How To Make Caldo Verde
Typical Portuguese Soup Recipe: Caldo Verde
Portugueses love soup! We eat more soup than salad! That is the best form of eating vegetables. At school, the children eat soup every day! At home, that is the same! That is a tradition.
In the USA, that is typical for a child to drink milk at lunch. In Portugal, no children drink milk at lunch. They drink juice or water. Soup or milk is a form to guarantee high nutrition for children at the meal.
Sometimes the travelers complain that the main dishes in Portugal don’t include a salad. Why? Because we always ate soup before the main. If you eat the soup before, you will not eat the main dish fastly, because the soup has satiated your hunger. You will taste the main course slowly. For that reason, the worker has two hours for lunchtime! We enjoy the meal slowly!
What is the most popular soup in Portugal?
Caldo Verde! You can taste this soup in some upscale restaurants or popular festivals such as Saint Antony in Lisbon (Festa de Sto António) or Saint John in Porto (Festa de São João do Porto).
It had its origin in Minho but was adopted by all regions of Portugal. It’s a broth of potatoes and collard greens very finely grated, a subtle aroma of onion and garlic, with eyes of thin olive oil at the surface and a slice of chorizo in a steaming bowl, accompanied with a piece of cornbread (read the recipe here) or another bread.
What is Caldo Verde?
According to Maria & Lisa (Facebook @tiamariasblog and book), Caldo Verde is NOT Kale Soup.
Caldo Verde means “green broth.” It gets its color from the leafy greens, usually couve Galega or collard greens in Portugal. But, kale is also a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Sometimes Caldo Verde is mistaken for another classic known as Portuguese Kale Soup, which is very popular in the United States. The Kale Soup version uses cubed potatoes, chopped chorizo, tomatoes, and chopped Kale, and it looks nothing like Caldo Verde.
Caldo Verde Recipe
WEIGHT INGREDIENT (10 people)
Two medium onions
Two cloves garlic
Six Potatoes
One pound of kale or collard greens stems removed. Leaves cut into very, very thin slices. In Portugal, you can buy the slice of broadleaf at the local market.
One chorizo
Portuguese Olive oil
Eight cups of cold water
Salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Peel onions, garlic, and potatoes.
Slice onion and garlic, roughly diced potatoes.
In a deep pot, heat a little olive oil and cook the onion. It is softened and translucent, add the garlic (don’t brown the garlic and onion).
Add the potatoes and cover with water. Put to boil.
Add the whole chorizo and let cook, slow heat.
Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, then remove the chorizo. Blend potatoes, onion, and garlic to puree. You can use an electric blender.
Put to boil and add the collard greens to cook in the soup. And then, reduce the heat and simmer until tender, 2 to 5 minutes.
Peel, and slice the chorizo — season with salt and pepper.
Add in the end Portuguese olive oil. Serve soup whit chorizo slices and bread.
How many calories does Portuguese Green Soup have?
200 ml of Green Soup has 175 calories.
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