Thursday, March 31, 2005

The weather's definitely warming up, but still has an edge to it. It calls for soup, but not anything too heavy. Portuguese Kale Soup fits the bill nicely:

Caldo Verde

2 Tbs olive oil
3-4 large potatoes
2 cans cannelloni beans
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
11/2 lb kale
3/4 lb Portuguese sausage (can be chorizo, linguica - I prefer the hot varieties when I can find them. If you can't find Portuguese sausage, Polish smoked sausage works pretty well.)
8-10 c chicken broth

Chop the onion and garlic; slice potatoes thin. Sauté in olive oil. Slice sausage thinly and add to potatoes. Wash kale, remove leafy part from stems and discard stems. Shred leaves and add to potato/sausage mixture, sautéeing until kale turns bright green. Take sautéed ingredients and add to chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Serve with a green salad and some good, crusty bread (or traditional Portuguese corn bread) and butter.

This is a pretty good approximation of my friend Jo's soup. Hers is the first I tried and about the best I've ever had. Though a lot of the restaurants in the neighborhood make it, they aren't nearly as good as the homemade stuff.

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