Caldo Verde

One of the soups included in this month’s feature, this is a delight. The ingredients are simple, but it does take a little time and patience to do it properly. Based on potatoes and curly kale, it is a Portuguese dish – the name translates loosely as ‘green soup’. Also essential is a generous amount of garlic, plus of course the Spice Mountain touch – a good sprinkle of our new Patatas Bravas blend. The resulting soup is rich and satisfying, the starch of the potato contrasting with the slightly bitter flavour of curly kale. The chorizo used in our recipe is optional – a vegetarian caldo verde is no less enjoyable. The soup is substantial enough to be enjoyed for lunch with a hunk of crusty bread, and it makes a great starter for an Autumn dinner.

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Ingredients

2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 large onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100g (roughly) curly kale, shredded as finely as possible.
1.5 ltr vegetable stock
2tsp Spice Mountain Patatas Bravas blend
handful of chorizo slices

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Method

1

Heat 2tbs olive oil in a heavy pan, before adding the potato, onion and garlic.

2

On a gentle heat, sautee for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the potatoes sticking (this will also happen if the heat is too high). By this time the potatoes should have broken down considerably, as if you had boiled them first.

3

Next add the patatas bravas blend and stir well, before adding the vegetable stock.

4

Stir and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes or so before adding the shredded curly kale, then keep on simmering away for another 20 minutes or so.

5

In a separate pan, fry the chorizo slices in some more olive oil, and when it is crispy add to the soup along with the frying oil, and stir again.

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