Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Caldo Verde – My Green Soup Redux

Caldo verde is many things: simple to make, inexpensive, nutritious, famously delicious, and beyond comforting. What it isn’t, however, is Spanish. I learned that after posting a version of this soup 10 years ago, when I tagged it as “Spanish Cuisine,” and a few very “passionate” Portuguese viewers let me know, in no uncertain terms, that was not accurate.

This soup hails from the Minho Province in northern Portugal, and now that the record has been set straight, we can move on to just how great this simple soup is. This is one of those recipes where you actually hope for horrible weather, so you can enjoy it in all its soul-warming glory. This is so hearty and comforting, you’ll almost forget how good it is for you.

I recommend trying to find Portuguese linguica, but like I said in the video, pretty much any cured, spicy, smoked sausage will work. Andouille would be a great choice, as would a dried chorizo. As usual, feel free to adapt this as you see fit, but I wouldn’t change the recommended russet potatoes.

They have the perfect starchiness for this soup, and produce a wonderfully silky texture. Waxier red potatoes won't work as well, but, having said that, it’s your soup, so do what you want. Just don’t call it Spanish. So, whether you wait for some nasty cold, wet weather or not, I really do hope you give this caldo verde a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 6 large portions:
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces Linguica sausage
1 onion diced fine, plus a pinch of salt
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, sliced
2 teaspoons salt, plus more as needed
2 quarts chicken broth or water
2 pounds kale, trimmed, chopped, washed and drained
pinch of cayenne, optional

37 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the site Chef! Now I’m wishing i had checked in before shopping to make your Shakshuka recipe for the tenth time. Btw, another wish of mine is to see your take kimchi. Delicious Demon Cabbage...

Bill said...

Nothing can be done with the kale stems?
E.g. slice them thin, or food-process them?

Unknown said...

Good to see a Portuguese recipe!

Give a try on the "original" recipe.

Sauté one onion with garlic in olive oil, add the potatos and let it cook.

Blend the soup and add the had the chiffonade kale.

Salt and pepper to taste.

On the serving bowl, had the sausage and a good olive oil.

The sausages that we use is a paprika and garlic, and wine and garlic.

Best regards



hboiew7ywhiuf said...

Wonderful recipe and video. Question: what do you recommend for keeping leftovers?

Unknown said...

Hey Chef John, I have the perfect weather for this outside, but probably not the perfect sausage at hand here. How would a couple of merquez sausages do in this you think?

Unknown said...

Chef John,

I love this recipe so mch I featured it on my own blog:

http://sofritoinmysoul.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-spoonful-of-sofrito-caldo-verde.html

Love your work. Check my site out and let me know what you think!

Unknown said...

Yes, this will happen very soon. When it comes to soups Chef, you are the master. Can I add my food wish here? I'm going to any ways. Can you try something with rabbit?

Unknown said...

I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, but its a cold wintry day here and I have tons of fresh kale, so I made it anyway. Used chicken thighs with skin-on instead of sausage, since they're similarly fatty. I hope that's bueno. I seasoned with casobel peppers, madras curry (hot), cayenne, and coriander after adding the broth. So far, pretty delicious. We don't eat a lot of potatoes so I'm going to try adding white beans or black-eyed peas near the end of cooking time (whenever the chicken thighs are falling off the bone).

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John I'm a big fan! I have a Portuguese background and had planned to make this for dinner tonight as I've done many times before. What a surprise as I logged in to watch your latest video to decompress before making dinner to see you made it as well! Great video as always.

Unknown said...

Hello Chef John,
Where to start? I don't blog or tweet, or have cable or WiFi, getting to this point was a minor challenge. However, I do have an Android smart phone. I'm in my late 50's live alone, eat very little, but Love to cook and bake (and I'm pretty damn good at both).
On my smart phone I have few icons, my email, the weather channel, NPR news feed, and your food wishes.
I try not to eat carbs or spicy foods, but I adapt many of your recipes to my needs and small town food availability.
Thank you for your fantastic posts!
Gail

C L said...

I'm anxious to try this as a) I love homemade soup more than anything, and b) my Portuguese mother-in-law refused to cook with either vegetables or salt. Thanks for the recipe!

Unknown said...

I also wash the potato after I drop it on the floor, and put it back in the soup if I know I'll be boiling it, however: I don't think the web is going to treat that nicely.

Unknown said...

OMG John this looks amazing? I may grate some parmesan on top.

Brenda T. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brenda T. said...

Now I know what to make for dinner tonight!!!

Saucier said...

It's like I don't know you anymore, Chef John. When you were talking about using your choice of greens I was waiting for the inevitible, "After all, you are the Draymond of your greens." But you didn't say it! What have you done with the real Chef John?! He would never miss an opportunity to make that pun!

Unknown said...

My Grandmother (or Vovo) used to make this soup all the time. She used kale my grandfather grew in the garden. When kale became a 'thing' I used to laugh thinking my Grandmother knew about it before it was cool. Thank you very much for doing this recipe. It means a lot to me. Obrigado

Unknown said...

Unbelievably delicious and unique flavor! Many thanks!

Unknown said...

