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hello this is chef john from food wishes
calm with caldo Verde that's right we're
making green soup
but not just any green soup this recipe
which is from northern Portugal is
considered by experts one of the world's
most delicious soups and what kind of
experts soup experts and I'm very
excited to show you my own personal
favourite version which we will start by
slicing up some Portuguese sausage also
known as linguist ax and I don't
generally have much trouble finding this
in the bigger supermarkets but if you do
any kind of cured lightly smoked spicy
garlic sausage would work alright
something like an andouille or have you
even used a dry version of Teresa for
this which is very nice and what we'll
do is slice that up as shown although we
should probably do both at once thereby
cutting our production time in half and
if you want you can dice this instead
which I've seen done in other versions
but that's going to take you a little
longer and I kind of like the looks of
the rounds so we'll go ahead and slice
that up at which point we will head to
the stove where we have our soup pot set
of our medium high heat and then to that
we will add a little bit of olive oil as
well as our linguist ax and then all
we're gonna do is saute that sausage for
about three minutes or so just until
those edges start to take on a little
bit of color and we've extracted a
couple tablespoons of that amazingly
flavorful linguist a fat and once it
gets to this stage which again is only
gonna take a couple minutes we'll go
ahead and remove that with a strainer or
slotted spoon to a bowl and simply
reserve that until needed and then once
that set will reduce our heat to
medium-low and toss our diced onions
right back into the pot along with the
traditional big pinch of salt and we'll
cook those on medium-low stirring
occasionally until they soften up and
sort of turn translucent and out of all
the different delicious things you can
cook onions in rendered lingua fat is
right up there with my favourites and
while we're waiting for those to soften
up we might as well go ahead and slice
our potatoes which for me is going to be
about three pounds of russet potatoes
which I think provide the perfect
texture for this in one tip when you
slice potatoes always cut a piece off
the bottom first that way it's going to
lay nice and flat
and you will significantly lower your
chance of cutting yourself so we'll go
ahead and peel and slice about five or
six potatoes depending on size and by
the way anywhere between like 1/8 and
1/4 inch is fine since we're going to
smash these up anyway but we do want a
fairly consistent so they cook at the
same rate and once those are done we can
toss them into some cold water until we
need them and yes we are gonna drain
those first but for now we can just
leave them like this and then once
that's been accomplished all we need to
do is wait for our onions to soften in
Sweden which it looks and feels like
mine have and once our onions are done
we will transfer our drained potatoes
into the pot and if you watch carefully
you'll see one slice falls on the floor
which some people think is okay to pick
up and put back in because of the
five-second rule
well I have a different five-second rule
it's called take five seconds and wash
it off and then put it back in which is
what I did along with a couple teaspoons
of salt and a couple quarts of liquid
which traditionally is water but if you
can swing it I prefer a couple quarts of
chicken broth which of course will just
add a little more flavor and then what
we'll do is raise our heat too high so
we can bring this up to a simmer oh and
I should mention because of the
seasoning and the sausage we do not need
to add cayenne here but I'm going to
anyway since nee 2 and 1/2 are totally
different things but anyway we will
bring that up to a simmer on high at
which point we'll reduce it down to
medium-low and cook this until our
potatoes are completely tender and I'm
not sure exactly how long that's gonna
take
because I'm not sure how thick you
sliced him but you'll know because
you're gonna check them and then what
we'll do while we're waiting for that to
happen is prep the verde for this caldo
and for me that's gonna be a couple
pounds of Cal and I'm using a
particularly beautiful variety called
Dino kale also known as lot shinato kale
and while we can't slice this up just
like this I much prefer to pull out that
tough fibrous rib that runs down the
center of the leaf which is very easy to
do by simply pulling through your
fingers that leaf will separate off that
nicely and any pieces that don't you can
just pull off make sure this is gonna
add a little bit of prep time to the
recipe but I think is totally worth it
plus you can always try to get a couple
of your friends to maybe come over for a
little pre dinner stripping although
when you text to ask I would probably
phrase them
but anyway once our kale has been ribbed
we will proceed to give it a chop which
I like to do one handful at a time just
sort of wad that up and slice across
with a knife like this and then we'll
turn that and go the other way to get
some bite-sized pieces right ideally
once this is wilted in the soup these
pieces will be roughly the size of your
spoon and by the way while kale is a
great choice for this any other dark
leafy greens would work
