Caldo Verde (Portuguese Greens and Chouriço Soup)
Caldo verde is the Portuguese potato soup carrying threads of finely shredded greens and rounds of chouriço. The base is blended completely smooth, the greens are cut one or two millimetres wide and cooked for five minutes at the end so they stay green.
Ingredients
- 700 gpotatoes
- 250 gcollard greens
- 150 gchourico
- 1 pcsonion
- 3 clovesgarlic
- 60 mlolive oil
- 1500 mlwater
- 1.5 tspsalt
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
Method
- Stack the greens, roll them into a tight cigar and slice across as thinly as you can, into threads one or two millimetres wide. This cut is what makes the soup caldo verde rather than cabbage soup.
- Soften the chopped onion and garlic in half the olive oil over medium heat for five minutes without letting them colour.
- Add the peeled potatoes in rough chunks, the water, the salt and the whole piece of chouriço. Simmer for 20 minutes until the potatoes fall apart at the touch of a spoon.
- Lift out the chouriço, cut it into thin rounds and set them aside.
- Blend the soup until completely smooth. It should be a thick pale green cream — no lumps of potato, nothing to chew.
- Bring it back to a boil, drop in the shredded greens and cook for five minutes with the pot uncovered so they keep their colour.
- Take the pot off the heat, stir in the rest of the olive oil and the pepper, and serve with the chouriço rounds on top and cornbread alongside.
FAQ
The original is couve galega, a Portuguese flat-leaved cabbage. Collard greens are the closest substitute, and curly kale or cavolo nero both work. Whatever you use, the cut matters more than the variety.
The greens cooked too long or under a lid. They need five minutes in the boiling base, uncovered, and no reheating with the soup. If you plan leftovers, keep the base and the greens apart.
Leave out the chouriço and add a teaspoon of smoked paprika with the onion, plus a more generous pour of olive oil at the end. The smoke is what the sausage contributes; the body comes from the potato.
Blended, and fully. Caldo verde is a smooth broth carrying threads of greens, not a chunky potato soup. A stick blender in the pot is enough; a jug blender gives a silkier result.
Broa, the dense Portuguese cornbread, and a glass of young red. The potato base freezes for up to three months; add fresh greens after reheating, since frozen ones go dull.
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