I have a thing with sausage soups. Basically, I love them. All of them. This Caldo Verde Soup is my take on a traditional Portuguese Green Soup, a sausage soup that I love and am so excited to share with you.
Like many other traditional soups, there are many variations on how it can be made. One thing is for sure though, if you are not boiling the onions and potatoes first, you are not making Caldo Verde. You could also argue that you absolutely have to thinly slice the greens into long strips.
Most variations of this humble soup begin with water, and while I have made it that way countless times, I really prefer the richness that chicken stock adds so if you have some on hand, use it. If not, use filtered water.
When it comes to the greens, I always go with collard greens for Caldo Verde but I know many who use kale. Whichever you use, be sure to remove the ribs.
I have a hard time finding junk-free Linguiça (Portuguese Sausage) so I generally use smoked chorizo. If you can find it, Wellshire is a good quality brand that is free of most allergens and nasty ingredients.
Finally, I recommend making a double batch of this because it goes quickly and it is even better the next day!
NOTES:
- The amount of salt you need to use will depend on the salinity of both the broth and the sausage. Start out with just a little when you put in the potatoes and broth and add more at the end if necessary.
- This freezes great!
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Caldo Verde Soup {Portuguese Green Soup}. Whole30. Gluten Free. Dairy Free.
- 4 medium yellow onions peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes peeled, cut into 2" chunks and divided
- 2 teaspoons salt see NOTES
- 8 cups chicken broth OR filtered water
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 12 ounces smoked chorizo or Linguiça Sausage, very thinly sliced
- 1 pound collard greens ribs removed and thinly sliced (across the leaf)
- squeeze of lemon juice for serving optional
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Peel onions and roughly chop.
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Peel potatoes and cut into 2" chunks. Add 1 pound of the potatoes into a large soup pot with onion and set aside remaining 1 pound of potatoes to add in later.
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TIP: Cover set aside potatoes with cold water to prevent browning.
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Thinly slice sausage.
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Clean collard greens, remove ribs and thinly slice leaves into strips.
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Combine onions, 1 pound of the potatoes, salt and broth in a large soup pot. Set over medium high heat and bring to boil. Once boiling, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook 15 to 20 minutes until potatoes are fork tender.
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Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree until completely smooth. Alternately, you could do this in batches in a blender or food processor but be very careful as transferring hot liquid can be not only dangerous but extremely messy
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Return pot to stovetop over medium high heat and bring to a second boil. Once boiling add olive oil, sliced sausage, sliced collard greens and remaining cubed potatoes (make sure to thoroughly drain first!).
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Lower light to medium and continue cooking an additional 10 to 15 minutes until potatoes are fork tender. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.
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Serve hot and Enjoy!
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Hi – this soup sounds delish! But I’m doing low carb so wonder if you think I can substitute cauliflower for potato?
Hi Claudine! You could sub cauliflower but the flavor and texture will be totally different — I think it will still be pretty yummy though 🙂
I just made this over the weekend and did swap the potatoes out for Cauliflower. What I did was I halved a whole head of cauliflower and tool one half and made it very small pieces that I put in the pot with the onion and cooked down and blended. The other half I roasted on a pan (again in smaller pieces) with some hatch pepper seasoning till it was browned nicely which I added right at the end as it was already a good texture. It was really good but I can’t compare to the original as I did not make it with potatoes yet. But I’m loving it in the lower carb rendition I made. Thanks for another great recipe!
Love this idea Ron!! I’ll have to try it next time 🙂
I cannot say enough about this soup! I never had it before and I made it tonight. I cannot wait to have more. It has a wonderful flavor and is so easy to make.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
Thank you so much Zelda!!! What wonderful feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know 🙂
Alyssa, after reading your story found it to be very inspiring.
I want to thank you for having taking the time to share your recipes. My housemate and I are Whole30 rookies and I find myself constantly researching recipes for ideas to keep going. We completed our first 30 and we both lost about 10lbs. Came across your webpage and began drooling…. lol
Definitely will be making this soup this weekend given that it will be very cold…
Thank you for sharing and God bless you.
You are so welcome! Thanks for taking the time to leave me such a nice comment!
Made this soup tonight. Used kale since I couldn’t find collards. It was wonderful. Added a shake of hot sauce and it was perfect for a blustery evening dinner in Vancouver.
Sounds like a perfect meal Ann!!
This soup is AMAZING!! I used fresh sausage and added hot paprika, garlic, thyme and oregano to make up for the seasoning lost for not using andouille sausage 🙂 My husband raved about it, so it’s going in our regular rotation for sure.
Hi Melissa,
So glad you all loved it!! One of my favs right now 🙂
This soup was amazing just started to cool down in our area of the gulf coast so thank you for easy to follow step by step instructions yum found some Portuguese sausage so it was great
Des
Hi Desirée – Lucky you finding good Portuguese sausage – so glad you liked it!
I made this soup the other night and loved it. Thanks for such a yummy recipe!
So glad Hector! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Love sausage soups! This one looks terrific. Linguiça has such nice flavor, doesn’t it? Impossible to find a decent one where I live, though. I often use Swiss chard in soups like this — adds a nice flavor. Anyway, this is excellent — thanks.
It is equally difficult to find a good one here John – I feel your pain!!
My husband’s family came from San Miguel in the Azores. Their recipe for Portuguese Soup, which they have been making for more than 75 years, includes shredded roasted chicken breast in a split
Sounds amazing Camille!