Caldo Verde

Caldo Verde: Step by Step

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1. Roll the greens into a tight cigar and shred them as finely as you possibly can — 2 mm ribbons is the target. This is the defining texture of caldo verde.

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2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pot and cook the onion and garlic over medium heat for 8 minutes until soft but not coloured.

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3. Add the potatoes and water, bring to the boil, and simmer 20 minutes until the potatoes are falling apart.

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4. Meanwhile fry the chouriço slices in a dry pan for 3 minutes until the edges crisp and the orange fat runs. Set aside with the fat.

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5. Blend the soup until completely smooth, then return it to the pot and season with the salt.

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6. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, which enriches the base.

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7. Bring back to a simmer, add the shredded greens, and cook for just 3 minutes.

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8. Ladle into bowls, top each with two or three slices of chouriço and a little of its rendered fat, and finish with a drizzle of olive oil and black pepper.

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Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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What Can Go Wrong

1. Shred the greens as finely as you can manage. Coarse pieces make it a different, lesser soup.
2. Three minutes for the greens, no more. Any longer and the colour goes.
3. Good olive oil, added off the heat, does more here than any amount of cream would.

Swaps and Variations

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

A Little Background

The greens go in for only two or three minutes at the very end, which keeps them bright green and slightly firm — cooked into the soup they turn khaki and bitter. Blending the potato base rather than adding cream gives body from starch alone.

To Go With It

Broa, the Portuguese cornbread · A glass of vinho verde · More chouriço on the side

Keeping Caldo Verde

Refrigerate the blended base up to 4 days and freeze 3 months. Add fresh greens and chouriço when reheating.

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: where a line offers a choice of foods, only one of them is counted; garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. How the figures are worked out.

Gluten-free when served without the broa or crusty bread.

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