Caldo Verde Recipe
Richly spiced with chili peppers and smoked paprika, caldo verde is deeply flavored and brimming with nutrient-dense additions such as manganese-rich kale, potatoes and pasture-raised lard and chorizo. For both ease of preparation and for a lovely presentation, I recommend serving the potatoes whole.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds fingerling potatoes (preferably no longer than two inches)
- 1 tablespoon lard
- 1 pound chorizo
- 2 dried chili peppers
- 2 shallots (thinly sliced)
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 3 carrots (chopped)
- 8 cups bone broth (preferably homemade)
- 2 bunches curly kale (stems removed and chopped coarsely)
- 2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
- fine sea salt (to taste)
- extra virgin olive oil (to serve)
Instructions
- Set a kettle filled with clean water to boil, and boil potatoes until tender when pierced with the tines of a fork. Drain the potatoes and set them aside.
- In the same kettle in which you boiled the potatoes, heat bacon fat or pastured lard over a medium flame until melted.
- Add the chorizo to the pan and fry until thoroughly heated through and well-cooked.
- Add the chili peppers, shallots, garlic and carrots to the cooked chorizo and fry with the sausage until they become fragrant and tender.
- Pour two quarts homemade roast chicken stock into the kettle, and bring to a simmer. Stir as needed and allow the soup to cook for twenty to thirty minutes or so, add the cooked potatoes and continue to cook for another ten minutes.
- About five to ten minutes before you plan to serve the soup, turn off the heat and stir chopped kale, smoked paprika and unrefined sea salt into the soup. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and allow the caldo verde to rest for about five minutes or long enough to wilt the kale.
- Serve with a generous portion of unrefined extra virgin olive oil stirred into the soup at the last minute.