I asked my husband for Hot Italian Sausage when he went to the store, he came back with Linguica which is why I decided to make this soup. WELL!!!!! now I am really glad he did. This was delicious. Definitely going into my winter soup rotation!!!!!!

Unknown said...

I know you said plenty of times to use the sausage in the recipe but I already have hot Italian sausages in my freezer. Would you change anything in the recipe to accommodate the wrong sausage?

Unknown said...

Actually I’m going to do the One Pan Orecchiette Pasta. Thank you for having so many recipes. Love your videos. Stay amazing. And please do a collab video with binging with babish, it would be so amazing!!!

BlueinUtah said...

I just made this. Absolutely fantastic!

Unknown said...

John, this soup just jumped to the top of my to-make list! I make an Olive Garden "Zuppa Tuscana" copycat which is what this soup reminded me of. Italian sausage, loads of kale (but I like to keep the stems), and potatoes are cooked just until tender. I add a lot of crushed red pepper for that soothing heat. Last, add a touch of cream when serving (and Parmesan is also optional if I have some in the fridge). Simple and delicious, I could eat it once a week during fall and winter.

beemo said...

I'm having a bowl of this, just made, as I write... heavenly stuff. Used chorizo and some different kind of kale. In fact this is the first time I've ever eaten kale. I don't think I'd like it at all unless well disciplined like this.

Hmm I think I'll shave in a few bits of Scotch Bonnet.

Just a cook said...

Hi, chef. Great recipe. Here in Brazil, we have this as a every day soup in winter - ah! - our winter...
We prefer "colored greens" (couve), which is abundant here.

Two comments, though:
Dark green leaves are very rich in iron; so, folks with high ferritin in their blood, should avoid them.
Dark green leaves should be washed BEFORE they are cut! When you cut and wash, many of the nutrients go down with the water...

Congrats on your blog!

Brenda T. said...

I made this soup, and it was a huge hit! I wonder if it would be good with chicken instead of the sausage. This is definitely in the dinner rotation in our house. Everyone wants me to make it for Thanksgiving, but I really want to make your Roasted Butternut Squash soup.... Decisions, decisions!

StepUpMama said...

Made this for my loves tonight. Even my littlest kiddo was all over it (as long as there was bread for sopping). Aldi didn't have Portuguese sausage but they always have kielbasa so I used that and added extra cayenne. I think it came out to less than $20 for a giant double batch. Hurrah!

P.S. Hubs and I love your YouTube channel. Thank you for sharing your gifts!

Don Wallace said...

There is something a bit off with the proportions in this recipe which I'll explain. The soup turned out excellent after I made some real-time adjustments to the quantity of kale and the amount of liquid/stock. I used Sam's Choice Andouille instead of the recommended sausage which was fine. I halved the recipe because it's just my wife and me. So I wound up with 6 oz. of sausage, 1/2 onion, 1.5 lbs russets, 1 lb of kale from our garden, and 1 qt of broth (I used concentrated chicken stock in water.) Here's the deal on proportions: with the recommended quantity of water, the soup was super-thick with kale when adding only 1/2 lb. (about 7.5 ounces) chopped, de-ribbed, and cleaned, even after the kale wilted. I was pretty much forced to add about 20 oz. additional of liquid to have something edible. I believe all of your other recipes literally but not this one. :) It's still very good. Cheers.

Tim said...

I made this soup and it was excellent. To all u Dutch people it's like liquid stump pit.

Unknown said...

Kale is listed as a goitrogenic vegetable, and apparently the "pot liquor" contains the goitrogenic chemicals after boiling? So with that in mind would you recommend boiling the kale separately to reduce the ill effects of kale? I just read about it and instantly thought of this soup/other soups with kale

Unknown said...

I made this recipe.....Loved it!!!! It turned out awesome!! Thank you so much for your tutorial videos...I love them!!

Unknown said...

I love making caldo verde. My take is using the base, like Chef John made here, but sauté some garlic with the onion and add shrimp small diced carrots to everything else in the original recipe. So good!

Nick said...

This turned out great, two greenish tinged thumbs up! Only thing I'll change next time is to use a low sodium chicken broth or reduce / eliminate the 2 tsp of salt. It ended up very salty, though still very good, using two quarts of organic chicken broth and the recommended quantity of salt. I'll probably wait to add salt if it seems bland until the next day, too, since I think some of the saltiness was from the sausage leeching into the soup.

I subbed in smoked pork andouille sausage since I couldn't find linguiça at the market, but otherwise followed the recipe as written including using Dino kale. 45 minutes simmering at the end was perfect.

Unknown said...

OMG! Tried this last week and my hubby and I ate it in 3 days. Fabulous!

Christine Cullinan said...

Just learned about this recipe. I made it tonight. Delicious! It's a keeper! I added some minced garlic. So simple and now it's one of my all-time favorites. Thanks.

Untuvakana said...

This was great. I only used 1 pound of kale because where I live it's quite expensive but still there was plenty in my soup. I also replaced linguica some other spicy sausage because we don't have any in our grocery stores where I live but other than that the flavor was amazing. Something that I haven't had before and yet it was so simple to make. I never thought I would stuff myself with soup :D I will defenetly make this again when kale comes available. Thank you so much.

Jim said...

Made this soup tonight following directions exactly. This soup I will make again often. A real keeper.