My parents were both born in Portugal. Growing up I was exposed to a wide variety of weird interesting foods. This soup is one of my all time favorites. It’s known as Caldo Verde but Americans call it Portuguese green soup. My parents just got back from a trip to Portugal and it didn’t take me long to ask my mom to come over and show me how to make it. I am blown away by how easy it is too!
Ingredients:
4 potatoes
12 cups of water
2 bunches of collards
1/2 or 1 whole chouriço
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
Optional: Onions (I’d add them next time but I love onions)
Directions:
* Put 8 cups of water (yes, not the whole 12) into a large pot on high heat.
* Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices. Add them to the pot.
* While the potatoes are cooking, rinse the collards and cut off the stems.
* Roll the collards up into what can be best described as drinking straws and finely chop them up. You don’t want to put them in a food processor because they’ll get too mangled. Set them aside when you are done.
* When the potatoes are soft (falling apart soft) spoon about half of the potatoes and water and put them in a blender. Puree them until it looks like a thick gravy.
* Repeat this process with the remaining other half of the potatoes and water. This is your soup base.
* Once you are done pureeing (is that even a word?), place the soup base back in the pot and add the other 4 cups of water.
* Add a handful of salt and 1/4 c of olive oil.
* Add the collards and chouriço to the pot and cook on high for 5 minutes.
This is served best with some awesome crusty bread (Portuguese rolls are great, however, they aren’t gluten free – I miss them).
I did ask my mom about using chicken stock or something similar in place for the water. She said that recipes that use that as an ingredient have been Americanized. No one used chicken stock or any kind of stock in Portugal, they only used water.
What is your favorite soup?
xoxo
–k
Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.
Can't wait to make this!