This is the beginning of a series of my favorite soup recipes.
If you’re ready for a post-holiday health reboot, lean on soup as a tried and true way to nourish, warm, fortify, heal, and comfort yourself and your family. According to Chinese nutritional theory, brothy hot soups are a perfect way to chase out pathogens, fortify your immune system, stoke your digestive ‘pilot light’, and refill your well of reserves. In the heart of winter, who couldn’t use a bit of that? Whether you are trying to recover during cold and flu season or maintain your good health, or just feeling cookie’d out from the holidays, food is amazing medicine and you can’t go wrong with a steaming flavorful bowl of soup… or three.
These recipes all fall firmly into the EASY category. And because I love to freeze leftovers, they are for big batches. If you are not a leftovers-fan (that is, if you are from some other planet where leftovers are not the greatest thing going) then you might choose to half these recipes.
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Chorizo Kale Soup)
prep time: 20 minutes, cooking time 30-35 minutes
Ingredients:
2 lb gold potatoes, chopped to bite-sized chunks
2 yellow onions, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped finely or crushed
2 bunches curly kale, de-stemmed and chopped roughly to 1” pieces (bite-sized)
4 Tbs Better Than Bouillon organic chicken broth paste (right)
8-12 oz cured spanish chorizo (linguica) sliced into 1/4″ thin coins
3 Tbs olive oil
black pepper (optional)
*Note about chorizo: I like this kind (right), which I buy at Pastaworks. Despite it saying “Hot” on the label, it is very mildly spicy at most. I’m sure there is a broad range of sausage would work well. If you are using something fresh rather than cured, you may need to adjust your sauteing accordingly.
Instructions:
1. Prep: chop and dice the above ingredients as specified.
2. Fill your 8qt stock pot 2/3 full with water. Put on medium-high heat.
3. In a separate pan, sauté onions in 3 T. olive oil on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, then add garlic and sliced chorizo and sauté for another 3-5 min. (right)
4. Add to the large pot of water: chopped potatoes, chicken bouillon paste, a little fresh ground pepper (optional), and the satueed onions and chorizo with all that good spicy oil from the pan.
5. Bring to a low boil, then let simmer until potato chunks are soft (15-20 minutes), then add the chopped kale and simmer for 3-5 more minutes until kale is cooked but still a vibrant green.
Serve and enjoy!
Like many soups, this one is even better on day 2 and 3 when the potatoes have partly dissolved and the flavors have melded into a perfect symphony.
Recipe courtesy of Beth John, LMT– exceptional body worker, great friend & amazing cook. Thanks Beth.
