrigues
David Rodrigues is a first-generation Portuguese-American who grew up in a small New Jersey town with a thriving Portuguese community — complete with its own Portuguese Club and deli. His parents and sister were born in Portugal before immigrating to the States, with roots in Lisboa and the small village of São Pedro de Paus in the Viseu district. David spent summers in Portugal as a kid, immersing him into Portuguese culture well beyond the dinner table.
That connection became harder to maintain when he moved to Central Florida in his twenties. The nearest Portuguese store was nearly two hours away, so he did what any self-respecting Porkchop would do — he made the trip and then got to work teaching himself to replicate the recipes his mother made, the dishes he'd eaten at the Portuguese Club back home, and the food he remembered from his summers in Portugal.
Out of that effort grew a popular social media cooking channel and, eventually, his cookbook How to Cook Portuguese Stuff. His audience spans first, second, and even third-generation Portuguese-Americans and Canadians — people looking to reconnect with the recipes of their heritage. His approach is deliberately accessible: easy-to-follow instructions and actual measurements (a rarity if you've tried asking a Portuguese vovó for a recipe). In David’s own words, if he can do it, so can you.
About the Book: How to Cook Portuguese Stuff
How to Cook Portuguese Stuff is exactly what it sounds like: 46 recipes for Portuguese staples presented simply, with real measurements, and step-by-step instructions. The dishes David grew up eating — at home, at the Portuguese Club, and over summers in Portugal — are all here, demystified and made genuinely doable for anyone willing to tie on an apron, or not.
David cooks from his Portuguese first upbringing, favoring dishes common to his household and Lisbon, while acknowledging that every dish carries regional variation — and that no two families will make it exactly the same. Anyone who has ever argued about the right way to make a bifana will know exactly what he means. The spirit of the book is practical above all else. If there's a shortcut or a smarter way to get dinner on the table after a long day, David will find it. Think of this cookbook as the starting point — getting comfortable with Portuguese cooking before graduating to his follow-up, How to Cook More Portuguese Stuff. Now, "come e cala-te!"
What's Inside
Recipes
Appetizers (5)
Beef (6)
Chicken (7)
Gameday Food (4)
Pork (7)
Rice (6)
Seafood (8)
Dessert/Snack (3)
How to Cook Portuguese Stuff spans the essentials of everyday Portuguese cooking plus a few fusion creations inspired by popular American and Canadian snacks. These are the meals that busy Portuguese moms and grandmothers who emigrated relied on to feed the family — that means they're no nonsense and delicious.
The recipes are more meat heavy but the seafood section includes a few varieties of shrimp and bacalhau dishes. Gameday food is completely unique to this cookbook. There, you'll find some of David's tuga-inspired creations like the Portuguese Burrito and Portuguese Stromboli.
Highlights
Tortilha de Chouriço e Azeitonas
Not sure how traditional this is, but it's a hearty Portuguese omelette, perfect for a family brunch on Sunday.
Bitoque
There are few dishes as commonly served at home as in restaurants as the classic bitoque, a thin steak served with a fried egg (over easy, always!). This version will take you a mere 15 minutes to cook.
Frango à Brás
A great example of one of David's cooking shortcuts. Traditionally, this meal is made with bacalhau (salted cod fish), but here, you can satisfy a craving for the famous bacalhau à brás by swapping fish for chicken. It also cuts down total prep time from a couple of days to just 45 minutes.
Farinheira Cheese Fries
Canada's poutine meets the Portuguese farinheira sausage. This dish is one of David's inventions melding mozzarella cheese, farinheira, chouriço, and a red pepper piri piri sauce over french fries.
Format & Level
Level = Beginner
The recipes here are straightforward and stick to simple home cooking techniques. If a recipe takes more than 30 minutes, it's accounting for time to marinade or bake or stew rather than active cooking time.
You won't be cooking large batches. Most recipes serve 2 to 4 people.
