Vegetarian Portuguese Kale & Potato Soup ~ Caldo Verde

My friend Kate Gabrielle, over at Scathingly Brilliant, asked me recently for an idea of how to use kale. My favorite way to cook with kale is to make Caldo Verde, a Portuguese soup that is comprised of kale, potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots and chorizo sausage. Since Kate is a vegetarian, I adapted my recipe by taking out the chorizo, adding red kidney beans for protein and replacing the chicken broth with vegetable broth. She made the soup and loved it.

So when my friend Kevin, who is also a vegetarian, mentioned that he is growing kale in his garden, I told him that he should try using some of that kale for a Vegetarian version of Caldo Verde. I promised him I would post the recipe and here it is! Enjoy.

Ingredients


1 onion, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
4 potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
crushed red pepper flake to taste
a bunch of kale, shredded
6 cups of vegetable broth
1 15.5 oz can of Red Kidney beans

Chop your onion.

Slice your carrots.

Peel and chop your potatoes. Make sure you keep them in water so they don't start going brown.

Thinly shred your Kale. This is tricky. Make sure you refer my step-by-step instructions (complete with photos) here: Caldo Verde Recipe

Heat up some olive oil in a big soup pot. Add onions and cook until they start to get soft. Then add your carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add potatoes, crushed red pepper flake, and garlic. Stir.

Add 6 cups of broth and bring the pot to a boil. Then add all of your shredded kale and cover the pot and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. Stir occasionally. Add your red kidney beans last. Once they heat through, serve. You can crush the potatoes with a spoon to make the soup a bit thicker.

Enjoy while it's hot. Sorry for no picture of a bowl of soup. The whole pot was devoured pretty quickly.

Peruvian Minestrone

This is another gem from the cookbook Daisy Cooks! by Daisy Martinez. She calls this recipe the true jewel of Peru (step aside Machu Picchu!). I modified her recipe and kind of threw it together, hoping it would come out well but not having too high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a hearty stew, full of good things and I enjoyed it even on a warm spring day.

Ingredients:

3 slices of bacon

1 leek halved and sliced into half-moons
4 carrots peeled and sliced
4 celery hearts chopped
1/2 onion chopped
5-6 yukon gold potatoes peeled and chopped

rind of a block of parmesan cheese

5 cups of beef broth

4 ears of frozen corn thawed and cut into 4 chunks each
4 small links or one large link of chorizo sliced

salt and pepper to taste
parsley for garnish

This recipe makes 4 servings

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In a large soup pot, add 3 slices of bacon, cover and cook bacon over medium heat. Flip the bacon occasionally, but keep the lid on the pot. When the bacon is nice and crispy, remove from the bacon and keep the grease and burnt bits in the pot.

Eat the bacon. Sure you could keep the bacon, break it up and sprinkle it on top of the soup. But you know you want to eat it. Immediately! It's okay. I won't tell anybody.

Turn the heat back up to medium and add your leeks, carrots, celery, onions and potatoes. Cook for a few minutes then slowly add your 5 cups of beef broth and your parmesan rind. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the pot to a boil and cook for 25-30 minutes.

Remove the parmesan rind and slide in your chorizo and cut up ears of corn. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until corn is done.

If you want, you can brown the chorizo in a pan separately and then add the chorizo to the pot a minute or so before you serve. If you have really good quality chorizo (the tough kind that's been smoked), you'll want to give it more time in the pot to soften a bit.

Serve hot or at room temperature. It reheats really well too so it makes great leftovers.