More Than Our Story

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale Soup)

Total Time: 45 Minutes (5 Prep, 40 Cook)

Serves: 4

Vegetarian with Vegan Options

Table of Contents

Inspiration

The name Caldo Verde means green soup in Portuguese. I had the luck to try this soup when I was down in Cape Cod recently, a town renowned for its strong Portuguese heritage. It’s a hearty, traditional soup bursting in flavor that hits all the right notes – salty, smokey, spicy, and a little bitter. Best part – it’s filled with healthy cancer fighting ingredients including kale and garlic.

Ingredients

This delicious soup has a few staples – potatoes, onions, kale, beans and sausage – but the ingredients are merely your guide, and open to your own inspiration.

Consistent Ingredients

  • Kale, 2 cups, chopped. Although you could use collard greens, swiss chard or green cabbage if you prefer.
  • Potatoes, 2-3 medium, white, waxy potatoes, peeled and diced, ½ to 1” cubes. These will form the base of the soup. 
  • Onions, 2 medium, white, diced.
  • Garlic, 4-6 cloves chopped, to provide flavor to the base of the soup.
  • Sausage, 8 ounces, casing removed, diced or sliced into thin rounds. I prefer Linguiça, but Chouriço (Chorizo) makes a great substitute. If you’re looking for a Vegan option, use a plant-based smoked sausage.
  • Broth, 3 cups. This recipe calls for chicken broth, but vegetable stock can be used for plant-based diets.
  • Oil, 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil.
  • Salt and Pepper to taste.

Optional Ingredients

  • Beans, 1 (15oz) can, rinsed. I like added beans to both increase the nutritional value and make the soup more filling. I opt for white or red kidney beans, but chickpeas or white navy beans can be used. 
  • Plum tomatoes, 3, cored and cut into ½-inch cubes.
  • Vinegar, 1-2 tablespoons. Balsamic or apple cider vinegar lend a nice acidity to this soup.
  • Bay leaves, 1-2 fresh or dried.
  • Red pepper flakes or splash of hot sauce to taste.
  • Oyster crackers

OYSTER CRACKERS:
For a true taste of Cape Cod I strongly suggest going out of your way to find oyster crackers - you'll thank me later.

PLANT-BASED OPTION:
You can make this soup plant-based by using vegetable stock in place of chicken stock and omitting the sausage.

CANCER FIGHTING FACTS:
- Dark green leafy vegetables, including kale, contain carotenoids which can act as antioxidants and boost the body's own antioxidant defenses, protecting against cancer.
- Kale is also a rich source of organosulfur compounds known as glucosinolates which breakdown into cancer-inhibitors called isothiocyanates, creating cancer-destroying enzymes and inhibiting cancer development.

Preparations

  1. Prepare the kale, potatoes, onions, garlic and sausages.
  2. Brown the sausages in the pot for 5 to 10 minutes to get some color on the sausages and leave behind some nice flavor in the pot. Remove and set aside.
  3. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. 
  4. Sauté the garlic, potatoes, kale, and chorizo in the oil for 5 minutes.
  5. After 5 minutes, add the broth, bay leaves, beans, and any other ingredients. Add salt, and pepper, and turn the heat down to medium-low for 25 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.
  6. Once cooked, mix everything together a final time.
  7. Serve with crusty bread and butter, or oyster crackers.

Tips

  • This soup can be overcooked so make sure to set a kitchen timer, and make sure to use waxy potatoes that stand up to boiling.
  • Heart Health Tip: Look for low sodium broth.
  • Gluten-Free Tip: Many of the ingredients for this recipe are naturally gluten-free. Be sure to read the labels of the chicken stock, sausage, and apple cider vinegar and confirm your selections are all gluten-free.

This recipe is perfect for going off script. Play around with the ingredients and make it your own!

SOURCES
Picture of Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is an extremely curious person, a wealth of random knowledge and facts. Extremely passionate about a vast array of interests ranging from health to history, science to athletics, everything culinary and the list goes on. Trust us, you would want to be on his team for Trivial Pursuit. Daniel is also years into his battle with brain cancer. He experienced a seizure while on a Zoom call at work in late 2020 and quite literally, his life changed within minutes. After his operation he started to talk about his story but had always known it was more than just him. From then, More Than Our Story became a PROJECT that has evolved into the starting point it is today.

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