Caldo Verde – Portuguese Kale Soup with Chorizo

Mar 13, 2012 by Nathan    2 Comments    Posted under: Food, Recipes

Every so often I crave this soup. Caldo Verde (literally means green broth or soup) is a traditional Portuguese soup that I grew up eating about once a week, if not more. The best part, it’s so easy to make that you can eat it that often too (and it’s really healthy)! So grab these few ingredients, some warm, crusty bread and savor a taste of Portugal in your home.

You’ll need:

• Kale – 6-8 large leaves or bag of pre-chopped
• Potatoes – 6 medium (about 1 per person)
• Onion – 1 large
• Garlic – 4-6 cloves
• Chorizo (Portuguese or Spanish style sausage)
• Stock (4 cups chicken or vegetable)
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• 10 minutes to prep
• 20 minutes to cook

Prep (10 min)

1. Dice the onion and garlic
2. Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces
3. Cut the kale into thin strips and discard the center stalk. Thinner is better.
4. Remove the casing from the chorizo and cut in bite-sized pieces

Cook the Onion and Garlic (3 min)

1. Saute the onion and garlic in a saute pan with a tablespoon of olive oil
2. Remove from heat when onions become translucent

Cook the Potatoes (12 min)

1. Pour the stock into a large soup pot
2. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil
3. Reduce heat and simmer until tender
4. Add in the cooked onion and garlic
5. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Add at least a tsp of salt
6. Puree the potatoes with an immersion blender (one of the best culinary inventions ever)
7. The soup should be quite thin, so you may have to add more stock or water
8. Reduce heat to simmer

Cooking the Kale (5 min)

1. Stir in the kale to the potato soup
2. You might have to stir it in batches

Cooking the Chorizo (3 min)

1. Saute the chorizo until it starts to break down the fat
2. Drain and stir it into soup
3. Look, even the pan is happy :)

That’s it! I told you it was easy

1. Make sure every bowl has a generous portion of chorizo
2. Serve with warm, crusty bread and a glass of white wine or beer
3. Bread pictured is Cheddar Ciabatta from the Ithaca Bakery. So good!
4. Enjoy!

Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!