Sunday Jan 17th at 18:00 – Cooking with Blixa

Caldo Verde
(Portuguese cabbage and potato soup)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 red onions chopped
2 garlic cloves,
700g potatoes 9peeled and cut into chunks)
2 bay leaves
200g dark cabbage (I use kale, but everything from savoy cabbage to
cavolo nero is fine) stems removed, thinly sliced (roll up the leaves into a
cigar and slice as thin as possible.
chilli oil / cilantro (optional..for drizzling)
optional: chorizo

Heat oil, and sauté onions, stirring often until soft and sticky.
Add garlic and potato. Stir until garlic starts to smell.
Add 1.25 litres water (or any kind of stock) and bay leaves and bring to boil.
Season, lower heat slightly, cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes until potatoes are cooked but not soggy. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile bring large pot of salted water to boil, add the cabbage and simmer for 10 minutes.
With a slotted spoon remove 2 tablespoons of potato from pan. Set aside. Discard bay leaves. Purée the rest until completely smooth then return to heat.
Use slotted spoon to add cooked cabbage and about a cup of its cooking water (or however much you think it needs). Let it simmer for 5 minutes then add unpureed potato, check seasoning and then turn off heat and cover.

You can add any kind of protein extras to the soup, a classic here in
Portugal would be Chorizo sliced and fried separately.  In that case, chorizo is fried until it is golden and charred.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with chorizo if using. Drizzle a bit of the chili oil into the soup and garnish with cilantro.