Soup is comforting food. Whether it may be miso soup, French bouillabaisse soup, or American gumbo soup, everybody likes a delicious bowl of soup, and there’s no denying that. You might have heard of all the soups mentioned above, but do you know about Portuguese Calo Verde soup? If not, then hop in on this journey and learn about what is Portuguese Calo Verde soup.
The Portuguese Calo Verde soup is considered to be a very delicious soup. It is not only easy to make, but it also has tons of health benefits. The Calo Verde soup is not only delicious, but it brings you the warmth and comfort that you need on a cold night. Want to know more about it? Read along! And if you want to always feel the spirit of Christmas while you are playing online, this fruit shot slot is perfect for you.
About Calo Verde Soup
Portuguese Calo Verde soup is the most symbolic soup of Portuguese cuisine, and it is also known as Portuguese green soup. It is smoky and a hearty soup traditionally made with lots of smoky sausages, greens, and a bunch of potatoes. This green and creamy soup originated from the Minho region, North of Portugal, but because of its distinctive taste, it became popular as the traditional soup of Portugal.
The Calo Verde Soup has safely secured its position in every dining ritual of Portuguese cuisine, from being a part of the daily life meals in Portuguese homes to fine dining experiences of extravagant restaurants. Every Portuguese can enjoy this delicacy because its ingredients are inexpensive, simple, and widely available throughout the country. People of Portugal associate this soup with tenderness, warmth, and good memories.
The relevance of the Calo Verde Soup in Portuguese cuisine is reflected by the appointment of this soup as an essential dish for various celebrations of Portugal’s cultural events like the São João festival. If that does not reflect the significance of this soup enough, the fact that it has been unanimously elected among the seven wonders that Portuguese cuisine has to offer to the world definitely should!
How is it made?
The process of making Calo Verde Soup is therapeutic and very simple. Take a large stockpot and heat some olive oil in it, add onions, and sauté them until they turn soft. The next step is to add sausage to the sautéed onions and let the contents of the stockpot turn brown; make sure not to turn them too brown. When the sausages turn brown, add garlic and stir the contents a little.
Empty the stockpot by removing the sausages and setting them aside. Now you should add potatoes, drench them in water, and let them cook, so they are nice and soft. When your potatoes become soft, take some of them from the pan and set them aside with the sausages you removed before.
Either you can smash the remaining potatoes in the pot or blend them with the use of an immersion blender in the pot along with the water left in the pot (the water the potatoes were cooked in). At this stage, the goal is to have potato chunks and an adequate amount of creaminess; if the potatoes are too blended, it will decrease the texture of the soup and increase the creaminess, and hence the essence of the soup will be defeated.
After blending the potatoes in the pot, add the potatoes and sausages that were kept aside, and lastly, add collard greens. The last step is to top it with olive oil, bring out the crusty bread and sit back and enjoy this exquisite soup.
Ingredients
The ingredients of Calo Verde Soup are simple and readily available in Portugal and throughout the world. So if you are in the mood to have this soup, you only need five ingredients along with some olive oil and bread.
Garlic, Onions, Potatoes, Smoked Pork sausage, and Collard greens are easy to find ingredients of Calo Verde Soup.
However, the Brazilians are very specific to smoked pork sausage and prefer linguiça calabrese, which is widely available in Brazilian and Portuguese markets.
Interestingly, some people replace the collard greens with kale!
Portuguese or Brazil?
There are slight differences between the Portuguese and Brazilian Calo Verde Soup that do not rob the soup of its essence of warming people’s hearts.
The Calo Verde prepared in Portugal cooks onion and garlic with the creams of potatoes along with the Portuguese kale that is finely chopped and added into the mixture. However, Portuguese alternate between green collard and regular kale from time to time according to their preference.
The soup is either served as the starter or as a scrumptious light meal in Portuguese culture. And the Portuguese serve it with the green wine as the green wine is made in the county itself, creating the perfect combination. The green wine with the green soup is said to be a favorite customer combination.
Because of its ingredients’ simplicity and its taste’s delicacy, the Calo Verde Soup has been accepted in other traditions overseas. The Brazilians were introduced to it along with São João Festival celebrated in June. Those who celebrate this festival do so by having this broth.
While the Brazilians have kept the essence of this soup intact, they did introduce some minor changes according to their region and cuisine. The changes include using kielbasa or other types of smoked sausage similar to it or bacon instead of using cured chorizo as the Portuguese do.
The Brazilian recipe of Calo Verde Soup makes sure to saute the sausage and bacon compared to the Portuguese, who mostly skip this step. And lastly, Brazilians are not specific about their cornbread and instead use any regular bread made of wheat flour.
Conclusion
At this point, we can safely conclude that the beauty of Calo Verde Soup is in its simplicity. The simple ingredients are used to create an exquisite dish that mesmerizes people. The broth serves as a healthy, fulfilling, and tasty dish. The simple and widely available ingredients allow people all over the world to re-create this soup. Try making this easy to make the dish with your loved ones at home to create unforgettable memories.
Calo Verde Soup brings people all around the globe together by allowing them to take part in the experience of consuming a dish that is among the seven wonders of Portuguese cuisine. No wonder this soup radiates warmness, tenderness, and good vibes, and if you doubt us, try for yourself and become a believer.