Hello people :)

It's  Ghosty writing again and today we going to ... Portugal. At least in a culinary way.
My parents own a little garden and this year their stuff grows like crazy. So they sent me a package with lots of stuff... summer squash, cucumbers, chard ... and most importantly for this dish: Lacinato kale
Or Cavolo nero, 'black cabbage'.
So I kept thinking "What to do with it?" and then I had an idea:

Caldo Verde (port. Green broth)
A hearty and slightly spicy stew, made from kale and potatoes and one of the Portuguese national dishes.
Easy to prepare, only a few ingredients and an awesome taste.

Ingredients
- 650g mealy potatoes (weight after peeling)
- 350g Lacinato kale
- 1 big onion
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 175-200g Chorizo (Port. chouriço), a sweet-piquant to quite hot tasting cured, smoked raw sausage
- 1.5-2L homemade vegetable broth (or stock & water ... or plain water. Don't use powdered broth please ^.^'' )
- salt, pepper, spices to your taste (I used Ingo Holland "Gemüseschmackes" and "Mallorquine herb garden"
- Olive oil
(optional: 3-4 dried tomatoes. They are not part of the classic recipe, but I had them at home and I found them very fitting for the dish)

Preparation
Peel potatoes and cut them into cubes. Peel garlic and onion as well and chop them finely. Wash your Lacinato kale, dry it off, then remove the hard stem and the hard middle middle section of the leaves.
Cut the leaves into very fine strips. The easiest way to do this is to take a few leaves and roll them firmly lengthwise, then cut very finely from this roll. Use a very sharp knife.
In a large pot, heat up olive oil (~3Tbsp), throw in the onions and carefully sweat them at mild heat. Add the garlic and continue to gently sweat for a couple more minutes until the onions are glassy, soft, but haven't taken any color. Make sure not to burn the garlic.
Add the potato cubes, mix and then pour in vegetable broth until everything is well covered. Throw in a good pinch of salt.
Cook until the potato cubes are starting to dissolve (about 35-40 minutes).
Pull the pot from the heat and use a immersion blender to puree the potatoes and turn it into a kind of potato soup. Make it smooth or let a few pieces remain, it's your choice.
Pour in some more liquid if the mixture gets too thick.
Place the Chorizo into the liquid, turn up the heat a bit again and bring the soup to a boil.
Now add the kale (and the dried tomatoes, if you used them). Gently cook for another couple of minutes (~10minutes) until the kale is done and still very slightly al dente. Or if you don't like that, cook it until it's soft ... but make sure it doesn't turn into mush.
Take out the Chorizo, slice it into thin slices while it's still hot and serve it with the Caldo verde.
The stew goes very well along with some roasted white bread, sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt ... or the traditional corn-bread "Broa"

Enjoy your meal!