Recipe Titles
Mostly in Portuguese except for fusion dishes
Instructions
Numerically listed in 5 - 10 steps.
Very detailed, including precise time estimates and descriptions of what to expect as things cook
Layout
Each spread is dedicated to one recipe, with a full page photo on one side and the recipe on the other
Spiral-bound making it super easy to lay out on the counter while cooking
Reader Review
Recipes are authentic and much easier to make than most other Portuguese cookbooks. Very satisfied! — Patrick on Etsy
Where to Buy
You can buy How to Cook Portuguese Stuff online at Fall River-based Portugalia Marketplace, on Etsy, or on David Rodrigues' website.
At My Portuguese Table
by Maria Lawton
A personal exploration into Azorean cooking and ingredients, with even more family, more stories, and more regional recipes than the first time.
About the Author: Maria Lawton
Maria Lawton is a bestselling cookbook author, PBS host, and one of the most recognized voices in Portuguese-American food culture. She was born in Rosário da Lagoa, a village on São Miguel in the Azores, and came to the United States at age six, settling with her family in New Bedford, Massachusetts — a city steeped in Portuguese heritage with bakeries, fish markets, and butcher shops woven into the fabric of daily life.
Her culinary education was informal and taught her to cook from the heart. In a three-family home where her mother cooked on the first floor and her grandmother baked on the second, Maria accompanied her avó in the kitchen nearly every day, learning her baking techniques and catching glimpses of her mother’s Azorean cooking as best she could — her mom didn’t like anyone watching her work. Those food memories became the foundation of everything that followed.
Today, she is affectionately known as the Azorean Green Bean, a play on names used to make fun of her Portuguese heritage when she was little like “Greenhorn” and “Fava Bean.” Wearing the name with pride, Maria is the author of the bestselling Azorean Cooking: From My Family Table to Yours and the Emmy-nominated host of Maria's Portuguese Table on PBS, a series that takes viewers through the diverse regional cuisines and traditions of Portugal. She has also led culinary tours of the Azores, bringing travelers to experience the islands through their food. At My Portuguese Table is her second cookbook, and a natural continuation of a life's work dedicated to preserving and sharing the flavors of the Azores.
About the Book: At My Portuguese Table
At My Portuguese Table is Maria Lawton's follow-up to Azorean Cooking: From My Family Table to Yours, and in her own words, it's not a typical cookbook. Where her first book introduced Azorean cooking, this one goes deeper — more treasured family recipes and more personal stories.
But it's more than a recipe collection. Woven throughout are photos of the Azores and personal asides on Azorean food culture and ingredients — the Holy Ghost Feast, taro root, breakfast rituals, Christmas traditions — the kinds of details that give a cookbook a sense of place and memory. Toward the end is a section Maria calls "Cakes for Company," a nod to the Portuguese mothers and grandmothers who always had something baked and ready for whoever came through the door. Taken together, it reads like a natural guide for anyone who loves to host — and a reminder, as Maria puts it, that each recipe is a journey back to her family table.
The book earned a 2025 IPPY Award Bronze Medal and praise from Booklist for the distinctly Azorean character that sets it apart. For anyone who has already cooked their way through her first book — or anyone coming to Maria's cooking for the first time — At My Portuguese Table is a wonderful way to continue exploring Azorean cooking.
What's Inside
Recipes
Soups, Sides, and Appetizers (16)
Breads (8)
Entrées (20)
Desserts (21)
Other Favorites (13)
The 78 recipes in At My Portuguese Table bring Azorean dishes to the forefront of Portuguese cuisine, while sprinkling in twists on tradition influenced by her immigrant experience in the U.S. Most feature a personal intro where Maria shares vivid memories of the Azores and her family, insight on how she mastered the recipe, and tips to successfully make it yourself.
