Requires about 80 minutes.
Really, Caldo
Verde is just kale or collards or even
broccoli soup thickened with mashed potatoes. Linguiça is a main
flavoring, and you can get some very good linguiça at The Belmont Butchery in Richmond, Virginia.
However, ordinary country
sausage might be too sage-y. Couple slices of
smoked jowl? Few drops of smoked flavoring or smoked torula yeast? Or, really, you
can just use California olive oil and vegetables.
Caldo Verde is really
easy:
Brown up some linguiça or other sausage in
your soup pan while you slice several onions.
And mince two or three cloves of garlic.
(Alternatively, for a vegetarian version, just
start with onion and butter or olive oil, and skip sausage completely. But why skip the sausage if you live within driving distance of The Belmont Butchery?)
Chorizo or andouille, I think might have too much black pepper for some people to use them in Caldo Verde.
Chorizo or andouille, I think might have too much black pepper for some people to use them in Caldo Verde.
While the onion and sausage become nicely browned, peel a large baking
potato, cut in half lengthwise and crosswise.
Put in with onions and garlic. Add a diced carrot and
a diced stick of celery. if you have some.
Wash the kale
very thoroughly, especially if it is curly kale. Purple kale works
well. Cut off the ends of the stems, and then cut the stem ends into short bits.
When the onion and sausage have browned,
add good water to come up pretty full. But not too full for adding all that
shredded collards or kale. Put all the stems
in the pot.
Add broth, stock, or essence, if you have some. Chicken or beef or vegetable. Bring to boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender. You may add a handful of quinoa (washed and then toasted) or a handful of organic short grain brown rice for more strength, if you like. Add 1/4 of the shredded kale.
Pull the sausages out
and slice them into eating chunks, then return them to the pot. Or brown some tofu in olive oil and use that instead. Continue to simmer. Ten minutes before
serving, raise heat to a good but not furious boil.
Put in the rest of the
kale shreds. After the liquid boils (not long,
the kale should stay slightly crunchy) mash the potatoes right in the pan with a
smasher The soup will thicken up. Adjust the seasoning
(the salt, especially, because the potatoes will absorb salt.) Add a dash of vermouth or Port.
Turn off the heat and
let stand, covered, for about five minutes while the guests assemble at the table.
Put a spoon of the best
California Olive Ranch Olive Oil in each bowl. Ladle the soup in. A spoon of the real grated
sheep milk romano cheese from Italy will be an ideal
sprinkle-on.
Drink good red wine. Or good white wine. Or Port. Not vinho verde. And certainly not Mateus. -- Christian Gehman
