Caldo Verde - A Portuguese Soup - Grow Your Own #24

When I first had Caldo Verde, a classic Portuguese "green soup," a friend who had just returned from Portugal fixed it for me the way she was taught there. During a visit, she started telling me about Portugal and the foods she had tried there and to make things short, she went to my kitchen and started cooking for me!!!

I would love to visit Portugal one day... Especially because my mom's maiden name is Portuguese but we never found out any information on relatives because she lost her father when she was very young.

For this recipe you just need potatoes, sausage (chourico), onions, olive oil and kale. It is such an easy recipe, that sometimes I make Caldo Verde from leftover mashed potato and use my slow cooker.

Caldo Verde is so soothing... it means comfort food to me!

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own #24 event that Andrea's Recipes is hosting this month. If you make a dish with ingredients from your own garden or was given something someone grew or raised you can post about it!

I used kale from my mother-in-law's garden that I picked myself.

Caldo Verde
2 pounds (1 kg) potato, peeled, and cubed
8 cups water or chicken broth
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (and more for drizzling)
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
8 oz (250 g) Portuguese sausage/chorizo, sliced on the diagonal (Italian smoked sausage works great)
1 pound (500 g) kale, stems removed, leaves thinly sliced or shredded
Coarsely ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1) Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Sauté the onion until it softens, about 6 minutes, add garlic and stir until it releases its fragrance. Add the water, potatoes and salt. Simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are very tender.

2) Using an immersion blender or your blender, puree the soup. Add the sliced sausage and pepper and boil for about 5 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Add kale and boil another 3 minutes. Pour the soup into soup bowls, serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

• In Portugual Caldo Verde is usually served with a Portuguese cornbread called broa. Here in Brazil we use Italian bread.
  

• Sometimes I fry the sliced sausage until they are crispy and then add to the soup. It seems to boost the flavor of this hearty and satisfying soup.

Kale

I want to thank my good blogging friend at Tangled Noodle who passed me an award! She loves Brazilian food and thanks to Foodbuzz we became friends and... we even have plans to meet here!

Check all the great recipes for this edition of Grow Your Own visiting the roundup that Andrea posted on her blog.