Today I made a Portuguese Kale Sausage Potato Soup. All I can say is WOW! It is simple and quick to make and my children LOVED it! It is made using Portuguese kale, sausages, potatoes, corn, onion, and chicken broth. It tastes sort of like a chowder but is a nice dairy-free alternative (assuming the sausage you use is dairy-free). Honestly, it is one of the best tasting soups I’ve had in a long time. It is a great meal to include on a cold winter’s day.
My husband served a mission for the LDS Church in Portugal as well as on the Azores islands. Because of that, I am always interested when I get produce from Portugal. I even took Portuguese for one year in college, which I loved. The owner of the local organic farm we get a lot of our produce from is from Portugal, so it’s no surprise he grows Portuguese kale.
The leaves are quite large and would possibly make a good wrap for something. Especially if it was steamed. They are also not as chewy as some other kale varieties that I’ve had and when cooked in a soup, they are the perfect texture! I will definitely want to include Portuguese kale in my garden!
When making this soup, I decided to remove the base stem of the kale by cutting up the sides of the stem. It is rather thick, and I wanted mostly the leaf in my soup today. I then thinly chopped the kale into bite-sized pieces for the soup.
I started 12 c of water boiling and added 4 T of chicken bouillon. You can also use 12 c of your own homemade chicken stock. I peeled 5 medium sized potatoes and diced them into bite-sized pieces. I added them to the boiling broth. I threw in 1-2 T of dehydrated chopped onions and 1 16 oz can of whole kernel corn. I then opened up a bag of little smokies sausages (I used the beef ones) and diced them into little bite-sized pieces. I added them to the pot as well as the chopped Portuguese kale. I topped the soup of with some finely ground pepper. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then served it warm with some homemade garlic toast that I made.
The soup is that simple to prepare! The flavor? Heaven. The traditional Portuguese Kale soup is called Caldo Verde. It uses linguica sausage instead and I’m sure is very good. This soup was a nice alternative with what I had ready access to, and I really liked adding the corn. It created a delightful combination of flavors and textures.
Here is the recipe for Portuguese Kale Sausage Potato Soup!
- 12 cups water plus 4 T chicken bouillon (or use 12 cups of chicken broth)
- 1 bunch Portuguese kale, cleaned, stems removed
- 1 12-oz. package smoked sausages, cut into chunks (I used beef little smokies)
- 1-2 T dehydrated onions (or 1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced)
- 6 medium to small white or red potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 16 oz. can whole kernel corn
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- Salt, to taste (I didn't need any in mine with the sausage and bouillon)
- Put water and bouillon (or broth) into a large stock pot and bring to a boil.
- Add diced potatoes, sausage, onions, kale, and undrained corn to soup pot.
- Lower heat to medium low and simmer soup for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- Salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve warm.
Do not underestimate how savory this recipe is. Amazing! When I lived in Portugal, I would see soups similar to this prepared. Just as I was thinking how wonderful it would be to eat, the soup would be puréed with a hand blender wand. I like having chunks of potato, corn and sausage in my soup. And once again I am pleasantly surprised by kale; this soup wouldn’t exist without it!
This comment was from my husband, Dave:) He was signed into my account be accident. I love hearing his stories from Portugal and all of the experiences he had there! Thanks for sharing!