Caldo Verde with Cabbage & Smoked Sausage

📝 Ingredients

• 900 g floury potatoes
• 1 brown onion (about 100 g)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp olive oil (1 for cooking, 1 for serving)
• 2 chicken stock cubes + 1500 ml hot water
• ½ savoy cabbage (about 400 g)
• 2 smoked sausages (about 150 g each)
• 1 tin white beans (265 g drained)
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large stockpot
• Frying pan
• Potato masher
• Kitchen tongs
• Peeler
• Chopping board and a sharp knife

📖 Steps

1. Peel the potatoes, rinse them and cut into 3 cm chunks. Peel and slice the onion, peel and chop the garlic. Dissolve the stock cubes in the hot water. Rinse and drain the white beans.
2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the large pot over a medium heat. Sweat the onion for 5 minutes, stirring, until translucent, then add the garlic and stir for 1 minute without letting it colour.
3. Add the potatoes, the stock and the whole sausages. Bring to the boil, then cook covered at a gentle boil for 20 minutes, until the potatoes crush easily with a fork: the sausages cook through and flavour the broth.
4. Meanwhile, separate the cabbage leaves, rinse them and remove the thick ribs. Stack 5 or 6 leaves, roll them up tightly like a cigar and slice them into the thinnest possible strips (2 to 3 mm): this is what gives caldo verde its texture.
5. Lift the sausages out with tongs and cut them into 5 mm slices. Brown them for 3 to 4 minutes in the dry frying pan over a medium heat, turning them halfway through, until nicely coloured on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper.
6. Off the heat, mash the potatoes directly in the broth with a potato masher until you have a thick, velvety soup with a few chunks left. Add the white beans.
7. Return to a medium heat, add the cabbage and cook uncovered for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring, just until tender but still bright green: overcooked, it turns dull and soft. Taste, add salt if needed and season with pepper.
8. Divide the soup between 4 bowls, top with the golden sausage slices and finish each bowl with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve piping hot.