A Traditional Soup Recipe from Portugal

Portugal is a wonderful country to really push the boat out and dive into the local cuisine.

Don't worry if you don't enjoy 'haute cuisine" food first thing in the day though, the locals often skip a full breakfast , customarily just settling for a snack and a coffee. The truth is you will often see locals enjoying a light snack in a snack bar on the way to work.

Lunchtime and Evenings are a completely different and gloriously agreeable experience.

The portuguese really love their food, and you are likely to be offered satisfyingly large portions when eating in restaurants or cafes. The mid day meal might be a pleasant, but drawn-out experience, generally taken between 1pm and 3pm, and regardless of the weather, the natives eat hot meals in cafes or restaurants. The evening meal is taken between 7.00pm & 9.00pm, and again, usually is a hot meal.

The charm of Portuguese cuisine could be exemplified as 'fresh, basic ingredients, perfectly prepared'.

Portuguese food is mostly based on excellent quality, healthy local produce, featuring fish, meat, olive oil, tomatoes and spices.

The perfect meal in portugal should begin with a good portuguese soup.

The most famous portuguese soup, is caldo verde, a wholesome, spicy soup made with shredded kale, potatoes and chourio or linguica. Caldo Verde originates in the Minho region, but is usually available at any restaurant in Portugal, from the north of portugal to the holiday resorts in the algarve.

Here is a Caldo verde recipe that will let you bring a memory of portugal into your own home

Portuguese kale soup recipe
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1 lb. (454g) stewing beef (chopped into 2.5cm cubes)
0.5 lb. (0.23kg) linguia sausage (cut into slivers)
1.5 qt (1.42 lt) water
Dash of low sodium salt
three big potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, chopped into 1" cubes
1 1/2 pounds kale, roughly chopped, or 1 pack thawed frozen kale
half cabbage, chopped
half a package macaroni (elbow)
1 tin cannelloni beans (opt.)
1 chili pepper, (remove seeds), chopped
1/3 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Olive Oil

Instructions:
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Peel and chop potatoes and carrots.

Fill a large saucepan with the water and add the meat, portuguese sausage and low sodium salt.

Bring to a rolling boil and keep covered until the stewing beef and linguia or chorio are more or less cooked.

Then add the chili, carrots, beans, paprika, chopped cabbage and kale and stir well.

Replace the pot lid and cook for three quarters of an hour or until the kale is properly cooked.

As soon as the kale is cooked, add the olive oil chopped potatoes and macaroni pasta.

Occasionally stir the kale soup to ensure that potatoes and macaroni don't end up stuck to the base of the sauce pan.

Bring to the boil and then siimmer (keeping the sauce pan lid on) until the potatoes & macaroni pasta continues to be ready to eat.

You can serve this soup as a first course or as a tasty meal in its own right.

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Roger Wakefield is a staff writer at: Algarve Holiday Villas, (www.villaretreats.com/villas-algarve.asp) who offer a wide range of villas in the Algarve, Portugal and other European destinations.

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