Ela disse que vai fazer feijão amanhã, mas hoje só quer sopa de tomate.

Disse is the preterite of dizer (to say). It refers to one completed action in the past: she said it.

So Ela disse... = She said...

If you used dizia, that would suggest something more like she used to say or she was saying, which is a different idea.

Here que introduces reported speech, like that in English:

• Ela disse que vai fazer feijão amanhã.
• She said that she’s going to make beans tomorrow.

In English, that is often omitted. In Portuguese, que is normally kept.

Vai fazer is the very common ir + infinitive future in Brazilian Portuguese. It means is going to make / will make.

• vai fazer = common, natural, conversational
• fará = also correct, but more formal or written

So this sentence sounds very natural in everyday Brazilian Portuguese.

This is a great question because Portuguese does not always shift tenses the same way English does.

In English, after said, people often expect would instead of will. But in Portuguese, disse que vai fazer is perfectly natural if the plan is still seen as valid now.

• Ela disse que vai fazer feijão amanhã = she said she’s going to make beans tomorrow, and that still seems to be the plan.
• Ela disse que ia fazer feijão amanhã = she said she was going to make beans tomorrow. This can sound a bit more like you are reporting a past plan from that earlier moment, without focusing on whether it is still current.

Both are possible, but vai fazer is very common here.

Yes, literally it is make beans, but in natural English the best translation is usually cook beans or make a bean dish.

In Portuguese, fazer is often used with food:

• fazer arroz = make/cook rice
• fazer café = make coffee
• fazer jantar = make dinner

So fazer feijão is a normal way to say she is preparing beans as a dish.

In Portuguese, feijão often works like a food noun meaning beans in a general or collective sense. It does not have to be plural to refer to beans as a dish.

So:

• fazer feijão = cook beans

The plural feijões is possible, but it is more likely when talking about types, varieties, or individual beans, not the usual prepared dish.

Portuguese often leaves out the article with foods when speaking generally about what someone is making, eating, or wanting.

So fazer feijão sounds natural as a general food idea.

If you said fazer o feijão, it would sound more specific, like a particular batch or the beans already understood in the situation.

Because Portuguese often uses food words without an article when talking about what someone wants or feels like eating.

• quer sopa de tomate = wants tomato soup
• quer uma sopa de tomate = wants a tomato soup / one serving of tomato soup

The version without uma is more general. The version with uma sounds a bit more specific or countable, like one bowl/serving.

De is the normal preposition used to name the type or main ingredient of many dishes.

• sopa de tomate = tomato soup
• suco de laranja = orange juice
• bolo de chocolate = chocolate cake

Sopa do tomate would sound wrong here, because do usually suggests of the and can sound possessive or too specific.

Sopa com tomate means soup with tomato in it, which is not exactly the same as calling it tomato soup.

Because the subject is already clear.

In Portuguese, especially when the context makes the subject obvious, you do not have to repeat the pronoun:

• Ela disse que vai fazer feijão amanhã, mas hoje só quer sopa de tomate.

The verb quer is third-person singular, so it is easy to understand that the subject is still ela.

You could also say:

• ..., mas hoje ela só quer sopa de tomate.

That is also correct, but the extra ela adds a little emphasis.

Here só means only or just.

• hoje só quer sopa de tomate = today she only wants / just wants tomato soup

Its position is flexible, but the exact emphasis can shift slightly:

• só quer sopa de tomate = she just/only wants tomato soup
• quer só sopa de tomate = she wants only tomato soup

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, só is extremely common and natural.

This is a very common learner confusion.

• mas = but
• mais = more

In your sentence, mas introduces a contrast:

• tomorrow she plans to make beans, but today she only wants tomato soup

The tilde (~) shows nasalization, which means the vowel is pronounced through the nose.

• feijão is approximately fay-ZHÃW
• amanhã is approximately a-ma-NYÃ

A few notes:

• The j in feijão sounds like the s in measure
• The nh in amanhã sounds like the ny in canyon
• The final nasal sound is important; it should not sound like a plain English ah

These nasal vowels are one of the trickiest parts of Portuguese pronunciation for English speakers.