The opening section is mostly soups and stews (beans and chouriço are prominent), followed by a dedicated bread section, reflecting the time Maria spent baking alongside her grandmother. Entrées are predominantly meat and seafood with proteins such as tuna, bacalhau, and beef. About half of the desserts are simple cakes to enjoy with coffee or tea. There are also recipes that play with Maria cookies — think chocolate tart and homemade ice cream. In the last section, you'll find recipes for homemade jams, butters, and seasonings.
Highlights
Taro Root Rolls
Admittedly, Maria didn't grow up eating these rolls because you couldn't find taro in the States. But once they found their way to Portuguese markets, her parents used them often. This recipe comes from her Tia Lilia. If you didn't know, taro grows in the volcanic wetlands of the Azores and is a popular substitute for potatoes.
Salted Codfish Tart
Not a traditional bacalhau recipe, but one that a family member served Maria in São Miguel after finding a way to use leftover salted cod. You can prepare it as one large tart or as several individual ones.
Alcatra
A signature dish from the island of Terceira, Alcatra is a hearty dish of slow-roasted beef. It's one of those large batch meals that you prepare on a winter Sunday.
Dona Amélia's Queen Cakes
Another Terceira delicacy, but one enjoyed across the Azores. They were named as a tribute to Queen Amélia (originally, they were called Bolo das Índias), who was offered the pastry on her first royal visit to the island in 1901. It's kind of like a Portuguese version of gingerbread cake, but denser. A unique one in the Portuguese baking repertoire!
Format & Level
Level = Intermediate
Recipes include plenty of explanation and tips, which make them approachable. Nearly all of the ingredients are accessible, with exception of octopus and bacalhau which are Portuguese staples. That said, estimated cooking times aren't provided or explicitly shared in the instructions which can be challenging for beginner cooks.
Some recipes share estimated serving size but not all. Most of the entrees that include it serve 4.
Recipe Titles
English with Portuguese names beneath
Instructions
Shared in paragraph format using a personal and casual tone, allowing for full explanations and tips
Layout
For the most part, each spread is dedicated to one recipe, with a full page photo on one side and the recipe on the other.
Reader Review
If you are a fan of Portuguese (and especially Açorean) food, this is the cookbook for you. The recipes are easy to follow and Maria sprinkles love on every page. The day I got my copy I read through all the recipes and imagined I was back in my grandma's kitchen. — Sharon Rodriguez on Amazon
Where to Buy
You can buy At My Portuguese Table online at Fall River-based Portugalia Marketplace, on Amazon, or on the Azorean Green Bean website.
For the Love of Portuguese Food
by Milena Rodrigues
A simple introduction to the essentials of traditional Portuguese cuisine.
About the Author: Milena Rodrigues
Milena Rodrigues is an American-born Portuguese home cook who grew up in a household where Portuguese was spoken, the soup was always homemade, the fish served whole, and where her father salted his own cod and hung it on the clothesline to dry. Her parents immigrated to the United States in 1966 from Figueira da Foz in mainland Portugal, settling first in Gloucester, Massachusetts before eventually moving to New Bedford — a city with a larger fishing port. Her father was a fisherman by trade, making his first cod fishing voyage at fourteen. He completed over 20 trips in his lifetime traveling all the way from Portugal to the waters off Newfoundland, Canada and Greenland.
Milena is not a professional chef but she learned from the best: her mother Encarnação, her Tia Lourdes, her older sisters Laura and Linda, and her in-laws Alice and Patrocinia. Her style mirrors her mother's, built on simple ingredients kept in every Portuguese home like garlic, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, wine, and bay leaves. She has vacationed in Portugal nearly every summer of her life, a tradition she continues with her husband and two daughters and one that nurtured her love of Portuguese food into a passion.
The idea for her cookbook came from a simple search — she was looking for a Portuguese cookbook written in English to donate as a raffle item and found few options. That gap became her motivation: to help fill the void, promote the cuisine and culture she loves, and leave her daughters a primer for cooking Portuguese food so they can carry on the tradition of making it for their families one day.
