Sunday Dinner: Portuguese Kale Soup

I love vegetable soups, but I need protein to make it a meal. This soup is packed with healthy stuff, but the chorizo gives it much-needed flavor and the all-important protein factor. If you’re vegetarian, you can substitute a few dashes of hot sauce and a cup or two of beans for the sausage.

  1 lb kale
  1 lb potatoes, chopped
  1 lb chorizo, removed from casings
  1 cup chopped onions
  1/2 cup chopped carrots
  1/2 cup chopped celery
  2-3 chopped shallots
  3-4 cloves chopped garlic
  2 tb olive oil
  2 qt chicken broth
  28 oz canned chopped tomatoes, drained
  salt and freshly ground pepper

Strip the leaves from the washed kale and cut diagonally into wide slices. You should end up with 6-8 cups lightly packed kale. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, cook the chorizo through, separating as you cook. Remove chorizo from pot and set aside. Drain fat from the pot.

In the same pot, add olive oil and saute onions, carrots, celery, shallots, and garlic for about 5 minutes until softened. Add potatoes and broth, and simmer, partially covered, for about 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Mash a few of the potatoes against the side of the pot to thicken the broth. Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the kale and sausage, cook 5-10 minutes longer, and season to taste.

Sunday Dinner: Portuguese Kale Soup

recipe loosely adapted from The Victory Garden Cookbook

10 comments

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That looks delicious!!!!

http://www.myclayexperience.com/

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This sounds AMAZING—and pretty easy to tweak into a veggie-friendly dish, too!!

Blonde in this City

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That looks totally delicious! I've been through a bit of a soup phase lately which is probably due to the extremely cold temperatures we've had. And it seems like I am going to be eating more soup this week to keep warm since there's another cold front coming our way.

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I think soup is the perfect wintertime meal and have been having it often. Always looking for new recipes to try, so thanks for sharing!
Chic on the Cheap

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My husband is second generation from St. Michael’s in the Azores. The kale soup he makes is his Grandmother’s recipe. It is similar to the one included here, ” Portuguese Kale Soup “. Ed’s soup starts with a beef roast, that has been trimmed of most of the fat, and put into a 20 oz. stock pot, covered with water, with a dash of salt and black pepper, to taste.
Once the beef has cooked for a while he adds sliced Portuguese sausage and adds it to the pot, along with a medium yellow onion, chopped coarsely . Once this base has simmered for about an hour, he then adds chunk – cut carrots and potatoes. He adds diced tomatoes, cabbage, and this is simmered, until the carrots and potatoes are fork tender. Finally the main ingredient, kale, is added to the soup. Then, he simmers the soup until everything has become something so very delicious, we eat it for the whole week ! The longer the soup has to sit and mingle, the more flavorful it becomes. Kale Soup is now my most favorite soup, of all time! It is so yummy, you’ve got to try it, for sure.!

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Thank you so much for sharing this! Even though this post was written years ago, this soup still remains one of our favorite recipes! Now that it’s cold here, I would love to try a new spin. I’ll let you know how it goes!

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I made this soup last night. It was so good! I simmered it without the chorizo and kale for a couple hours (added extra broth), then added the kale and soy chorizo (we’re vegans). It was actually delicious without the chorizo too.

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I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’ve often thought it would be good without meat, too!

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As usual it was a straight forward recipe I added some smoked paprika and crushed chilli and will serve with a good glug of extra virgin olive oil and toasted crusty bread

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That’s fantastic! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It’s one of our favorite winter recipes. 🙂

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