Caldo verde: the Portuguese soup where kale is cut into threads
One of Portugal's best-known soups has a handful of simple ingredients and one trick: the kale is cut into hair-thin ribbons and added to a finished, blended potato soup for the last three minutes. That keeps it vividly green and with a slight bite rather than olive and overcooked. The base is nothing more than potato, onion and olive oil blended smooth — all the remaining flavour comes from the kale and the slices of chorizo on top.
Your own work in that: 45 min.
- Potatoes 25 min
- Kale 10 min
- Serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSoften the onion in olive oil
Heat the oil in a pot and cook the chopped onion 8 minutes over low heat, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic for the last minute. Don't brown it — this soup should be mild and pale, and browned onion tints it grey.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 1 pcs onion · 3 cloves garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1200 ml vegetable stock · 1½ tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
Simmer the potatoes to collapse
Add the diced potatoes and the stock. Simmer 18 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender and starting to break up. Caldo verde is not about pieces — the potato exists solely as a thickener.
Eighteen minutes, until they start to break upCut the kale into threads
Strip the kale leaves from their stems, stack them, roll them tightly like a cigar and slice across into 2 mm ribbons. This is the operation that determines how the soup looks — coarsely cut kale never hangs evenly through it.
Ingredients: 250 g kale · 150 g chorizo
TipThe technique is called chiffonade and works with any leaf: basil, spinach, lettuce. The roll must be tight and the knife sharp — a blunt one shreds the leaves rather than cutting them.
A tight cigar, ribbons two millimetres wideBlend the base smooth
Blend the soup completely smooth, 2 minutes. It should have the consistency of thick cream — add a little hot water if it is too thick. Season with salt and pepper now, since judging the seasoning becomes harder once the kale is in.
Smooth as thick cream, and seasonedFry the chorizo
Cut the chorizo into 5 mm slices and fry in a dry pan 3 minutes, until it renders its red, paprika-stained fat and colours lightly. Keep the fat — it goes onto the soup together with the olive oil.
Three minutes, until the red fat runsAdd the kale for three minutes
Bring the soup back to the boil, add the kale and cook exactly 3 minutes, uncovered. Take it off the heat at once. Ladle into bowls, top with the chorizo slices and spoon over the pan fat and olive oil. Serve with bread.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil · 4 pcs country bread
TipUncovered, so that some of the volatile acids the leaves release can escape. Under a lid they condense back and speed up the change from vivid green to olive grey.
Three minutes uncovered, then straight into bowls
Before you start
The real Portuguese green
Authentic caldo verde uses couve galega, a Portuguese cabbage with large smooth leaves. Curly kale is the closest available substitute; cavolo nero also works well.
Without meat
Leave out the chorizo and finish the soup with a double measure of good olive oil. The soup is still itself — its backbone is potato, greens and olive oil, and the sausage is an extra.
Reheating
The blended base keeps three days in the fridge and freezes well. Always add the kale fresh, at reheating — reheated kale loses its colour and turns faintly bitter.
Why it is so popular
By tradition it comes from the Minho in northern Portugal, made from whatever grew behind the house. It is served at weddings, village festivals and at New Year, often late at night — hard to beat as a recommendation.
