Give me a good bowl of soup and I am a happy man. Before I met Diana, I had never had Portuguese food. I remember one of the first BBQ’s at her parents house, at which they made the Portuguese churrasco style chicken, was when I tried Caldo Verde for the first time. I couldn’t wait for the next BBQ, the food was so delicious! Caldo verde is a traditional Portuguese soup made with potatoes and thinly sliced collard greens or kale and most importantly Portuguese sausage or chouriço.

The chouriço is a smoked sausage that lends a delicious smoky taste to the soup. Potatoes and kale alone wouldn’t bring much flavor to the soup so adding the chouriço is what makes it so flavorful. Diana’s father makes homemade chouriço using one of his Portuguese style brick BBQ’s and gives us some to cook with so I was inspired to make my own version of caldo verde and call it a Portuguese style soup. Usually you would blend the potatoes to make the soup a thicker, more creamier consistency, but I wanted a more broth type soup and added elbow pasta instead.

I had some collard greens and swiss chard in the fridge and thought it would work just as well as kale. I threw in some carrots and stew beef to add more layers of flavor to the dish. Even with adding in these extra ingredients, the star of the dish is the chouriço. I like to fry the chouriço in olive oil first to release some of the fat to add more flavor to the soup. Adding it later to finish cooking in the soup makes it so tender and soft, you hope to have a few pieces scooped into each bowl!