Caldo Verde - a recipe

Tuscan Kale

Hello!

Today was my work day at the primary school, and one of the dishes we made was a version of a Portuguese 'green soup'  with potato and kale.  

It was a big hit, with everyone saying it was yum, so I thought I might share the recipe we made with you all, as it is heading into soup weather for my northern hemisphere friends.  It is always good to have another great vegie soup in your repertoire !

 So here it is, easy, delicious, fresh and using great stuff grown in the garden

CALDO VERDE

650g waxy potatoes such as Desiree or Nicola

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium onions

3 garlic cloves

5 cups water, (or vegie stock, or chicken stock)

salt

2 bay leaves

9 - 10 large leaves of kale or other cabbage

100g chourico sausage (we used bacon instead)

Peel potatoes and cut into chunks.

Finely chop the onions and garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a largish saucepan, and sauté the onion until soft. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for one minute.  Add the potatoes, water, salt, and bay leaves and cook until tender - about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, wash the kale leaves and remove the hard stems, then roll up the leaves and cut into fine shreds.

Once the potatoes are cooked, mash the mixture with a potato masher, then add the kale and cook for another 15 - 20 minutes and check the seasoning.  Remove the bay leaves.

Chop up the bacon into little pieces and sauté in a frying pan for a few minutes , until just brown.  Add the bacon to soup.

Ladle soup into bowls and enjoy! !

(This recipe came from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation website and was tweaked a little bit by me, changes are in the brackets.)

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I was able to use the Tuscan kale growing in my garden for this recipe, it is such a great vegetable to grow at home, very easy to grow and at its best growing through autumn and winter around here.

I will be making this soup for my lunches later in the week as there is still plenty of kale ready to go in the garden!

The other dishes we made today were a winter tabouli,  mixed berry jam, lemon butter, and scones.

The children seem to have fun in these cooking classes, although I find them a bit chaotic, but I think that is just having 24 kids in 4 different groups all doing their own thing at the one time, it is bound to get a bit noisy!  Thank goodness for the great volunteers who help each group!!  I am getting more accustomed to it each week, and it is bothering me less, so that is a good thing!

Hope you all have a great day!