Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Caldo Verde
Portugal’s signature green soup: silky potato broth with ribbons of collard greens and smoky sausage.
Portuguese · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 30 min
~363 cal · 16g protein · 47g carbs · 13g fat · 14g fiber · 5g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Caldo verde comes from the green, rainy Minho in Portugal's far north, where the couve galega, a tall walking-stick kale, grows beside nearly every farmhouse door. At its heart it is humble: potatoes simmered soft and blitzed into a smooth base, then filled with kale sliced as fine as thread and brightened with good olive oil.
Despite its plainness it is the soup of celebration. It is ladled out at weddings, saints' days, and village festivals, and famously at four in the morning once the dancing is done, the warming pot that closes every Portuguese party. A coin of smoky chourico sausage in each bowl lifts it from everyday to festive.
The technique that matters is the kale: it is added at the very end and cooked only a minute or two, so it stays vivid green and slightly firm rather than dulling to grey. A thread of olive oil poured over each bowl at the table and a piece of broa, the dense Portuguese cornbread, make it complete.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1.5 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
4 cups collard greens or kale, sliced into fine ribbons
6 oz chouriço (smoked Portuguese sausage), sliced
Hard to find? Spanish chorizo, the cured kind - close cousins, but Spanish chorizo carries much more pimenton, so the broth will come out redder and smokier than it should
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 cup, plus more to finish olive oil
to taste salt
1 small loaf broa de milho (Portuguese corn bread), to serve
Hard to find? a crusty country loaf - fine for dunking, but the dense, faintly sweet corn crumb of broa is lost
Instructions
1
Soften the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the potatoes, the whole piece of chouriço, 6 cups of salted water, and simmer 20 minutes until the potatoes collapse.
✎ Chef’s note
Simmering the sausage whole in the pot is what gives caldo verde its smoky, faintly orange broth. Fishing it out before you blend keeps the soup smooth.
2
Lift out the chouriço and slice it into thin rounds.
3
Blend the soup smooth and silky right in the pot.
4
Add the finely shredded greens and simmer uncovered 5 to 10 minutes, until just tender and still bright green.
5
Ladle into bowls, lay a couple of rounds of chouriço on each, finish with a thread of raw olive oil, and serve with broa alongside.
Minho festival tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Minho. Caldo verde is specific about its cabbage: couve galega, a tall dark kale, shredded to threads and dropped into a puree of potato and onion at the last minute so it stays green, with olive oil poured over and a slice of chourico. It originated in this province and was voted one of Portugal's Seven Wonders of Gastronomy in 2011.
🗺️
Portugal. The cod is not Portuguese water. Portuguese boats were working the Grand Banks off Newfoundland from the early sixteenth century, and salt cod took hold at home because it kept, because the country had abundant salt, and because Catholic fasting days demanded a fish that could reach an inland town in good condition.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Portugal
Pastéis de NataBlistered puff-pastry cups filled with silky cinnamon-scented custard, Lisbon’s daily miracle, best warm.
Bacalhau à BrásShredded salt cod tangled with straw-thin fried potatoes and softly scrambled egg, dotted with olives.
Torrada com GalãoThick toasted bread drenched in butter, served with a tall glass of milky galão coffee.
Browse all Portugal recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Blender.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Portugal meal
GinjinhaDrink
Pastéis de NataDessert
Bacalhau à BrásDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Caldo Verde?
Portugal’s signature green soup: silky potato broth with ribbons of collard greens and smoky sausage.
Where does Caldo Verde come from?
Caldo Verde is a Portuguese dish from Minho, Portugal.
Can Caldo Verde be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Caldo Verde recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Caldo Verde safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Caldo Verde take to make?
About 45 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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