all right things like collard greens or
Swiss chard would also work great so if
you happen to find some other great
looking greens at the market go ahead
and use them but anyway what we'll do
once our greens are chopped is go ahead
and give them a wash in some nice cold
fresh water and then we'll go ahead and
transfer those into a colander to drain
and as I'm transferring those in I'm
kind of smashing in with my hands so
they take up less room and they're gonna
be easier to put in the soup speaking of
which once that set let's head over to
see how our potatoes are doing and we
will test those for tenderness and as
you can see those are falling apart and
we can easily smash that against the
side of the pot with our spatula and
what we'll do once those are tender is
take a potato masher and smash these as
fine as we want okay some people like to
leave a lot of big chunks other people
like me like to smash it pretty much
smooth okay so you're gonna have to
decide how far to go
I mean you are after all the Waldo of
this caldo so you do that to the point
you find gives you the best texture but
the more you smash the smoother and
silkier it gets which is my preference
and then once that set it's time to stir
in our kale which we need to do a couple
handfuls at a time all right this is
gonna seem like sort of a magic trick
because by the looks of it it will never
seem like it's gonna fit but it does
because as you add and stir in a couple
handfuls it's gonna wilt and it will
make room for the next addition and
you'll see eventually it will all fit in
worst case scenario it doesn't and
you're left over with a small handful
just save it and make a frittata the
next day I know that does sound good
see now you're hoping it doesn't fit but
anyway we will go ahead and stir in our
kale which play we can grab our bolo
sausage and go ahead and add that back
in
which we did not cook with our potatoes
because I didn't want those that get
broken up into little bits when we work
this over with the masher so to preserve
as we say in the business the integrity
of the sausage we will stir that in at
this point and then what we're going to
do to finish this soup off is simply let
it simmer on medium low until our greens
get nice and tender or at least that's
my preference okay if you prefer to
enjoy this with those greens having a
little more texture to them that is your
business and since there is such a thing
as a kale salad where the greens are not
cooked at all who am I to say that's a
mistake but in my occasionally humble
opinion I think this soup is at its best
when it's simmered for about 45 minutes
and those greens have gotten very very
tender and not only do I taste this for
tenderness or green it's also usually
almost always going to need some salt
all right really the only way to ruin
this recipe is to under sult it and even
though that sausage is usually highly
seasoned and we did add some salt
earlier you need to check it but anyway
I went ahead and let mine simmer for a
total of about 45 minutes or so until it
looked a little something like this
and after giving it one last official
test for green tenderness as well as
double-checking for seasoning I
determined it was ready to serve which I
did into this bowl and then I garnished
the top with a few drops of olive oil to
add a little bit of richness but also a
nice little sparkle to the surface and
that's it my version of caldo Verde is
done and ready to serve next to a slice
of toasted bread and sure it's beautiful
and simple to make and super nutritious
and very inexpensive but above and
beyond all those things this is one of
the most comforting most satisfying
soups ever invented
all right there's probably an old
Portuguese saying that nobody ever makes
caldo Verde once because once you make
this it's pretty much a guarantee it's
going to go into the regular rotation it
is just one of those dishes and by the
way if you're having feelings of deja vu
yes I did do this recipe like ten years
ago but I didn't call it caldo Verde and
I also tagged it as a spanish recipe
which my portuguese viewers let me know
was definitely no bueno
so hopefully the second attempt ready
with them a little bit we'll see and
then before I sign off I did want to
show you one thing I like to do while
eating this soup I like to build myself
some impromptu braised green bruschetta
'z sorry no sausage I just like to pile
up those hot wet savory greens and eat
it off the toast which is never not
thoroughly enjoyable so just a little
something I like to do I'm guessing my
average viewer does not need any
instructions but anyway that's it
caldo Verde my only regret is that the
weather was pretty nice when I ate this
I really wanted it to be nasty and cold
and damp but hey you can't have
everything and no matter what the
weather is I really do hope you give
this amazing soup a try soon so head
over to food wishes calm for all the
ingredient amounts of Morpho as usual
and as always enjoy
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Learn how to make Caldo Verde, an amazingly delicious Portuguese sausage, kale, and potato soup! This is comfort food at its finest. Visit https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2017/11/caldo-verde-my-green-soup-redux.html for the ingredients, more information, and many, many more video recipes. I hope you enjoy this simple, inexpensive, and nutritious soup!