Caldo Verde

It all starts with a seed.

A seed of an idea - Caldo Verde?  Sounds yummy.

aka Portuguese Kale Soup and/or Portuguese Green Soup

Next up; seed for the green.  For tradition and flavor I used Portuguese Cabbage from Johnny's Seeds - Beira F1.   Oh, so very good.   That is them, along the top of the photo.  Tough to see scale, but they are over a yard tall.  They really like lots of sun and water from both sides of the property line.  More sun than southern collards. 

New! The traditional leaf kale (Gallena) for Portuguese kale soup.

This unique specialty from Portugal is also called Portuguese cabbage or sea kale. The taste and texture of the wavy green leaves is similar to collards. The thick fleshy midribs and stems can be peeled and eaten like celery or included in the soup. Vigorous plants grow up to 2' high and 2' wide. Grow like regular kale but space plants 18-36" in order for plants to reach full size. Beira will tolerate only moderate frost. Best for spring or fall harvest as it tends to get tipburn in hot weather. Avg. 150,000 seeds/lb. Packet: 240 seeds.
Days to Maturity or Bloom:   80

Hunting around the interwebz will provide many variations of the recipe.  The one I followed is for a creamy based soup with Portuguese Sausage, Potatoes and Kale.

I used Chourico Portuguese Sausage which is a spicier hotter sausage, though not terribly hot.  Good flavor.  Most of the recipes I saw called for linguica; which I guess is milder.  At any rate, I found Chourico and we like it.  In fact, we like it a lot.  Did I mention good flavor?  Which is only improved by thinly slicing and frying up with a crispy edge in the skillet.

Caldo Verde With Sausage Recipe

Ingredients:

  4 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, minced  2 large leeks, diced
2 large parsnips, sliced thin

1 clove garlic, minced

2 russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 packages of sun gold potatoes

2 quarts cold water

1/2 lb. of linguica sausage, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons salt

ground black pepper to taste

1 pound kale, rinsed and thin cut or julienne    

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook onion/leeks, parsnips and garlic in 3 tablespoons olive oil for  3 or 4 minutes. Stir in potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, 3 or 4 minutes more. Pour  in water, bring to a boil, and let boil gently for 20 minutes, until potatoes are real mushy.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-low heat, cook sausage until it has released  most of its fat, 10 minutes. Drain.

Mash potatoes or puree. Add the sausage, salt and pepper into the soup and return to medium heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Just before serving, stir kale into soup and simmer, until kale is tender and jade green. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and serve at once. 

Thin cut is not my forte.  I got most of them under a half inch.  Piled them all up in the skillet I used for cooking the sausage while I finished chopping it all.  The ribs and stems looked really yummy, I would have used them if I was making a stew or something.

I modified the original recipe somewhat.  Then I had a special request for lots of potato.  Next, while I was starting to mash the potatoes, I had a special request to not smash them all.  I made a double batch of the soup base, without the kale/cabbage.  Froze half to be used at a later date, and I'll add fresh from the garden greens.

This was a huge hit.  The four of us wiped out the bowl.  Even our recovering not.so.patient patient dug in for seconds.

I picked clean four plants.   It will be interesting to see if they continue to grow.  If they survive bug season; I'll hat rack them in early September and see if we get a fall harvest.


I started 32 seedling pots on Jan 3.  I was hoping to get a couple of meals out of these, and to have enough to freeze for one meal a month for six months.  I don't think I will quite meet that goal.


We may eat them all fresh before I can get any froze and put up.