Portuguese Sopas Recipe

How to make it

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• Cut chorizo into 1/2 medallion rounds, and in a frying pan, fry in half the olive oil until almost fully cooked.
• Pull out your large stock pot, place other half of olive oil, and garlic in bottom, and quickly heat it to infuse the oil with the garlic. Here you would add the pimenta (Portuguese pepper paste) if you want any.
• Pour chorizo, and all the oil and fat in the frying plan into the stock pot.
• Add as much or as little salt and pepper as you like (i find the portuguese use quite a bit of both, but i tend to be quite reserved with my salt usage) Let fry another 3 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
• Now, use those 3 minutes to cut your potatoes into large chunks - when i say large, I mean they should be "two bite'rs", they'll almost give you reason to use a knife and fork to eat this soup!
• Also chop up your kale, or rip it into pieces - i like 2" square, or about that... bigger tends to be too much, and smaller just sticks to the outside of the bowl!
• Fill until the ingredients are just covered, with water. Yes, just water. I'm serious...
• Bring to a boil, (here you would add star pasta or rice), then reduce and let simmer for about 15 minutes. If you are going to add regular pasta (like shells, rotini, or what have you, add it after 10 minutes, then let cook for 5. Broth should look like oily water, possibly a little cloudy. Taste to check spice level, there should be a delayed kick when you sip the broth. If you like a black pepper kind of spice, go nuts with fresh ground black pepper on top.
• Spoon out into deep soup bowls, as the pototoes tend to take up lots of room, curl up on the couch and enjoy!