With this winter deep freeze, there is nothing that warms you more than soup. Kale seems to be the trend now. The Portuguese have always been great fans of kale in their diet so I guess we were in the know. I will share a simple soup recipe that includes kale. There are so many variations of Portuguese kale soup and I suppose that you can Google and find them, but the one I am going to share with you has been in my family forever and is very easy to make. It is known as Poor Man’s Soup or the national soup of Portugal. It’s simple and quick to make and also freezes well. A warning I don’t measure precisely, but don’t worry you don’t need to when making soup.
Fill a large pot with water about 3/4 full.
Peel about 3 medium potatoes and one onion- quarter them and add to the pot along with 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped.
Boil them for about 15-20 minutes and then puree with a hand blender.
In the meantime stack a few kale leaves at a time ( don’t use the curly kind) on top of one another, roll them like a cigar and cut them as thinly as possible. Use about one pound of kale. Wash and add to the pot once you have pureed the potatoes and onions. Don’t worry if it seems like too much kale because it will shrink as it cooks down.
Add abut 8 ounces of thinly cut linguica , a Portuguese sausage that you can find in most grocery stores now. Add some salt to taste about 1 1/2 teaspoons. You can also add ground black pepper if you like, but you don’t have to and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, about a 1/4 cup. Stir and let everything come to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer for about an hour.
The soup actually tastes better if you serve it the next day.
Tip- you can buy the kale already chopped up in most Portuguese bakeries or grocery stores in Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury.
Hint: serve with crusty bread and red wine and you have yourself a meal. Enjoy!