A Fantastic Portuguese Caldo Verde Recipe

Warming, luscious and perfect for a chilly night (or any night, if you’re me), this Portuguese caldo verde recipe is a brilliant interpretation of meat and potatoes that is a hallmark dish for Portugal – a true essential recipe to know if you’re interested in classic Portuguese cooking. This is my version, a reverent bow-down to the original, but with just a few method tweaks (and a topping suggestion or two of my own) to maximize the impact of each and every ingredient. Served with pieces of buttery cornbread, this is one iconic bowl that you’ll want to make again and again.

 What is Caldo Verde?

Found all across Portugal, from city restaurants to remote farmhouses, this faintly verdant soup is cozy and enjoyed throughout the year, but especially during the winter months. Originally from Minho (one of the country’s northernmost boroughs sitting just south of Spain’s Galicia region), there are many variations of caldo verde across the country. Its main ingredients are potato and onion puree, collard greens and chourico, but the way the broth is made varies – sometimes bones and hocks are added for flavor. The cooking of the collards varies as well, depending on who’s cooking … from crunchy and fresh to very soft and broken down.

Different types of chourico (like Portuguese chorizo) can be used, and you’ll likely see Portuguese linguica most often in recipes for this lovely soup. Here, that’s what I call for in my own Portuguese caldo verde recipe as it’s easy for me to find in my local supermarket, but a Spanish style chorizo would be lovely as well (not to be confused with a raw, Mexican style Chorizo).

My favorite thing about Caldo Verde is …

How unbelievably closely it resembles some of my favorite things from the South, Appalachia especially (where I’m from). I’ve been pouring over Portuguese recipes recently, researching everything I can possibly learn about the gastronomic history of this intriguing country, as I’m prepping to host a culinary tour there very soon. Recipes for caldo verde come up over and over again, as this dish’s significance and popularity all over the country is undeniable. It’s a time-tested classic.

As I read through the recipes (I have a few authentic Portuguese cookbooks), I was immediately struck by how closely many of the dishes bear such strong resemblance to the Appalachian recipes that are so near and dear to my own heart. From the soup beans and butter beans that warm up my winters to the potato soup I make constantly, it became abundantly clear to me just how similar Portuguese cooking is to that of my own homeland.

Much of Portuguese cooking and foodways are a true testament to its fascinating history (this is true for anywhere, really). The series of conquests and empires that rose and fell on the Iberian peninsula, spanning the millennia and many centuries of human history there, left a true mark on the country’s foods, and you can literally taste the history with each bite.

While I could nerd out on food history for a very long time (I love it), it really is the gritty, make-the-best-of-what’s-around style of Portuguese food – “waste not, want not” – that feels so close to home for me. Appalachian food lives by that motto. Recipes are so utterly simple in both culinary traditions, highlighting the ingredients themselves with very little in the way of spices or fussing about.

This Portuguese caldo verde recipe? It’s a pot of potatoes, onions, collards, and cured meat and is served over cornbread (a lot of recipes are served with cornbread in Portuguese cooking). If that doesn’t sound like something you’d find on an Appalachia table, then I don’t know what does. This one eats just like home for me, even though it was born in a country far from it.

What are the ingredients in a classic Portuguese Caldo Verde recipe?

Potatoes

The backbone of the whole show. The potatoes will get nice and tender in the simmering broth, and will almost disappear into things, not being overly thick as with some American style potato soups.

Onions

The onions go in the pot along with the potatoes, garlic and half of the greens (in my version). I like to sweat them down for about 5 minutes before adding the stock. The stock will gently tenderize them, making it possible to blitz them into a smooth and very slightly creamy (thanks to the potatoes) broth.

Garlic

The more the merrier, if you ask me. This aromatic lends it’s irreplaceable flavor to the entire dish, perfuming it and creating the utterly addicting broth that makes this soup so delicious.

Stock

This is my own addition, admittedly. You’d traditionally add water to your Portuguese caldo verde recipe, but I can;t resist the chance to add even more depth of flavor to this beautifully simple soup, so I use a box of chicken stock and think it’s even better for it.

Collard Greens or Kale

This is what lends the verdant quality to this iconic soup. Either collard greens or flat leaf kale is torn and chopped up and then added to the steaming pot of pureed potatoes, onions, and garlic and then, along with the sausage, is cooked for about 30 minutes until nice and tender.

Chourico or Linguica

You’ll need a deeply flavorful, dried/cured sausage for this, and if you can find it (it’s pretty widely available) a true Portuguese Linguica is the right move for a classic Portuguese Caldo Verde recipe. Linguica sausage is a very tasty pork sausage that hails from Brazil and Portugal.  Linguica is known for its very distinctive garlicky, smoky, and sometimes spicy flavor that comes from ample use of paprika and chiles. 

Linguica is usually made from lean pork that is ground with fat and flavored with a mix of garlic, paprika, salt, and typically vinegar. It’s quite versatile and used in tons of dishes, including soups, stews, and sandwiches like the Francesinha (my personal fave thing from Portugal), and can be grilled or served as a side dish with fluffy rice.

How to make my Portuguese Caldo Verde Recipe

1. Add two tablespoons of the olive oil to a large pot over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until it’s nicely browned and much of the fat has rendered. Transfer the sausage to a plate/bowl for now and leave the drippings in the pot.
2. Add the onion, potatoes, garlic, and half of the greens to the pot. Season with 1.5 teaspoons salt and lots of black pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the stock, 2 cups of water, and the stock concentrate. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are fork tender; about 15 minutes.
4. Using a handheld blender or upright blender, blend the soup until nice and smooth. Put it back into the pot if necessary. Add the remaining kale into the pot and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Taste and season generously with more salt (it will likely need it).
5. Serve hot with big pieces of cornbread, the crispy sausage, and a drizzle of olive oil. As a nod to Portugal, I also like to top my bowls of Caldo Verde with sliced olives and some cilantro, but that’s not so traditional. Enjoy!

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