About the Book: For the Love of Portuguese Food
For the Love of Portuguese Food is a collection of traditional home-cooked Portuguese recipes written in English — the kind of book Milena went looking for and couldn't find. It's for those who want to learn how to make the essentials of Portuguese cuisine, the dishes you grew up eating with your Portuguese family. The ingredients are the ones you already know — garlic, olive oil, wine, bay leaves — prepared in the ways your mãe or avó would recognize.
But the book is deeply personal as well. Milena began writing it while her sister Linda was in hospice, a reminder that we put off our dreams thinking we have more time. The book is dedicated to Linda, to her two daughters who are growing up loving Portuguese food as she did, and to all immigrants and their descendants who grew up eating Portuguese food at home — and who she hopes will keep making it for their families.
Alongside the recipes are small anecdotes about her family and the Portuguese traditions she was raised with, as well as a list of her ten favorite places in Portugal with notes on the regional foods tied to each. For Luso descendants looking to reconnect with the food of their parents and grandparents, it's a warm and meaningful place to start.
What's Inside
Recipes
Starters & Appetizers (8)
Soups (8)
Fish & Seafood (12)
Meat & Chicken (12)
Other (3)
Side Dishes (10)
Desserts & Sweets (16)
Bread (4)
In 73 recipes, Milena shares the classics of Portuguese cooking with personal notes and family anecdotes scattered throughout. Every dish you ate in a Portuguese home can be found here from caldo verde to bacalhau à gomes de sá, bifanas, piri piri chicken, homemade fries, and more.
Starters favor seafood-based appetizers, while the soups feature mostly vegetarian options. In the seafood section, you're presented with 5 options for preparing bacalhau along with recipes for sardines and squid. The meats evenly feature beef, pork, and chicken dishes. In Other, you'll find bean stews and Side Dishes include accompaniments often found in Portuguese tascas. The desserts section is impressive and offers the most variety on this list.
Highlights
Canja
When it comes to Portuguese soups, caldo verde gets all the attention but canja is Portugal's answer to chicken soup for the soul.
Salted Cod with Heavy Cream/Bacalhau com Natas
Milena’s father was a cod fisherman — the seafood section in this cookbook even includes a log of his fishing trips — and this recipe is a crowd-pleasing way to introduce non-Portuguese friends and family to bacalhau.
Stewed Peas with Poached Eggs/Ervilhas Guisadas com Ovos Escalfados
A family recipe that became a Thanksgiving staple. It honors the author’s late sister, one of the people to whom her cookbook was dedicated.
Chocolate Mousse/Mousse de Chocolate
Portugal isn’t known for its chocolate desserts but if there's one to look out for, it's chocolate mousse. Their secret? Eggs. Honestly, that's the secret to most Portuguese desserts but in this case, it's also what makes this mousse uniquely Portuguese.
Format & Level
Level = Beginner to Intermediate
Recipes are presented simply and aren't overcomplicated with non-essential ingredients and steps. Nearly all ingredients are very accessible.
Some recipes include estimated cooking times in the instructions, but not all.
This cookbook features somewhat larger batches. Most recipes serve 4 to 8 people.
Recipe Titles
English and Portuguese
Instructions
Shared in short paragraphs using simple language. Good for someone who doesn't like overexplained recipes.
Layout
Each spread features a recipe and a full-page photograph or one recipe on each page
Reader Review
I am not Portuguese but my husband is. I love to try Portuguese recipes because my husband was raised on the cuisine. I have 3 other Portuguese cookbooks but this one by far is the best! The 2 things I’ve made so far he said are the best he’s ever had, and he’s ate many different varieties from many different Portuguese people. I made the Sweet Rice, & the Portuguese Biscuit Cookies. — Megan Pereira on Amazon
Where to Buy
You can buy For the Love of Portugal online at Fall River-based Portugalia Marketplace or on Amazon.
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