Portuguese Caldo verde - Kale Soup with Potato
Portugal's best-known soup: pureed potato as the base and hair-fine kale that cooks for only three minutes. Instead of the usual chouriço, smoked paprika carries the smoky note here.
Why this dish is good for you
Kale is one of the few vegetables with a meaningful amount of vitamin K, and it supplies calcium in a well-absorbed form. Because it cooks only briefly, much of its heat-sensitive vitamin C also survives - with longer-boiled cabbage there would be little left.
Ingredients
- Potatoes(floury, peeled and diced)700 g
- Kale(leaves without the rib, rolled up and cut into hair-fine strips)400 g
- Onion150 g
- Olive oil(half for sweating, half raw on the plate)40 g
- Garlic15 g
- Salt(replaces the chouriço)7 g
- Smoked paprika(sweet, stirred in off the heat)5 g
- Water1800 ml
Method
- 1
Sweat onion and garlic in half the olive oil until translucent.
- 2
Add the potatoes and water and boil for 25 minutes until the potatoes fall apart.
- 3
Stir in the smoked paprika off the heat and blend the soup smooth. It should have the body of thin cream.
- 4
Season with salt and bring back to the boil.
- 5
Scatter in the hair-fine kale and boil uncovered for exactly three minutes - it should stay bright green and keep some bite.
- 6
Serve at once with the remaining olive oil poured over raw.
🥬 Warum der Kohl so dünn geschnitten wird
Portuguese markets have dedicated machines for this cut. Hair-fine strips are done in three minutes. Boiled longer, the cabbage releases sulphur compounds - the smell many people associate with cabbage, which short cooking never produces in the first place.
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