Sunday, September 6, 2009

Portugese Kale Soup

Kale soup was one dish I had never tasted or even heard of before I started dating Andrew. He brought home a bowl of soup one day to try and I was hooked. Based on a tip from one of his Portuguese coworkers, we learned that Stop & Shop actually sold a decent kale soup in their prepared food section. This ended up being a quick, easy meal for us on nights when we were too tired to cook. However, I always thought to myself that kale soup looked like something I could make easily at home - and I was right!

NEW BEDFORD PORTUGUESE KALE SOUP from Cooks.com

  • 1 package frozen or 1-2 lbs fresh kale (I used a bag of frozen kale)
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 3 potatoes, peeled
  • I added 1 bag of frozen carrots
  • 2 chourico or linguica, sliced (I used one package of linguica that include 8 sausages)
  • 8 cups chicken or pork broth (I would increase this to 12 cups of chicken broth next time I make this, which would be three containers of broth)
  • 1/4 cup Olive Oil
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 1 can Cannelloni beans
  • I added 1 can of kidney beans
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 hot pepper, seeded (I used cayenne pepper instead)
  • 1/3 teaspoon paprika (I didn't have this so I left it out)
  • Season with salt, & pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Slice chourico or linguica and saute in 1/4 cup of olive oil, onion, and chopped garlic. Do not allow garlic to brown, so add last. Sausage does not need to cook. Add liquid and simmer for 10 minutes.
    Prepare the kale by rinsing thoroughly and tearing the leafy portions from the stems. Tear into bite-size pieces. Discard stems. (None of these steps are necessary if you use frozen kale like I did!)
  2. If you do not have broth on hand, use 4 tablespoons of Minor's or Tone's chicken base or 2 tablespoons of Knorr's bouillon granules. (I used containers of Swanson's chicken broth, it tasted much better than using bouillon cubes)
  3. Add potatoes, kale, carrots, beans and simmer additional 30 minutes.
  4. Serve and enjoy - yum!

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