Caldo Verde - Portuguese Kale Soup

Name: Caldo Verde - Portuguese Kale Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: ½ piece Yellow Onion (1/2 large onion chopped); 3 pieces Carrot (3 carrots peeled and sliced); 3 pieces Garlic Clove (3 garlic cloves smashed); 4 pieces White Potatoes (4 large yellow potatoes chopped); 2 pieces Chorizo Sausages (2 chorizo links with casings removed, halved and chopped); 4 cup Chicken Broth (4 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups of water); 1 bunch Kale (1 bunch of kale julienned); 1 cup Bottled Drinking Water (cup or 6 of water and 2 packets of Chicken Boullion); 0 pieces Red Pepper Flakes (crushed red pepper flakes); 0 pieces Salt and Pepper (salt and pepper to taste)

55 minEuropean

Servings4

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Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Whole30

Steps

1Chop your onions, slice your carrots and smash your garlic. Set aside.
2Peel and chop the potatoes. Set aside in a bowl of cold water.
3Remove the casing from your chorizo. This is an important step. Chorizo casing is tough and unforgiving and will make the sausage link curl during the cooking process. Just remove it and don't worry about appearance.
4Cut the links length-wise then chop into half-moons.
5Sautee in a separate pan until the are nice and browned. Don't put into the pot until the last minute, otherwise the color of the chorizo will leach into the soup turning it a weird red color.
6Now it's time to prepare the kale. With each individual leaf, cut out the stem. You can do this several ways.
7Cut a triangle out of the leaf, or fold over the leaf and cut out the stem that way. Or rip off the halves of the leaves off the stem. I like a little bit of stem to give some crunch and texture.
8Tightly roll the leaf into a bundle.
9Run your knife over it to julienne the leaf into thin strips.
10Don't worry if it's not perfect. Set aside the kale.
11In a big pot, sautee your onions, carrots and garlic in a bit of olive oil.
12Once the vegetables start to soften, add the potatoes and some crushed red pepper flakes. Stir the pot and cook the potatoes until the outer edges start turning clear.
13Then add the 6 cups of water and 2 bouillion packets (or 4 cups of broth and 2 cups of water) to the pot. Bring to a boil then let simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
14With a wooden spoon, mash the potatoes against the side of the pot. Do this until almost all the chunks of potatoes are mashed. Leave some chunks behind. This will give your soup a wonderful hearty texture.
15Now it's time to add the Kale. It looks like a lot and will fill up your whole pot but not to worry because it wilts down pretty quickly.
16Cook for 5 minutes at a simmer then stir in chorizo sausage.
17Serve hot or at room temperature (the latter is my favorite). Eat with a nice crusty loaf of Portuguese bread. Enjoy!