My friend Ana from Portugal sent me a selection of recipes for Portuguese foods, and this was the first recipe I tried. This recipe is for Caldo Verde (literally green soup). And you will see at the end that it is appropriately named, since it is full of green kale! The original recipe comes from All Recipes, and Ana pre-screened it to make sure it looked good. I have modified the instructions to make them easier to follow (I think so anyway). Also, I used chourico instead of linguica sausage, because I like the spice and saw some other recipes online used chourico.
One important step is to puree the potatoes with the garlic and onion after they are soft. I used a hand blender and this was really easy and quick. Next time, I might chop the kale a bit more because it doesn’t shrink a lot like spinach or cabbage. This soup tastes great fresh and also heated up the next day.
I must admit that I have never tried this tasty dish while in Portugal. However, the chourico sausage flavour reminded me of a sunny afternoon in Lisbon with drinks and snacks!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
6 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 quarts (8 cups) cold water
6 ounces linguica or chourico sausage, sliced 1/2 cm thick
2 ½ teaspoons salt
ground black pepper to taste
1 pound kale, rinsed and julienned
Instructions
In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons olive oil for 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes more. Pour in water, bring to a boil, and let boil gently for 20 minutes, until potatoes are mushy.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-low heat, cook sausage until it has released most of its fat, 10 minutes. Drain and set aside
Puree the potato mixture with a hand blender or food processor. Stir the sausage, salt and pepper into the soup and return to medium heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes for the flavours to blend.
Just before serving, stir kale into the soup and simmer, 5- 8 minutes, until kale is tender and jade green. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and serve immediately.
Go to Recipe Map